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This paper explores (1) the public and private options available at the ECCE level, (2) parents' expectation for ECCE, and (3) preferred and actual choice of preschools in an urban informal settlement in Zambia. The findings reveal strong demand for ECCE among the urban poor. This demand overwhelms low-fee private (LFP) preschool options due both to an insufficient number of public preschools as well as parents' relative preference for the LFP options. Typically, LFP preschools offer highly academic oriented curriculum with English as a medium of instruction, divergent from the government's play-based and mother-tongue based curriculum. By adopting critical cultural political economy approach as an analytical framework, we found that urban poor parents increasingly view investing in LFP preschools as an important household strategy to 'transform' their children into 'modern' citizens, eventually exiting from their stigmatized lifestyle and marginalized social status. • There are strong demands for ECCE in urban informal settlements in Zambia. • Parents overwhelmingly chose low-fee private (LFP) preschool options due mainly to an insufficient public provision. • LFP preschools are also preferred option for many parents as they offer academically oriented curriculum taught in English. • Parents view investing in LFP preschools as a critical strategy to 'transform' their children into 'modern citizens'. • Critical cultural political economy approach offers insight into how modernity and (pre)schooling are imagined locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]