Nordic Social Pedagogical Approach to Early Years

I: Introduction to the Nordic Social Pedagogical Approach to Early Years.- II: Danish/Nordic child care tradition.- 1. The key characteristics of Danish/Nordic child care culture; Grethe Kragh-Müller.- 2. Values in Danish early childhood Education and Care; Stig Brostrøm, Anders Skriver Jensen & Ole Henrik Hansen.- 3. Children¿s engagements in the lives in child care; Jakob Waag Villadsen & Pernille Hviid.- 4. Opportunities and challenges in Icelandic early childhood education; Johanna Einarsdottir.- 5. Comparative Perspectives on Early Childhood; Choices and Values; Charlotte Ringsmose & Sigrid Brogaard Clausen.- III:  Key characteristics in Nordic childcare unfolded.- 6. The  role of play in Danish child care; Ditte Winther-Lindqvist.- 7. Outdoor education in the Nordic region; Ellen Beate Sandseter & Olav Bjarne Lysklett.- 8. Children¿s perspectives in their everyday lives in child care in two cultures: Denmark and the United States; Grethe Kragh-Müller & Rebecca Isbell.- 9. Increasing pedagogical attentiveness towards children¿s perspectives and participation in child care; Lone Svinth.- 10. Children and pedagogues as partners in communication: Focus on specious and narrow interactional patterns; Berit Bae.- 11. How positive childhood experiences promote children¿s development of democratic skills; Charlotte Ringsmose & Grethe Kragh-Müller.- 12. Re-metaphorizing teaching and learning in early childhood education beyond the instruction ¿ social fostering devide; Niklas Pramling, Elisabet Doverborg & Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson.- 13. Collaboration between child care and parents- dilemmas and contradictory institutional conditions; Maja Rønn.- 14. The professional identity of the Danish pedagogue ¿ creativity and dannelse.- IV: Quality in child care.- 15. Educational quality in child care; Grethe Kragh-Müller.- 16. Leading Pedagogical Quality in the Context of Finnish Child Care; Elina Fonsén and Janniina Vlasov.