This book explores how concepts and values of contemporary democracy are variously understood and applied in diverse cultural contexts, with a focus on children and childhood and diversity. Drawing on a range of methodological approaches relevant to early childhood education, it discusses young children's engagement and voice. The book identifies existing practices, strengths, theories and considerations in democracy in early childhood education and childhood, highlighting the democratic participation of children in cultural contexts. Further, it illustrates how democracy can be evident in early childhood practices and interactions across a range of curriculum contexts and perspectives, and considers ways of advancing and sustaining practices with positive transformational opportunities to benefit children and wider ecological systems.It offers readers insights into what democracy and citizenship look like in lived experience, and the issues affecting practice and encouraging reflection and advocacy.

This volume started with expressing concerns of what might challenge democracy in early childhood education (ECE) settings of today  – all over the world. We have, throughout the work as authors and editors, been more and more aware of the different ways early childhood practices are challenged by the contemporary issues mentioned in Chap. 1 of this volume. We have learned not only the fact that there are challenges but also gained insights into how ECE practitioners, children and researchers deal with these challenges. The subtitle of this volume says Engagement in Changing Global Contexts, and in this concluding chapter, we will further elaborate the engagement expressed by the authors. By referring to the conceptual framework from Chap. 2, challenges will relate to the different but linked dimensions in the democracy model provided by Hägglund, Löfdahl Hultman and Thelander (2017). Our lessons learned and our conclusions deal with ideas about children and childhood, about the way policies structure children’s lives and the everyday life in preschool for teachers and for children. As already stated in the introduction, the democracy model takes the position that democracy in ECE is influenced from the ideas and actions in all four dimensions of the model: historical views, curriculum and other formal documents, intentional teaching practices, and children’s arenas. In addition, democracy is challenged by content in the same dimensions. Each chapter of this book has presented an individual discussion and analysis of empirical research, and our intention here is not to repeat what has already been written but to highlight synergies and connections. The structure for this analysis builds around three concepts that we use to highlight what is important to challenge the challenges: reciprocity, togetherness and empowerment. We also argue these three concepts form new core values of democracy especially in ECE and as such need to be considered and questioned

The background for this study is the last decades emphasised ethical considerations in child research. We have found ethics to be more and more acknowledged and regulations to be strengthened. Based on this, the aim of the study is to review the ethical issues in child research to find out how ethical considerations are dealt with in this respect. Four important journals, representing three important editors were selected. Through reading 707 abstracts from volumes 2016 and 2017, empirical studies focusing on children under the age of 8 were found in 95 articles and were further analysed regarding ethical issues. The result shows that regardless of requirements in journal guidelines, about one third of the articles lack any ethical reflection. Further, it is also shown that just over half of the articles merely stated compliance with regulations and standards, and just a few of articles presented a deeper reflection on the ethical considerations including occurring dilemmas. The shift towards stronger ethical regulations is discussed as if it might encourage the tendency of just doing what is necessary according to laws and when doing so, the risk of ethical drift is elaborated.

This book is an edited text of chapters, connected by a focus on contemporarydemocracy and on what challenges democracy in early childhood educationof today. Contemporary issues such as migration, refugees, changes in teacher education,early childhood regulations, transition and assessment expectations provideboth opportunities and challenges for early childhood education (ECE).Sociopolitical influences may mean that there can be a gap between democraticaspirations and experiences, including tension, dissent and power relations. Theseare challenges we are all aware of and often speak about as influencing implementationof democratic aims, children’s rights and agency espoused in curriculum andpolicy. As Peter Moss stresses in the foreword of this book, one of the main challengesto democracy is largely invisible and deals with political and economicregimes. From this view, the image of the child is a potential human capital, and theaim of ECE is to realise and fulfil sociopolitical ideas and images. A liberalistagenda manipulates the role of the ECE teachers from an adult focused on relationshipto a technical implementer of human capital development. Such challengesneed to be more visible.

Denna vänbok tillägnas vår kollega Héctor Pérez Prieto. Boken består av olika berättelser med anknytning till Héctors forskning och tillsammans formar bidragen en ny berättelse om hans forskarliv, en slags livsberättelse.

Författarna är akademiska vänner som vid olika tidpunkter och på olika platser samarbetat med Héctor som handledare, student, doktorand och kollega.