Early childhood education has always provoked passionate feelings amongst stakeholders at all levels. This reader examines change, transformation and continuity in relation to five key themes.

Early childhood education has always provoked passionate feelings amongst stakeholders at all levels, from practitioners working with children and families in pre-school and school settings, to advisers, managers, politicians, and academics

The purpose of this reader is to examine change, transformation and continuity, and to present indicative scholarship in relation to five key themes:

theoretical perspectives on learning

curriculum and pedagogy

play

policy

professionalism and research methods

Within each theme, the readings have...