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Infant and toddler pedagogy has flourished as a specialized area of practice in early childhood care and education settings, yet it remains an under-researched area. There is also limited empirical research internationally that explores cultural meanings of meaningful provision for this young age group. This ethnographic study explored pedagogies of care with 1-year olds in four cultures--England, United States, New Zealand and Hong Kong--guided by Froebel's education philosophy and a view of pedagogies of care as embodiments of culture. The researchers employed sociocultural and ecological theoretical perspectives (Darling, 2016) to attend to cultural meanings at the micro, macro and temporal levels in relation to people, contexts and processes. This lens enabled the researchers to resist the positivist tendency to normalize and unify all children's experiences and maintain the integrity of diverse interpretations. Inspired by Tobin et al.'s (1989, 2009) cross-national research on preschool in three cultures, the researchers utilized a video-cued multivocal and layered interpretation approach to elicit the "voices" of 1-year-olds, their teachers/practitioners and families. This paper focuses on each researcher's discussion of the ways Froebel's principles of "autonomy in learning" and "freedom with guidance" were seen to unfold. The nuances of how these principles were manifested in pedagogies for infants and toddlers is explored in relation to each country's curriculum and cultural ideals.

University early childhood programs attempt to balance a traditional tri-part mission: service to children and families; professional development of caregivers/teachers, clinicians, and researchers; and research on child development, learning, and/or education. Increasingly, infants receive care and education on university campuses, yet little is known about serving this population effectively within large institutions. Three infant programs at major research universities were chosen for this descriptive/comparative analysis of campus programs that have prioritized mission values differently. An adaptation of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Systems Theory was used to frame this qualitative study. Analysis uncovered three areas of distinction that provide a means to describe differences and similarities among these programs: (1) who holds the power in influencing the mission values and priorities, (2) the implementation of sensitively responsive care with infants, and (3) family-centered practices. (Contains 4 tables, 6 figures, and 1 note.)

This reflective essay describes the author's experiences as an observer in a behaviorist infant classroom. The author developed four categories of practice to describe what happened in the behaviorist infant room: (1) curricular focus on training typically developing infants to meet typical developmental milestones, (2) the use of highly structured play by staff as the means for meeting their training goals for the babies, (3) particular uses of language by staff in the behaviorist classroom, and (4) ways in which the staff's adherence to core beliefs in behaviorism led to a lack of recognition of infants' individual expressions of needs and wants. The article concludes with the author's reflections on researchers' ethical responsibilities when faced with an environment that they consider inappropriate and potentially harmful to children. (Contains 4 figures and 1 note.)

This study examined the relationship between educational background and the philosophical orientation of early childhood educators who worked as caregivers and teachers of preschoolers, ages 3 to 6 years, in one midwestern state (Indiana) in the United States. Specifically, the highest level of education attained by the early childhood professionals and their educational background (whether specific to working with young children or not) were compared to their self-reported beliefs about best practice with young children, using developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) as the philosophy for comparison. A comparison of factor analyses from this study and from studies conducted by Charlesworth and colleagues in 1991 and 1993 indicate clear similarities. A significant, positive correlation was found between level of education and scores for self-reported DAP beliefs. Results from 2 x 3 ANOVAs of the three factors that emerged from these data indicate that professionals with a bachelor's degree or higher more strongly adopted DAP as a philosophy overall than colleagues with less education, whereas coursework specific to working with young children was found to be significant only in the case of beliefs related to child-initiated learning. Thus, in general, participants with 4 years of college or more, even if in an unrelated field, held stronger DAP beliefs than those with less education, even if that education was directly related to working with young children. The article suggests that more research needs to be done to examine whether a 4-year degree may be most desirable in terms of ensuring better-qualified preschool teachers. The article also discusses the implications of this finding for policy and advocacy in the field of early childhood education. (Contains 44 references.) (Author/HTH)

Early childhood programs with infants and toddlers are bustling and alive in ways different from programs that have only preschoolers. Infants and toddlers can make group care environments more caring and family focused spaces, nurturing the well-being of all adults and children participating in the program. The number of infants and toddlers who spend their days in group care in either center or family child care settings in the United States continues to grow. Directors of early childhood programs that opened their doors to infants and toddlers and their families speak of added challenges and responsibilities for administrators, balanced with unique joys and benefits. In this article the authors speak to directors of programs already serving infants and toddlers and their families and those who may be thinking about adding them to existing group care settings. Very young children, birth to age 3, have care and education needs different from and more specialized than those of preschoolers, age 3 to 5. The authors describe practices, such as family-centered early childhood environments and policies, and individualized, sensitively responsive practices, that are beneficial to all young children.

At the same time young babies are developing an understanding of self as separate from others--what it means to be "me"--many also face having to negotiate living, learning, growing, and developing as part of a group--what it means to be "we". This is true for more than half of all infants in the United States under the age of 9 months, who now spend many or most of their waking hours in some type of group care outside the home. This article discusses how to encourage prosocial babies in group settings. It features three classrooms where teachers encourage and support prosocial behaviors in babies and allow strong positive social emotional development to occur in infants and toddlers and prosocial skills to flourish. In the case of these three classrooms, it is evident that infants and toddlers are indeed up to the challenge of grappling with understanding the difficult lessons of becoming "we" and "me" at the same time. This article also provides the authors' definition of babies' prosocial behaviors and shows how young babies have a remarkable capacity for prosocial behavior, an ability greatly underestimated by traditional child development theorists.

In this article the authors explore the need for early childhood practitioners and scholars to engage in joint problem solving to create and support early childhood education and care (ECEC) professional development systems in which all constituents benefit. Primary constituent groups and principal decision-making bodies are defined and analyzed, and the interrelated influences within professional development systems are considered. At the heart of the discussion is how decisions made by all constituent groups are interrelated and affect all parts of the system. For instance, decisions made about professional qualifications have an impact upon pre- and in-service ECEC professionals, current ECEC professionals, children and their families, and individuals within ECEC businesses and communities. Although the discussion in this article is about these issues as they are played out within the USA, the authors believe that the implications raised may be usefully considered by ECEC professionals and those engaged in professional development in other cultures and contexts. (Contains 1 figure.)

In spring 2002, a national sample of more than 800 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) members working in the United States in the care and education of children age three to five responded to the following questions: (1) Are they happy with their work?; (2) Are they satisfied with their pay?; and (3) Are they engaged in ongoing professional development? The members responded to these questions by completing the Early Childhood Professional Questionnaire (ECPQ). This study was conducted because it is important to take a snapshot of NAEYC preschool professionals through the lens of quality, focusing on factors known to contribute to developmentally appropriate environments and programs and positive outcomes for young children. Findings of the study reveal that NAEYC's preschool professionals are well educated in general and are happy in their roles and dedicated to their profession. The study also reveals that NAEYC preschool professionals across the United States are engaged in high-quality practices with three- to five-year-old children in early care and education environments.

Discusses development of symbolic thinking in toddlers as a step in language acquisition and skill development. Examines means of encouraging this symbolic problem solving, such as setting the stage for problems, helping children plan problem-solving strategies, and encouraging children in self-evaluating their skills. Examines development of symbol use in young children and its role in literacy. (JPB)

The article presents information on developmentally appropriate assessment in family-centered programs of early childhood education for infants and toddlers. The authors look at developmental screening, structured assessment, and photo documentation. The article also discuses the educational collaboration among teachers and families. INSET: Selected Excerpts from a Developmental Profile Assessment for....

The article discusses the management of early childhood care programs that include infants and toddlers under the age of three. The role of directors of relationship-based early childhood programs is highlighted, and special attention is paid to the relationships between teachers and families, infants, and colleagues. Other topics include peer relationships amongst infants and toddlers, directors' relationships with teachers and the community, and the importance leadership in the administration of early childhood programs.

The article looks at how children in preschool through second grade intuitively solve the mathematical problems posed by adults. Understanding how children's intuition works makes it much easier to guide them to more formal conceptions of number and thus greater ability to think quantitatively. Some research which shows that young children can solve word problems or verbal problems are examined. Suggestions on how to encourage children to use and expand their skills for solving such problems are posed.