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Three years ago, Naina Shahi's husband left their small village in rural Nepal to seek work in neighboring India, leaving her to bring up their three children alone. The dry winters and unpredictable monsoons Nepal has experienced in recent years had hit crop production on the couple's land plot in the foothills of the Himalayas, forcing them to look for other ways to feed their family (A report in September 4, 2009 issue of Republica; Cozens (2009)).

Flows of transnational popular culture into Egypt are not so much cases of foreign imperialism imposing itself on helpless Egyptians as they are processes managed by Cairene entrepreneurs whose accomplishments present them as successful agents of modernization, locating the cosmopolitan balance between global brands and goods and local markets and infrastructures. This chapter explores the links between these entrepreneurs, the state's “culture of development,” and class reproduction. Egyptian transnational entrepreneurialism – speculative, profit-oriented enterprises engaged with transnational flows of brands, commodities, and capital – has become yoked to the state's goal of national development through economic liberalization. Upper-class cosmopolitan entrepreneurs are increasingly positioned as agents of hybridity, culture brokers who can creatively forge links between supposedly rational and universal economic practices of market capital, and local cultural beliefs and values. Successful entrepreneurs are construed as possessing an “entrepreneurial imagination” by means of which they can overcome structural and cultural obstacles and contribute to the development of an Egyptian “enterprise culture.”

In this chapter, I describe how postmodern perspectives assist me in negotiating my multiple roles and responsibilities as an early childhood teacher educator in an increasingly complex pedagogical and workplace context. In particular, I focus on how postmodern understandings support me in therorizing my practice and envisioning productive possibilities for change. Underpinning the chapter are three interconnecting motifs that imbue my work as teacher educator – reflexivity, hope, and a commitment to transformative change. The chapter concludes with reflections about the potential of postmodern perspectives to enhance the agency of teacher educators and preservice teachers alike.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges to development. Intergovernmental Committee in response to Climate Change (IPCC, 2007), with majority agreement, has pointed out that climate change is caused by human activities. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also pointed out that these serious impacts by climate change will directly affect the poorer and more vulnerable communities and nations. According to the Human Development Report 2007–2008 by United Nation Development Program (UNDP, 2008), people in rural areas are most vulnerable to climate change, because it directly affects the resources in the ecosystem on which their lives depend. Countries with newly developed economy will be seriously hit, economically and socially, within the next few decades by natural disasters such as flood, draught, and storm, which have been increasing in number and severity. Human health is also adversely affected, which has multiplying effects in different sectors.