The World Yearbook of Education 2009 volume: Childhood Studies and the Impact of Globalization examines the concept of 'childhood' and 'childhood development and learning' from educational, sociological and psychological perspectives. This contributed volume seeks to explicitly provide a series of windows into the construction of childhood around the world, as a means to conceptualizing and more sharply defining the emerging field of global and local childhood studies. At the global level there has been an increasing discontent with how children have been reified and measured. Prevailing Eurocentric and North-American notions of 'childhood' and 'development' across the North-South boundaries show vast differences in how 'childhood' is constructed and how 'development' is theorized.

The World Yearbook of Education 2009: Childhood Studies and the Impact of Globalization: Policies and Practices at Global and Local Levels examines the concept of childhood and childhood development and learning from educational, sociological, and psychological perspectives. This contributed volume seeks to explicitly provide a series of windows into the construction of childhood around the world, as a means to conceptualizing and more sharply defining the emerging field of global and local childhood studies. At the global level there has been increasing discontent with how children have been reified and measured. Prevailing Eurocentric and North-American notions of childhood and development across the North-South boundaries show vast differences in how childhood is constructed and how development is theorized.

The World Yearbook of Education 2009 volume provides comprehensive research from Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the African region and European communities and is presented with a special focus on education. It examines childhood from birth to twelve years of age, across institutional contexts and within both poor majority and rich minority countries. Cultural-historical theory has been used as the framework for investigating and providing insights into how childhood is theorized, politicized, enacted, and lived across these communities. A range of theoretical orientations informs this book, including cultural-historical theory, ecological theory, and cross-cultural research.

The World Yearbook of Education 2009 volume is organized into 3 sections:

Section 1: Examines the global construction of childhood development and learning

Section 2: Discusses the local conditions and global imperatives that arise from a broadly based analysis of the studies presented within this section

Section 3: Draws upon cultural-historical theory and ecological theory and brings together the themes explored throughout the preceding two sections.

The World Yearbook of Education 2009 volume seeks to make visible the cultural-historical construction of childhood and development across the north-south regions and scrutinizes the policy imperatives that have maintained the global colonization of families.

This important volume deals with the issue of how to make comparisons in the field of human development. In their comparisons of various social groups, social scientists generally focus on what the differences are, rather than elucidating how and why the groups differ. Comparisons in Human Development examines ways in which different disciplines have treated comparisons and development and provides empirical examples that take a comparative, developmental approach to human activity and thought. Contributors share the view that the study of development must be concerned with processes that operate over time and are regulated by their physical, biological, social and cultural contexts. Development is understood in systemic terms, with multidirectional influences that cross levels of analysis, including the cellular, the individual, the family, and the cultural and historical.

Where do young children spend their time? What activities are they involved in and who do they interact with? How do these activities and interactions vary across different societies and cultural groups? This book provides answers to these questions, by describing the lives of three-year-olds in the United States, Russia, Estonia, Finland, South Korea, Kenya and Brazil. Each child was followed for the equivalent of one complete waking day, whether at home, in childcare, on the streets or at the shops. Graphic displays and verbal descriptions of the children's everyday activities and interactions reveal both the ways in which culture influences children's lives and the ways in which children play a role in changing the cultural groups of which they are a part. This book also has a clear theoretical rationale and illustrates why and how to do cultural-ecological research.

Many modern social scientists take issue with the traditional criteria for comparing human development in a constantly changing world. Social scientists have long focused only on what the differences among groups are, rather than asking how and why these groups differ. Comparisons in Human Development examines ways in which different disciplines have historically regarded development and provides empirical examples that take a new approach to human activity and thought. This book's distinguished contributors share the view that the study of development must consider processes that operate over time and are regulated by varying physical, biological, social, and cultural contexts.

Where do young children spend their time? What activities are they involved in and who do they interact with? How do these activities and interactions vary across different societies and cultural groups? This book provides answers to these questions, by describing the lives of three-year-olds in the United States, Russia, Estonia, Finland, South Korea, Kenya and Brazil. Each child was followed for the equivalent of one complete waking day, whether at home, in childcare, on the streets or at the shops. Graphic displays and verbal descriptions of the children's everyday activities and interactions reveal both the ways in which culture influences children's lives and the ways in which children play a role in changing the cultural groups of which they are a part. This book also has a clear theoretical rationale and illustrates why and how to do cultural-ecological research.