International Handbook of Early Childhood Education

1. Contemporary Research and Evidence – Early Childhood Education Globally: Western Europe and UK

   1. Professional Development in a Competent System: An Emergent Culture of Professionalization

      • Florence Pirard, Pascale Camus, Jean-Marie Barbier

      Pages 409-426

2. Contemporary Research and Evidence – Early Childhood Education Globally: Eastern Europe

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 427-427

      PDF

   2. Contemporary Research in Early Childhood: Roots and Perspectives

      • Elena Kravtsova, Nikolay Veraksa, Nikolai Veresov

      Pages 429-448

   3. Symbolic Means in the Educational Programs for Preschool Children in Russia

      • Nina Salmina, Aleksander Veraksa

      Pages 449-459

   4. Preschool Education in Ukraine

      • Roman Shyyan, Igor Shiyan, Natalia Sofiy

      Pages 461-474

   5. Pedagogical Center “Experiment”: The Peculiarities of Preschool Education in Holistic Developing Education (HDE)

      • Bronislav Zeltserman, Margarita Dubina, Margarita Dragile, Maria Pekarskaya, Irina Maluhina, Inta Baltina

      Pages 475-503

3. Contemporary Research and Evidence – Early Childhood Education Globally: Australasian and South Pacific

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 505-505

      PDF

   2. Introduction: Early Childhood in the Australasian Region

      • Jane Bone

      Pages 507-510

   3. The Historical Emergence of Early Childhood Education Research in Australia

      • Joce Nuttall, Susan Grieshaber

      Pages 511-529

   4. Connections Between Early Childhood Policy and Research in Aotearoa New Zealand: 1970s–2010s

      • Anne Smith, Helen May

      Pages 531-549

   5. Towards Wawasan Brunei 2035: Early Childhood Education and Development in Brunei Darussalam

      • Hanapi Mohamad, Rosyati M. Yaakub, Emma Claire Pearson, Jennifer Tan Poh Sim

      Pages 551-567

   6. Early Childhood Care and Education in Bangladesh: A Review of Policies, Practices and Research

      • Shukla Sikder, Laila Farhana Apnan Banu

      Pages 569-587

4. Contemporary Research and Evidence – Early Childhood Education Globally: Asia

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 589-589

      PDF

   2. Early Childhood Education Reform: Crisis and Changes

      • Liang Li, Yuejuan Pan, Xiaoying Wang

      Pages 591-597

   3. Early Childhood Education and Development in China

      • Yuejuan Pan, Xiaoying Wang, Liang Li

      Pages 599-622

   4. History and Reform of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Japan

      • Xiangying Liu, Chiafen Lin

      Pages 623-648

   5. Early Childhood Education and Development in Singapore

      • Sirene May-Yin Lim

      Pages 649-661

   6. Vietnam Early Childhood Education

      • Phan Thi Thu Hien

      Pages 663-670

5. Contemporary Research and Evidence – Early Childhood Education Globally: Africa

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 671-671

      PDF

   2. Examining Early Childhood Education System in Ghana: How Can Bourdieuian Theorisation Support a Transformational Approach to Pedagogy?

      • Joseph S. Agbenyega

      Pages 673-690

This international handbook gives a comprehensive overview of findings from longstanding and contemporary research, theory, and practices in early childhood education in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The first volume of the handbook addresses theory, methodology, and the research activities and research needs of particular regions. The second volume examines in detail innovations and longstanding programs, curriculum and assessment, and conceptions and research into child, family and communities. 


The two volumes of this handbook address the current theory, methodologies and research needs of specific countries and provide insight into existing global similarities in early childhood practices. By paying special attention to what is happening in the larger world contexts, the volumes provide a representative overview of early childhood education practices and research, and redress the current North-South imbalance of published work on the subject. 

• early childhood cultural-historical theory
• early childhood education and development
• educational theory, practice and applied scholarship
• early childhood new materialism
• southern and northern continents
• early childhood methodologies
• early childhood research methods
• new practices in early childhood
• early childhood postcolonial theories
• early childhood poststructuralist theories
• early childhood in India
• early childhood in China
• early childhood in Nordic region
• early childhood in the south

• Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

  Marilyn Fleer

• Department of Theory & Research in Education, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  Bert van Oers

Marilyn Fleer: Torn between studying psychology and education as an undergraduate, Professor Marilyn Fleer ended up choosing early childhood education, a nascent field that straddled both her areas of interest. She hasn’t looked back since. As soon as she got into early childhood education she enjoyed it, Marilyn says. “I found it intellectually stimulating, and there’s plenty of scope for making a difference with my research.” She is now studying the early stages of concept formation – and how playtime can help promote children’s imagination, and the more ‘rational’ thinking later on as adults. “Imagination, creativity, and games are really important for development. Think of a child at home: they can take an ordinary stick, pretend that it’s a horse, and ‘ride’ on it. What they’ve done is change the meaning of the stick – they’ve used their imagination to think abstractly. It’s one step away from the same child turning the ‘stick’ into a ruler by measuring something with it at school. By using their imagination, they’ve learned to think more abstractly – and therefore become a more successful learner.” With the push for greater outcomes from very young children, particularly in literacy and numeracy, Marilyn’s field of research is gaining public and international interest. 



Bert van Oers (PhD) is special professor of Cultural-historical Theory of Education at the Department of ‘Research and Theory in Education’ at VU University Amsterdam. He specialized in Cultural-historical activity theory since the 1970s and is now working at a CHAT-based theory of play and playful learning.  His major research interest focusses on the implementation of a play-based curriculum in primary school, and the elaboration and evaluation of Developmental Education. He published about this (among others) in B. van Oers (ed.), Developmental Education for young children. Springer, 2012.

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