ABSTRACT
Increasingly, the theoretical and empirical research on early childhood education, especially that concerned with critical pedagogy, has highlighted the challenges globalised policy creates for this sector. The main features of globalised policy are its economised view of education’s mission and a narrowing of the content in favour of human and social capital; in short, everything that points to the neoliberal transformation of the entire education sector. The pressure emanating from supranational authorities is manifest and has a marked impact on national education policies, both in countries with a strong tradition of early childhood education and care, and in countries where this sector is gradually emerging and developing. However, these policies do not directly impact on everyday preschool practices. If we compare preschool practices in different countries and environments (on the European, Asian and African continents) then we see that practices do not directly reflect policy goals, but are counterbalanced by a variety of strategies and in different ways. What matters most in determining the existing and future forms of preschool education is not the political solutions and decisions, but the direct encounters between policy and practice, and the key role teachers play in that.
