ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critical view of early childhood educational policy and some reflections on scenarios regarding ‘what goes on’ in early childhood education and care in Colombia. It deals with an overview of the historical context of early childhood educational policies in Colombia together with a reflection on ideological discourses embedded in their statements. This critical point of view serves as a basis to consider the field of early childhood education and care with regard to practices in the context of traditional and local scenarios and early childhood teacher education in Colombia. A common thread in the chapter relates to a social justice perspective regarding the lives of young children, their families, and the people that live and work with children. The history of early childhood in Colombia begins from two different starting points. In the early twentieth century, two different institutions provided care, protection and early education. One was public, and the other was private.
