---

This volume provides a comprehensive understanding of early childhood care and education throughout the world. It features the work of over 20 experts who examine 12 different countries with various types of early childhood programs.

---

We live in a world that is transitioning from focus on early childhood education within individual countries into a global perspective that considers how early childhood education is conducted in many diverse cultures and environments. The challenge on a global basis is how to develop programs in countries and environments that are different from a specifically western perspective. Economic, geographic, and cultural influences infuse early childhood programs around the world.

In 1999, a group of educators representing 36 countries developed guidelines for establishing minimum standards for preschool programs. A purpose for developing the guidelines was to provide guidance for countries that wished to evaluate and improve their own programs. A second purpose was to help developing countries initiating preschools to have relevant information about quality programs. The later development of an assessment tool based on the Global Guidelines served as a vehicle to use the guidelines to assess a single program or multiple programs. The continuing work with these guidelines in many countries throughout the world since 2000 has resulted in the collection of information that reveals the uniqueness of programs in different countries.

---

1. Looking at Early Childhood Programs from a Global Perspective.- Part 1: Background .- 2. Cross-Cultural Collaboration Research to Improve Early Childhood Education.- Part 2: School Environments .- 3. From Montessori to Culturally Relevant Schools Under the Trees in Kenya.- 4. Preschool Environments in Rural West Africa.- 5. Kindergarten Environments in Reggio Emilia, Bologna, Modena, and Parma, Italy.- Part 3: Curriculum Content and Pedagogy .- 6. Kindergartens in Russia´s Far East: The Effect of Climate.- 7. Preserving Cultural Heritage in Korea.- Part 4: Children with Special Needs .- 8. International Perspectives on Services for Young Children with Special Needs.- 9. New Visions for Preschool Inclusive Education in Mexico.- 10. Early Childhood Special Education in China: Advocacy and Practice.- Part 5: The Early Childhood Educator .- 11. Administrators, Teachers, and Nineras: Professional Partnerships for Quality in Guatemala.- 12. Early Childhood Teachers in Slovakia.- 13. Teachers of Dual Language Children in China.- Part 6: Family, School and Community Partnerships .- 14. Family and Village Partnerships in Rural Schools in Senegal.- 15. Weaving Relationships between Preschools, Families, and Communities: the Nurturing Connections to the Reggio Emilia Region of Italy.- 16. Conclusion.- Index.

---