Contemporary Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care

The monograph »Contemporary perspectives on early childhood education and care« consists of ten chapters that theoretically and empirically address some of the key areas of quality of ECEC. In the first chapter »The preschool teacher: an important factor in promoting child development« we present how the education of preschool teacher profession has been developed and influenced in Slovenia. In the second chapter »Models for professional development of teachers« we present the models of professional development, specifically illuminated through lifelong learning and development of preschool teachers. In the third chapter »Professional development of early childhood education teachers« the presented research results suggest that preschool teachers are satisfied with the existing range of professional development programmes. In chapter four, cooperation with parents as an important factor of quality of ECEC, is compared among Slovene, Swedish and Finish (city of Helsinki) kindergarten curriculum. In the next, fifth chapter, the issue “from positive recognition toward justice in a participatory pedagogical approach” is addressed as the thesis that equal opportunities for development, learning, and education in later life. The chapter »Realization of Children’s Participation at Meals in Kindergarten« brings an empirically based example of including of child participation in kindergarten routine. In the seventh chapter early childhood care and education and the importance of teachers' resilience from viewpoint of inclusion are addressed. Given the fact of increasing number of immigrant children, the eighth chapter deals with competences of preschool teachers in order to effectively address the challenges of educating immigrant children. In last two chapters, two specific challenges in pre-school education are addressed: the question of art (didactics of music) and the question of measuring current concepts in the field of ECEC, more specifically, mindfulness.