ABSTRACT This study presents the development and standardization of the Greek Scale of Preschool Graphomotor Skills (Greek-SPGS 4–6), designed to assess graphomotor abilities in children aged 4–6. A nationally representative sample of 1167 typically developing preschoolers participated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a six-factor model (pencil manipulation, handwriting control, spatial concepts, writing orientation, figure reproduction, scissors use), with good internal consistency. Item response theory confirmed the scale’s sensitivity to different proficiency levels and age-related task difficulty. The tool demonstrated strong psychometric properties, including construct validity and reliability. Its nonverbal format ensures cultural adaptability and suitability for diverse populations. SPGS 4–6 addresses the need for culturally appropriate tools to assess handwriting readiness, enabling early detection of graphomotor delays. Age- and gender-specific norms offer benchmarks for educators and therapists to monitor development and guide interventions. This research supports evidence-based practices in early childhood education and screening.

ABSTRACT This paper foregrounds the often-neglected role of corporeality in understanding the intersection between professionalism and gender in Early Childhood Education. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 32 male educators from Brazil and Italy and employing a hermeneutic approach, the study explores how these professionals perceive and articulate their embodied experiences and pedagogical practices. By emphasizing gender as an indelible thread in the fabric of professional identity, the analysis reveals distinctive dynamics within their practice, including nuanced conflict management, the use of humor, and a strong presence of physical and playful interaction. These aspects appear to constitute key ways through which men establish their professional legitimacy. The findings highlight the body as the primary medium through which performances of professional identity and gender are enacted and intersect, shaping perceptions of competence while being influenced by the various allowances and constraints experienced by male practitioners throughout their lives. Moreover, these insights may foster greater awareness of the role of the body in this profession, moving beyond representations that confine male and female gestures to fixed traits, and contributing to a less constrained experience for educators of any gender identity and, ultimately, to richer developmental environments for the children in their care.

ABSTRACT In Chilean early childhood education (ECE), teaching assistants (TAs) are numerically dominant yet largely absent from professional and policy frameworks. Drawing on Dahlberg and Moss’s critical ECE perspective and an ethics of care framework, this qualitative study examines how TAs in two public ECE centres in Santiago construct discourses about their pedagogical practice. Data were generated through two focus groups and four individual interviews with 16 assistants working with children aged 0–4. Analysis followed Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Four themes are reported: growing empowerment in learning activities; involvement in planning; an understanding of care routines as inherently pedagogical; and a curricular emphasis on social and personal development over school-readiness. These findings reveal an evolving pedagogical identity that challenges the care – education dualism and contests traditional professional hierarchies. The study contributes to debates on TAs’ professionalism, schoolification, and ethics of care, calling for greater policy recognition of TAs as integral pedagogical agents.

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a qualitative study conducted in Malta exploring a purpose-designed board game as a vehicle for promoting computational thinking (CT) among children aged 4–7 in early years classrooms. Drawing on classroom observations, focus group discussions and teacher questionnaires, the study examines how the game supported children’s engagement with core CT skills, including sequencing, pattern recognition and decomposition. Findings suggest that the narrative-driven, unplugged format facilitated playful learning and peer collaboration, while teacher mediation was crucial in scaffolding children’s understanding of CT concepts. Collaborative gameplay, in particular, was associated with deeper engagement and more observable instances of abstraction and algorithmic thinking, whereas competitive formats fostered motivation but sometimes led to more superficial decision-making. The study also identifies practical considerations for implementation, including time constraints, inclusion of pupils with additional needs, and the importance of professional development in sustaining effective use. These findings contribute to growing evidence that well-designed board games can serve as effective and inclusive tools for introducing CT in developmentally appropriate ways.

ABSTRACT Job crafting refers to employees’ proactive customization of work to align with their motives and strengths. Although extensively studied in organizational contexts, it remains underexplored among early childhood education (ECE) teachers. This study developed and validated the Early Childhood Education Job Crafting Scale (EJCS) and examined its associations with positive occupational outcomes. Using data from 508 ECE teachers in eastern China, confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure: task, relational, cognitive and work–life crafting. The scale demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability. Descriptive analyses revealed moderately high job crafting levels, with cognitive crafting scoring highest, followed by task, work–life and relational crafting. Teaching experience and family status were significantly associated with variations in job-crafting behaviors. EJCS scores positively correlated with person-organization fit (r = 0.75), work performance (r = 0.63) and professional identity (r = 0.62). This study validated the EJCS for measuring ECE teachers’ job crafting and highlighted its positive impact on occupational experience and well-being.

ABSTRACT Even before starting school, children show substantial variability in their numerical abilities, suggesting that the home environment is a crucial context for supporting the development of foundational numeracy knowledge. Parental beliefs play a fundamental role in the home numeracy environment. This study examined 5 year-old children’s numerical performance and its association with maternal expectations across socioeconomic status (high- vs. low-SES). Children’s numerical skills (verbal counting, quantification, numerical notation, comparison and addition) were assessed through individual interviews, and maternal expectations were measured using a self-report questionnaire. Multiple correspondence analysis and hierarchical classification revealed that high-SES children performed better across tasks, particularly in quantification, numerical notation and comparison. Kendall’s tau-b correlations showed that low-SES mothers accurately estimated their children’s performance in verbal counting and notation, whereas high-SES mothers did so in quantification and notation. In both groups, mothers tended to underestimate their children’s abilities in set comparison and addition. Examining the different dimensions that make up the home numeracy environment provides insight into how number knowledge develops through early socialization in diverse social contexts.

ABSTRACT In a global context marked by deepening social, economic, and linguistic inequities, where processes such as neoliberal restructuring, migration, racialisation, and linguistic hierarchies continue to shape access to education, early childhood settings are increasingly recognised as critical sites where inequality is both reproduced and contested. These dynamics are particularly salient in early childhood education, where young learners’ identities and trajectories are already being shaped in ways that reflect broader structural asymmetries.

ABSTRACT This paper explores how children’s picture books (PBs), through multimodal resources (MRs) of visuals, words, social semiotics, and colour, represent child refugee experiences and foster critical multimodal literacy (CML) in early childhood (EC) education. It argues that PBs are ideological texts where MRs construct meanings around identity, power, and belonging. Through this multimodal ensemble, representations shaped by intersecting identities - marginalised sociocultural, historical, and political contexts - invite young readers to reflect on their social positioning. This paper presents a case study from a broader research project that analysed three Australian PBs about child refugee experiences. The focus text, Out, is a Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year winner for EC (3-5 years). Guided by Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis (CMDA) and Social Semiotics, this paper examined how MRs depicting interpersonal and ideational semiotic patterns, and colour construct intersecting identities and emotional meanings. Findings reveal that visual and textual choices produce ambiguous or contradictory meanings that simultaneously humanise and obscure refugee identity. The study presents a transferable analytical framework demonstrating how recognising intersectionality in multimodal meaning-making informs CML pedagogies, enabling young readers to question whose stories are told or silenced and how social positioning is visually constructed.

ABSTRACT This study explores physical touch as a pedagogical action in the interplay between male preschool teachers and children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Sweden. Previous research shows that preschool practitioners view touch as a resource for supporting children’s care and development. However, touch has also been scrutinised amid discourses on children’s protection and the implementation of policies safeguarding children’s bodily integrity. Men, as a minority in female-dominated ECEC, report being particularly cautious about touching children to avoid potential suspicions. The study is grounded in John Dewey’s pragmatism from a transactional perspective, with fieldwork – including participant observation supported by field notes and video recordings – conducted across three Swedish preschool classes involving 45 children and three male preschool teachers. A qualitative analysis using an abductive approach identified five types of physical touch as pedagogical actions: focus-oriented, guiding, assisting, affectionate and playful. Touch takes different forms and is shaped by various contextual factors observed across pedagogical situations. These findings suggest that touch can support children’s care and learning and enhance male preschool teachers’ professional practice.