Book Cover -- Title -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Preface DfEE -- Foreword The Importance of Having a Vision -- Introduction A Vision for the Future -- Reforming or Transforming? -- Inspecting the Future -- The Good, the Bad and the Possible? Linguistic and Cultural Diversity: Changing Perceptions and Practices -- In Praise of Inspired and Inspiring Teachers -- Quality and Professionalism in Early Childhood -- Another Way of Seeing: Perceptions of Play in a Steiner Kindergarten -- Protecting Playfulness -- The Search for Expertise: The Importance of the Early Years -- Valuing Young Children -- Accounting Early for Lifelong Learning -- Musings from a Nursery Inspector and Letters from a Pupil 1990 98 -- Planetary Influences -- 'If this was on the computer we could hear the lion go roar' -- Information and Communications Technology in Early Years Education -- Early Childhood Institutions as a Democratic and Emancipatory Project -- Early Childhood Education in the Postmodern World -- The Role of Research in Explaining the Past and Shaping the Future -- Young Children and Their Families: Creating a Community Response -- Conclusion Drawing the Threads Together -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.