1 Contemporary early childhood education and care teaching training in China -- 2 Early childhood teacher education in Vietnam -- 3 Early childhood teacher education in New Zealand: Facts, values and uncertainties -- 4 Ireland's reform agenda: Transforming the early childhood education and care sector into one of the best in the world -- 5 Early childhood teacher education in Canada: Challenges and opportunities -- 6 Teachers and teaching in the UK -- 7 Getting it right for early childhood teacher programs in Australia -- 8 Developing teacher competence in Swedish early childhood tecahers -- 9 Current trends in early childhood teacher education in Finland -- 10 A comparison of conventional and less conventional ECEC teacher education models in Iran -- 11 They educate our children, but how are they educated?: Early childhood teacher education in Turkey -- 12 "Professional glasses" as a means of developing professional competence of future teachers in Russia -- 13 Early childhood teacher education in Germany: Academization between endeavour and resistance -- 14 Challenges to raise the universal quality of early childhood teacher education in the split teacher license systems in Japan -- Summary: Reflections from around the world.

This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in educators to provide good quality ECEC. Yet, there is an inconsistent approach to early childhood teacher preparation and the quality of existing programs is not known. Each country’s contributing author/s is/are well known in their field for their in-depth knowledge of early childhood teacher education programs including content, structure, and professional experience that works within the scope of policy and registration agencies. The chapters address the current situation of staffing—shortage or oversupply—of early childhood teachers in their country. The book informs policy regarding content of early childhood teacher preparation programs and provides evidence of current courses across many under-represented countries throughout the world. It makes a significant contribution to understanding the environment for early childhood teacher programs.