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The idea of universal pre‐kindergarten now enjoys nearly universal support. It is important at this juncture to understand what legacies we have inherited from the past, and what lessons we might learn from it. We must look beyond the lessons that advocates have already learned—namely that preschool should be framed in terms of education, provided to all children, and attached to K‐12 education—to recognize the complexity of fulfilling the promise of preschool.

Globally, Indigenous and ethnic-minority populations and the children of immigrants are less likely to participate in early childhood care and education (ECCE) than the average child in their country. These disparities persist despite increased recognition of the benefits of ECCE for all children and its equalizing impact for those who are disadvantaged. This chapter demonstrates the potential for targeted investments in culturally-based, family-involving ECCE to increase Indigenous children’s readiness for sustained and successful engagement in education. Research findings and promising ECCE practices from around the world are highlighted. The Canadian government’s long-term investment in Aboriginal Head Start is described as a successful example of the kind of flexible, community-driven, holistic approach that enjoys high demand and involvement from Indigenous parents and appears to increase Indigenous children’s educational engagement in the first years of schooling.

Students of public policy have emphasized the impact of ideas on policy change. This chapter explores this issue by focusing on public early childhood education and care provisions in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It draws attention to the issue of incremental change and the need for a more direct dialogue between policy analysis and institutionalist perspectives on ideas. It shows that ideational analysis can make a strong contribution to the analysis of policy making and concrete forms of policy development.

In many countries around the world, boys are not faring as well as girls academically. The lack of success that young boys are experiencing is a gender equity issue, and calls for the intentional focus and concerted effort that has worked so well over the past several decades to address inequities in girls’ education. This chapter synthesizes research from the United States and from countries around the world that documents the difficulties that boys are experiencing in school and the strategies that are being employed to remedy the situation. It focuses in particular on how boys are faring in the increasingly academic, teacher-directed approach to early childhood education. Drawing on evidence from programs from nations and states around the world, it goes on to propose strategies to reduce the negative educational outcomes that disproportionately affect boys during the early years and beyond.

Musicality is an inherited biological predisposition that is unique to the human species. This chapter argues that music learning (whether structured or informal) happens very early, and long before we used to believe, and that it takes place as a result of children's innate propensity for learning. Indeed, children's spontaneous music making, from the first mother-infant musical interactions to playground rhymes and jeers, is the springboard of music learning. However, the contexts in which early musical experiences occur are critical, and adult interventions require balancing challenge and skill to achieve musical focus and self-growth in young children, as David Elliott suggests teachers should do at all ages. This chapter examines children's musical understanding, memory, and spontaneity, early childhood music education and its relation to Elliott's praxial philosophy, musical experiences based on context, “flow” in early childhood music experiences, multiculturalism in early childhood music education, music making and music listening in early childhood, and musical creativity in children.

The early years are critical for learning, health and well-being throughout life. Quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs, and early child development programs more generally, can have a positive impact on children’s development and their long-term health and educational attainment. Conversely, socioeconomic inequalities in access to ECCE programs can result in lifelong disparities both inside and out of the classroom. This chapter explores how feasible and effective ECCE strategies can give children from all socioeconomic groups the chance to acquire a foundation for lifelong learning and development. It draws on evidence from assessments of developmental health in British Columbia, Canada, using the Early Development Instrument and includes examples of successful ECCE programs in high- and middle-income countries worldwide.

A learning crisis exists, despite almost universal school enrollment. Learning failure is concentrated in the first years of school, and reinforces patterns of social and economic inequities. Poor and minority children who would benefit most from preschool are least likely to have access to it; they are also less likely to have access to primary schools that speak their language, orient them to literacy, have good teachers, and use developmentally appropriate methods and learning materials. This chapter uses an early childhood development (ECD) lens to examine the state of preprimary and early primary (grades 1 and 2) education today, and to discuss the effects, implications, and potential for education to improve the development of children 4–8 years old.

This chapter focuses on the health behaviours outlined in the previous chapter from research evidence which suggested the key targets for intervention to be: smoking cessation, nutrition and parenting education. It outlines the range of effective interventions at our disposal and considers the local delivery of two important structural targets: early-years education and childcare. It concludes that the most effective interventions tend to be multifaceted, ranging from education and health through to social inclusion and community development.

This chapter examines the role of mathematics in children's play and the role of play in early mathematics education. The confluence of environment and biology guarantees that virtually all children acquire major aspects of everyday mathematics (EM). Children's EM is ubiquitous, often competent, and more complex than usually assumed. It involves activities as diverse as perceiving which of two plates of cookies has “more” and reflecting on the issue of what is the largest number. It should therefore come as no surprise that EM is a significant aspect of children's play. Children use informal skills and ideas relating to number, shape, and pattern as they play with blocks or read storybooks. Indeed, EM provides the cognitive foundation for a good deal of play, as well as for other aspects of the child's life. Even more remarkably, spontaneous play may entail explicit mathematical content: young children can enjoy explorations of number and pattern as much as messing around with clay.

This book is a collection of critically reflective essays on the praxial philosophy of music and music education. The contributors are an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars who believe that critical thinking, constructive debate, and dialogues are the lifeblood of music education. By means of their essays, they also speak for those who believe that future music teachers must learn to think for themselves and develop their own philosophies based on their own careful reflections. One of the goals of this book is to contribute to music education philosophy generally and the literature of praxialism in music education specifically. The contributors evaluate the praxial philosophy, pro and con, from the viewpoint of their area(s) of interest and expertise such as philosophical foundations, musical performance, music listening, early childhood education in music, multiculturalism in music education, and curriculum development and offer criticisms.

The last two decades have witnessed unparalleled international interest regarding the development of policies and programs for young children. This chapter places the contemporary discourse into the historical and sociophilosophical contexts that have shaped it. Although the current discourse is impressive, the relative absence of literatures led from the majority (developing) world, and those that utilize critical lenses, restrict the generalizability of the findings. To develop a literature that is more relevant and useful for populations globally, other voices and perspectives must be supported and heard. After introducing examples of such other perspectives that can help broaden and deepen the literature, the chapter identifies policies, programs, research, and training approaches that have opened up to diverse perspectives and promoted local participation and decision making. Such means of opening to other views and becoming more truly global in nature are considered critically important for the future of ECD in international development.

The Hebrew text of Proverbs 22:6 has been interpreted in the following manner: “Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray”. The twin pillars of Jewish pedagogy are habituation and discipline: the inculcation of right thinking and behavior, and the chastisement of those who stray from them. Those halakhic prescriptions constitute a “pedagogical duty” imposed on the parents of young children. This chapter uses the interpretation of Proverbs 22:6 as a lens through which to view traditional Jewish attitudes about children and early childhood education. It cites commentaries that give clear examples of the intimate relationship between Jewish reading and Jewish living, and vivid demonstrations of the social and cultural relevance of biblical interpretation. Two distinct attitudes have emerged, traceable to the 9th-century Midrash on Proverbs and the 10th-century translation and commentary of Saadia Gaon—and ultimately to Aristotle's Ethics. The gist of the verse is an obvious principle: there is nothing more fundamental to the perpetuation of Judaism than the education of children.

The chapter investigates how the supra-national discourse on investive family policy which emerged since the late 1990s, translates into family policy. The UK and Germany have both expanded early childhood education and care in recent years by referring to economic reasoning. But this convergence in policy output does not correspond with a convergence of policy contents and policy goals. While the British expansion of ECEC was legitimized in the context of activating labour market policy as well as poverty prevention policy, the German discussion focused on securing economic growth through higher employment rates of mothers, higher fertility rates, and the creation of new jobs in childcare. This path-dependent translation of the supra-national economic discourse reflects national welfare traditions and can be observed similarly with regard to the introduction of children’s centres in England and ‘Familienzentren’ in North Rhine-Westphalia: The investment in family services differs with regard to contents and goals.

W. Steven Barnett and Cynthia E.Lamy describe how access to high-quality earlychildhood education is crucial for closing the opportunity gap. Differences in achievement test scores and high school graduation rates can be largely explained by differences in abilities that are evident well before children enter kindergarten. While it is possible that more equitable opportunities to learn within formal schooling could repair much of this early damage, in the present situation children who begin school substantially behind are unlikely to ever catch up. To be successful, they contend, efforts to decrease inequality in achievement and reduce school dropout rates should begin in the first five years, when the problem originates. High-quality, publicly funded preschool education for preschoolers will provide a stronger foundation for subsequent educational supports, allowing them to focus less on remediating achievement gaps and more on maintaining a higher trajectory of achievement for all of America’s children.

Asking the question of whether attendance at a formal childcare/early-education setting has a positive impact on child outcomes is easy. However it is fiendishly difficult to find answers. This chapter reviews the evidence on formal childcare provision for pre-school children (aged 0-5 years) and the impact on child outcomes. Based on the results from longitudinal studies such as EPPE, powerful arguments have been made that universal early-education is good for children. However, new studies are underway which address questions of whether current service provision is universally good for children once interactions with family characteristics and parenting styles are also taken into account. Yet, such studies are almost redundant as the political and research agendas have moved to a deeper scrutiny of the early years of life in its own right. This is driven by a desire to find ways to intervene early in childhood to improve well-becoming in adulthood.

This chapter discusses how the city of Hong Kong, a centrally operated economy, but nevertheless one with a strong market ethos, has recently introduced a market-based innovation, early education vouchers, with mixed results. In Hong Kong, these services for children from birth to 6 are fully privatised, but mostly non-profit making. Kindergartens provide early education for children aged 3 to 6 and in some cases as young as 2, the latter known as kindergarten-cum-childcare centres. Childcare centres serve children under 3. kindergarten-cum-childcare centres take up a sizeable market share of services for children aged between 2 and 3. By comparison, the early education market for 3 to 6 year olds is much bigger. Employing an ethic of care perspective grounded in Tronto's (1993) theory, the chapter questions whether this market approach can alter existing power structures within Hong Kong society, which in the author's view negatively affect the status of women and young children.

This paper organizes and synthesizes the literature on early childhood education and childcare. In it, we go beyond meta-analysis and reanalyze primary data sources in a common framework. We consider the evidence from means-tested demonstration programs, large-scale means-tested programs and universal programs without means testing. We discuss which programs are beneficial and whether they are cost-effective for certain populations. The evidence from high-quality demonstration programs targeted toward disadvantaged children shows beneficial effects. Returns exceed costs, even accounting for the deadweight loss of collecting taxes. When proper policy counterfactuals are constructed, we show that Head Start has beneficial effects on disadvantaged children compared to home alternatives. Universal programs benefit disadvantaged children. There is little direct evidence on the effectiveness of the programs we study on the children of affluent families. This chapter does not address the general question of the optimal provision of childcare for persons in different economic strata.

This chapter focuses on the stories the Romans told of their first schools. It discusses the character of Roman memory of early education, the family display of sons and educators, and comic reflection on the value of an education. The bulk of the evidence for education comes from biographies of famous men, but the earliest reflection on education occurs in two scenes from Roman comedy, where education serves as a barometer for the moral health of society at large. Both the stage characters of early comedy—an errant youth, a cantankerous father, and a coddling uncle—and the diligent parents with outstanding children in the pages, two and a half centuries later, of the idealizing biographers, depict the institution of schooling at an important phase of development.