Product Description: Taking a broad approach, Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care relates issues of early childhood to the sociology of childhood, philosophy, ethics, political science and other fields and to an analysis of the world we live in today...read more

Product Description: What should be the relationship between early childhood and compulsory education? What can they learn from one another and by working together? The rapid expansion of early childhood education and care means that most children in affluent countries now have several years at pre-school before compulsory education...read more

Product Description: Care Work in Europe provides a cross-national and cross-sectoral study of care work in Europe today, covering policy, provision and practice, as well as exploring how care work is conceptualized and understood. Drawing on a study which looks at care work across the life course in a number of European countries, this book: explores the context and emerging policy agendas provides an analysis of how different countries and sectors understand and structure care work examines key issues, such as the extreme gendering of the workforce, increasing problems of recruitment and turnover, what kinds of knowledge and education the work requires and what conditions are needed to ensure good quality employment considers possible future directions, including the option of a generic professional worker, educated to work across the life course and whether ‘care’ will, or should, remain a distinct field of policy and employment...read more

Product Description: Social pedagogy is an innovative discipline that supports children's upbringing and overall development by focusing on the child as a whole person. It has been described as where education and care meet or as 'education in its broadest sense' This book provides a comprehensive overview of the theory, principles and practice of social pedagogy and the profession of social pedagogue...read more

With the growth of parental employment, leave policy is at the centre of welfare state development and at the heart of countries' child and family policies. It is widely recognised as an essential element for attaining important demographic, social and economic goals and is the point where many different policy areas intersect: child well-being, family, gender equality, employment and labour markets, and demography. Leave policy, therefore, gives a unique insight into a country's values, interests and priorities. International comparisons of leave policy are widely available, but far less attention has been paid to understanding the factors that bring about these variations. "The politics of parental leave policies" makes good this omission. Looking at parental leave policy within a wider work/family context, it addresses how and why, and by whom, particular policies are created and subsequently developed in particular countries. Chapters covering 15 countries in Europe and beyond and the European Union bring together leading academic experts to provide a unique insight into the past, present and future state of this key policy area. "The politics of parental leave policies" is essential reading for students, teachers and researchers in social policy, child and family policy, welfare states, gender relations and equality, and employment and labour markets, providing an opportunity to study in depth the creation of social policy. It will also be of interest to policy makers in national governments and international organisations.

Product Description: Relations between the People's Republic of China and Japan are still subject to abrupt and periodic diplomatic confrontations and subtle political antagonisms. Though China and Japan have signed four political instruments, including the 1978 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation, and maintain vibrant economic relations, Beijing and Tokyo too-frequently appear to have difficulty getting along...read more

Product Description: Going Beyond the Theory/Practice Divide in Early Childhood Education focuses on the use of pedagogical documentation as a tool for learning and transformation. Based on innovative research, the author presents new approaches to learning in early childhood education, shifting attention to the force and impact which material objects and artefacts can have in learning...read more

Product Description: Confucius has become the oft-quoted fount of aphorisms and analects far wider and more comprehensive in their didactic scope than any attributed to sages elsewhere in the world. But the real gems of Chinese wisdom lie in the anonymous and ageless proverbs, of which this volume contains a formidable and beautifully illustrated selections...read more