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The impact of inclusion programs on children goes beyond the classroom. It reflects families’ and children’s experiences with school systems and communities. Inclusion is more than an issue of disability, a set of strategies, or a placement. It involves the need for all children to be a part of the classroom (Odom, Schwartz, & ECRII Investigators, 2002) and for their families to be a part of their educational experiences (Soodak & Erwin, 1995). The purpose of this chapter is to identify the barriers to and facilitators of inclusion in early childhood programs through listening to the voices of parents and analyzing effective inclusive practices in the literature. The chapter is organized around five themes derived from the voices of parents about their children with disabilities in preschool placements. These themes are then connected to the findings in the literature including the key characteristics of early childhood inclusion programs. The reader is encouraged to identify the barriers to and facilitators of inclusion that the parents share through their lived experiences for each theme as well as reflect on the ways in which schools can include and collaborate with parents to foster a partnership that supports all children.

The main focus of this study is preschool teachers’ own learning from a specific course aimed to develop their knowledge of how to use learning study (LS) in preschool. The study included 24 qualified and experienced preschool teachers who took part in the course. The course was funded by the Swedish National Agency for Education and the teachers were chosen by their municipal employers. An analysis is made of their experiences of the in-service course on LS and variation theory. The 24 preschool teachers were divided into seven groups, each of which implemented one LS. A total of 162 preschool children participated. After the course, the participants were asked, “How do you think LS can contribute in preschool?” Their answers were analyzed, and six qualitatively different categories were found, capturing their different perspectives. In the studies reported in this chapter, the results of the children's learning outcomes are also briefly reported to offer readers a background understanding of the teachers’ experiences. The children's learning outcomes did all show an improvement. In describing their experiences of the in-service training using LS, all of the 24 participating preschool teachers reported that their understanding of children's learning had changed and improved. They specifically mentioned having a stronger focus on content than before, seeing the difference between learning and method by separating them, and focus on the learning of a defined content in the first place.

Identifying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children’s early years significantly impacts their academic performance and future life. It allows them to receive special support services and the required early intervention. Preschool teachers spend considerable time with their students, which allows them to observe their behaviors in different settings like classrooms and playgrounds. However, teachers need to be knowledgeable of ASD early assessment to detect them. Whereas, all well-known ASD assessment tools are designed for populations from different cultures than the Gulf Cooperation Councils' (GCC) culture. This study emphasizes the importance of preschool age, from 3 to 5, in indicating children's early signs of ASD. This paper aims to indicate the early signs of ASD in preschool children in the UAE as a model for other GCC countries.

A qualitative method consisting of interviews with preschool teachers and the ASD children’s parents was conducted to investigate the ASD early symptoms in children.

The findings of the study show that there is a direct connection between the opinions expressed by preschool teachers and the parents of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). These results also highlight the presence of early indications of ASD among preschool-aged children in the United Arab Emirates, such as difficulties in communication, repetitive actions, delayed speech, excessive focus on tablets, trouble paying attention, hyperactivity, sleep problems, and aggressive behavior.

The outcomes suggest a strong connection between the feedback from preschool teachers and the parents of children with ASD. The study uncovers initial indications of ASD in preschool-aged children from the United Arab Emirates, such as difficulties in communication, repetitive actions, delayed speech, excessive fascination with tablets, problems with attention, hyperactivity, sleep disturbances, and aggressive behavior.

Applying sociological and developmental theoretical perspectives to educational policy issues, this study analyzed data from 7,710 children from low-income families in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. The goal was to examine how much the association between phonics instruction in kindergarten classrooms and children’s reading achievement during the first year of school in the low-income population would depend on whether children had previously attended preschool as well as the socioeconomic composition of their elementary schools. Lagged linear models with a series of sensitivity tests revealed that this association was strongest among children from low-income families who had not attended preschool and then enrolled in socioeconomically disadvantaged elementary schools and among children from low-income families who had attended preschool and then enrolled in socioeconomically advantaged elementary schools. These findings demonstrate how insights into educational inequality can be gained by situating developing children within their proximate ecologies and institutional settings, especially looking to the match between children and their contexts. They are especially relevant to timely policy discussions of early childhood education programs, classroom instructional practices, and school desegregation.

Indian education system is obligated to assure “accessibility” to the “quality” preschool education for all children. National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has emphasised this endeavor loudly and provided clear directions to bring quality in the preschool education through effective implementation strategies. En route to this, trained and motivated preschool teachers are considered as the key factor for quality assurance. Diversity of the Indian society (language, culture, socio-economic status), variety of preschool service providers, different models of preschool education system, uneven salary structure, work load, shortage of support system, huge teacher children ratio, and unregulated sector of teacher preparation are the upfront challenge for the quality of preschool teachers and teacher education. Recruitment of trained preschool teachers, assured career growth, performance-based promotions and salary structure, regulated teacher preparation programs, adherence to the other quality standards for preschool education, digital/distance mode of obtaining required qualifications, and development of strong mechanism for monitoring; supervision as well as on-site mentoring of preschool teachers are some of the major milestones set by the government in the policy. With all this, the most important aspect is to provide encouraging and respectful environment for preschool teachers to keep them happy, contented, and motivated. The teachers, who are prepared in this way contribute in the lives of young children by creating warm and welcoming environment when they enter preschool. The NEP 2020 has brought hope, possibilities, and directions in this regard.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the components and determinants of preschool teacher organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB), i.e. role behaviours that are discretionary, unrewarded and beyond formal‐role expectations.

A total of 12 Israeli kindergarten teachers and four supervisors participated in semi‐structured interviews during 2008‐2009.

It was found that preschool teacher OCB appears in professional (e.g. instructional innovations, diverse teaching methods, helping colleagues) and in inter‐personal (e.g. the children, the parents, the local community) arenas. Likewise, both personal and organisational determinants may account for the occurrence of this behaviour in preschool teaching.

It is recommended that education districts and superintendents facilitate preschool teacher OCB by promoting greater job autonomy for kindergarten teachers and forms of participative leadership among their supervisors.

Understanding preschool teacher OCB may fill in gaps in the theoretical knowledge about the nature of OCB among a group of employees that tends to work at small educational settings and has a limited scope of interactions with co‐workers and superiors.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of falling rolls on human resource management in local preschools in Hong Kong. It aims to argue that the developing role of leadership in creating a culture and procedures for collective participation in staff appraisal is important for human resource management in preschool settings.

With the aid of a case study, the paper illustrates and analyzes the policies and practices presently adopted by many preschool heads in the process of personnel management that may potentially affect the quality of education service.

This paper focuses on discussing the common practices used by many preschool heads in the field to handle staffing reduction. In particular, voluntary redundancy is perceived as an effective strategy to solve the problems of budget deficit. From the quality perspective, the strategy is based on individual decision but not on the teaching performance of staff members. This may have a negative impact on the quality of teaching and service.

Relatively little research on human resource management in preschools has been conducted in Hong Kong. The illustration of this case study follows other studies in the literature in revealing the important links between human resource management and school development. It is proposed that the management of professional knowledge embedded in teaching practices should be connected to the policy of staff appraisal in order to achieve better quality of service. Thus, the introduction of staff appraisal and collective participation in such processes is, by its nature, a political process. This paradigm shift creates a new agenda for leadership roles and requires a cultural change in preschool settings.

The purpose of the study was to ascertain how preschool children consume media, which types of media content they are sensitive to and how children affect the shopping behavior of their parents. In other words, the study aimed at revealing whether distinctions occur among the selection of the media, among preferences of media products and forms, among concepts within advertising, among the attractiveness of media contents, among the types of influence by advertising products and among the means by which boys and girls have impact on their parents.

The paper is focused on the analyses of the perception of advertising messages and media consumption of children aged from two to seven years (N = 55) and their parents (N = 55) in the Czech Republic. The semi-structured interviews with the parents and children were used as the main research method. The children’s drawings focused on popular advertising were used as a supplementary method. The final findings were subjected to qualitative analyses – to thematic content analyses.

The analyzed interviews have revealed four key factors which frame and express the Czech preschool children’s reception and consumption of the media and their consumer behavior: media, media format and media content choice of preschool children; ritualization of the media consumption processes in preschool children; identification of advertising appeals within the media content in preschool children; and influence of media (and a social and cultural environment) on shopping behavior of preschool children. The findings are summarized in the table and visualized in thematic map.

The sample size is small; therefore, it is not possible to generalize the results to all preschool children.

The study provides an explanation of the perception of media messages by preschool children from a broader perspective, from the children and their parents’ point of view.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the resilience of preschool teachers, aspects of teachers’ readiness to develop children's resilience and the relationship between the two constructs of resilience and readiness.

Two instruments (the “Resilience Scale For Adults” and the “Questionnaire on the Readiness of Preschool Teachers for Developing Children's Resilience”) were used to collect data on resilience and readiness for developing children's resilience from 191 female preschool teachers enrolled in a graduate education programme in the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Data were analysed by factor analyses and a two-way analyses of variance.

Results indicate that preschool teachers achieve high results on resilience measures, and that they have supportive attitudes towards programmes for building children's resilience and are willing to implement such programmes in their everyday practice. Those preschool teachers who perceived themselves as more resilient also considered that they were more competent in developing resilience in children. Additionally, preschool teachers who perceived their kindergarten's institutional climate as supportive, felt that they are more competent for fostering resilience in children, and were at the same time more willing to implement programmes for building children's resilience.

The findings suggest that the level of institutional supportiveness is related to preschool teachers’ competence and willingness to foster resilience in children. Those preschool teachers who perceive their institutional climate as supportive feel more willing and competent to implement programmes for developing children's resilience. Additionally, teachers’ competence for developing resilience in children is related to their own resilience: more resilient preschool teachers feel more competent to foster children's resilience. These results suggest that general institutional climate and resilience of those adults who work with preschool children are important aspects of early educational environment, and should be taken into consideration when planning the implementation of programmes for building children's resilience.

This research is the first Croatian research on resilience in the context of early childhood education. It also represents a contribution to a relatively small number of studies that link preschool teachers’ resilience with their readiness to foster resilience in children.

This paper aims to fill the gap in social sciences research on parents’ strategies in navigating preschool education in Russia. It focusses on the barriers that children with developmental disabilities and autism face in preschool education in Russia and highlights the emerging facilitators of inclusive education.

It uses a modified labelling approach analysing strategies of withdrawal and resistance. The research included semi-structured interviews with parents of children with Down syndrome, Rett syndrome and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in 2013–2014 and 2018–2019 and semi-structured interviews with professionals in Tatarstan, Russia. The data analysis was based on constructivist methods and grounded theory.

Although Russian law guarantees equal access to education for every child and requires the development of inclusive education, children with developmental disabilities, including autism, are often stigmatised at the preschool stage, both in special needs and mainstream institutions. Parents use various strategies to navigate access to preschool education and try more than one strategy from secrecy and withdrawal to resistance. Parents challenged the mainstream educational structures in Kazan and established groups for children with autism in some mainstream kindergartens and classes in mainstream schools.

There should be informational support for parents with different options for special needs education, providing integrative and inclusive education. It is necessary to increase the number of trained specialists in special needs and mainstream kindergartens in Russia for children with developmental disabilities and ASD. More study is required to overcome stigmatisation and increase tolerance towards persons with developmental disabilities in Russia both on a national and local level.

The research findings can be useful for countries which have recently recognised ASD and do not have inclusive preschool educational practices and where labelling towards children with developmental disabilities is still common. The study recommends that resources are required to provide free or affordable preschool education for children with developmental disabilities. It is also crucial to help parents navigate preschool education and select the best options for each child’s needs.

This study’s findings add value to the importance of addressing the stigma towards people with disabilities within professional groups and broader society, which form barriers for preschool education and in some cases result in withdrawal from preschool education. To overcome the stigmatisation of children with developmental disabilities in preschool education, it is necessary to establish modern targeted pedagogical approaches and training for professionals and informational campaigns for the broader audience.

The paper is novel as there was no sociological research into preschool education of children with developmental disabilities in Russia. It argues that the parents’ experiences are much broader than just interactions with special needs or mainstream education. Parents navigate across special needs institutions, specialised groups in mainstream and private kindergartens, mixed groups in mainstream kindergartens and home education with various strategies from secrecy and withdrawal to resistance and challenge. Preschool education for children with developmental disabilities in Russia is hindered by a lack of professional resources and the stigma embedded into professional and societal responses.