1. Globalization, Human Capital Development, and Cultural Ecology -- 2. Childhood Development and Education in China: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Improving Future Competitiveness -- 3. Early Childhood Education in India: Promises, Policies, and Pitfalls -- 4. From A Nation at Risk to No Child Left Behind to Race to the Top: The U.S. Response to Global Competition -- 5. "One Child, Only Hope" No More: The Evolution of China's Population Control Policy and Its Impact on Parenting and Child Care -- 6. Early Childhood Parental Philosophies and Practices in Urban India: Education, Care, and Well-Being of Young Children in a Society Shaped by Traditional and Global Forces -- 7. Class, Ethnicity, and Gender Dimensions of Child Rearing in America -- 8. Educational Policy, Parents, and Investment that Matters.-.

This book is a comparative study of how early childhood educational policies and initiatives in three countries—China, India, and the United States—have been utilized as both direct and indirect strategies for responding to fierce global economic competition. Human capital theory and cultural ecology theory serve as the conceptual framework for discussing how this has played out in each of the three countries. In addition, this book presents a discussion and analysis of how the beliefs, parents’ perspectives, and practices with regard to childrearing and the education of young children have both changed and remained the same in response to forces of globalization.