Introducing the special issue on ‘Comparative studies in early childhood education: past, present and future’

Imaginaries of ECEC: A comparison of policies of access in early childhood education in Brazil, Finland, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, and Serbia

“…Within this line of argumentation, simultaneous policies related to increasing access to ECEC could be seen as the result of the increasing and accelerating flow of ideas across national borders, which in turn might lead to the convergence of national ECEC policies. However, even though we can see similarities in access policies in ECEC in different contexts, the combination of our methodological attempt to disrupt the Euro-and Western-centric focus in comparative research (see Sousa & Moss, 2022) and the inclusion of the historical overview and a socio-material approach to policy research led us to notice the remarkable variance in dynamics between local agendas and international policy streams. Therefore, our research drew on a wide body of research that shows how the relation between inter-and transnational policy discourses and local policies is dynamic (e.g., Alasuutari & Rasimus, 2009;Carney, 2009;Centeno et al, 2018;Kauko et al, 2018;Paananen, 2017).…”

“…We contributed to this line of research by suggesting that the concept of 'imaginary' is helpful in the task of understanding how policy reforms are shaped in different country contexts. Comparative research, especially in the field of ECEC, has made very little use of the theoretical and conceptual tools offered by socio-material theories (for overview see Sousa & Moss, 2022). In this article we exemplify their application by examining both the semiotic and non-semiotic aspects of ECEC access policy reforms in seven different national contexts.…”

Policy Justice Through Critical Qualitative Inquiry: Examining the Issue of School Readiness

“…Thus, I want to challenge these ideas and discuss how engaging in CQPR can support and respect children and their families in becoming the human beings they want to be-honoring the promise of the system being ready for them and their hopes, dreams, and desires within the schooling process (Swadener & Niles, 1991). In doing so, I am not rejecting the importance and/or potential impact of early education services for children and their families (Sousa & Moss, 2022). Instead, building off the work of Dumas and Anderson (2014), I want to demonstrate how qualitative research can "make meaning of, and craft creative, effective responses to human suffering, desires and aspirations" (p. 11) by creating critical policy research that is "responsive to policy deliberation and policy priorities, but .…”