How Nations Serve Young Children

In this monograph, researchers have compiled information for a worldwide perspective on the history, resources, and public policies behind early childhood care and education services in 14 countries. The countries include Belgium, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, and the United States.

Following three teenagers who chose to spend one school year living in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, a literary journalist recounts how attitudes, parenting, and rigorous teaching have revolutionized these countries' education results.

Learn how exemplary countries are dealing with the challenges and joys of advancing the development of their youngest citizens. In this book, Sharon Lynn Kagan and her contributors systematically examine how six diverse countries go about envisioning, designing, and implementing their services to young children and their families. The Early Advantage 1 sheds light on new and exciting approaches to early childhood education and care (ECEC) that are contributing to the quality, equity, efficiency, and sustainability of services for young children. Brimming with fresh insights, the text provides concrete examples of successfully implemented strategies and methods that warrant attention from other countries wishing to improve their early childhood services. The 2-year comparative analysis upon which this volume is based was made possible with funding and support from the National Center on Education and the Economy’s (NCEE) Center on International Education Benchmarking. Book Features: Presents groundbreaking approaches to early childhood policy, practice, and service delivery from around the globe. Based on contributions from leading scholars and policymakers from six countries: Australia, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore. Acknowledges the important role of culture in shaping the quality and array of services afforded to young children. Uses rigorous research that includes common designs, vetted protocols, and repeated validations. Includes detailed country fact sheets with data on demographics, governmental expenditures, staff qualifications, mandated monitoring systems, and more. Is part of NCEE’s research into the 9 Building Blocks for a World-Class Education System. Contributors: Rebecca Bull, co-principal investigator, Singapore. Alfredo Bautista, contributing author, Singapore. Lily Fritz, contributing author, England. Bridget Healey, contributing author, Australia. Sharon Lynn Kagan, principal investigator, U.S. Kristiina Kumpulainen, co-principal investigator, Finland. Eva Landsberg, contributing author, National Center for Children and Families, U.S. Carrie Lau, contributing author, Hong Kong. Mugyeong Moon, co-principal investigator, Republic of Korea. Grace Murkett, contributing author, England. Tom Peachey, contributing author, Australia. Nirmala Rao, co-principal investigator, Hong Kong. Kathy Sylva, co-principal investigator, England. Collette Tayler, co-principal investigator, Australia.

Abstract: A detailed, illustrated pamphlet for village health and child care workers and others involved in child feeding in developing countries provides nutrition education guidelines to assist such workers in teaching mothers and children about nutrition. Topics include parent education concerning children's foods; what one should know about foods; establishing community goals for child feeding and nutrition; general teaching guidelines and rules; working with mothers of preschool children; and teaching children who are involved in school feeding programs. A preschool child's height-weight chart, a questionnaire focusing on learning children's food habits, and a list of pertinent references for village child feeding care workers, are appended. (wz).

In the early years of the Republic, as Americans tried to determine what it meant to be an American, they also wondered what it meant to be an American child. A defensive, even fearful, approach to childhood gave way to a more optimistic campaign to integrate young Americans into the Republican experiment. In Children and Youth in a New Nation, historians unearth the experiences of and attitudes about children and youth during the decades following the American Revolution. Beginning with the revolution itself, the contributors explore a broad range of topics, from the ways in which American children and youth participated in and learned from the revolt and its aftermaths, to developing notions of “ideal” childhoods as they were imagined by new religious denominations and competing ethnic groups, to the struggle by educators over how the society that came out of the Revolution could best be served by its educational systems. The volume concludes by foreshadowing future “child-saving” efforts by reformers committed to constructing adequate systems of public health and child welfare institutions. Rooted in the historical literature and primary sources, Children and Youth in a New Nation is a key resource in our understanding of origins of modern ideas about children and youth and the conflation of national purpose and ideas related to child development.

The Sourcebook-IV provides training modules for rights-based integrated child protection service delivery systems at the secondary and tertiary prevention levels. Part 1 of the Sourcebook focuses on the preventative, comprehensive, integrated and systemic, and universal community-based and family-based service delivery systems for children; and the methods of case management and outcomes-based project cycle. Part 2 discusses children and families at risk and the role of community-based Integrated Childcare and Support Centres for providing supplementary care and support services to them at the secondary prevention level. It also focuses on children facing sociolegal problems such as deprivation of parental care, violence, and conflict with law, and the role of District-based Integrated Child Protection Centres for providing protection, justice and rehabilitation to them at the tertiary prevention level. Part 3 focuses on children in emergencies in general and in specific situations and role of Integrated Child Protection Centres in these situations. This is a necessary read for social workers, lawyers, researchers, trainers and teachers working on child rights across the world, and especially in developing countries.