ABSTRACT
For many people, the word “nursery” may be understood as meaning “nursery school”, an educational provision for 3- and 4-year-olds. However, in the United Kingdom, in much of Western Europe, and in North America different kinds of nurseries have developed historically for different reasons, with different access criteria, different staffing, and different ways of working. Much research has pointed to the importance for children of experiencing attachment interactions in nursery. There have been two developing lines of critical commentary, one about the practice and one about the principle of young children’s attachments to staff in nursery. The first concerns the demands on nursery practitioners of children’s attachments to them in nursery. The second concerns the “opportunity costs” of nursery attachments that is, the view that giving priority to children’s attachments to nursery staff leads to the importance of children’s close relationships with friends and in groups being overlooked.
