This article presents the findings of an analysis of the effects of CPDinitiatives on the quality of the pedagogical practices of ECEC practitioners. It is part of a larger study commissioned by Eurofound and jointly conducted by VBJK, IOE and PPMI (Eurofound, 2015). In order to draw policy-relevant information that might support decision makers in designing effective ECEC policies in their countries, the study reviewed existing research evidence published on this topic not only in English, but also in all the languages currently in use in EU Member States. Therefore, it involved country experts from EU-28 Member States. The research question was framed by the political priorities identified by the Council Conclusions on Early Childhood Education and Care (EU Council, 2011). The systematic literature review methodology elaborated by the EPPI-Centre for informing evidence-based policies in the field of education and social sciences was adopted to review the evidence drawn from primary research studies cross-nationally. The study revealed that long-term CPD interventions integrated into practice, such as pedagogical guidance and coaching in reflection groups, proved to be effective not only in countries with a well-established system of ECEC provision and a high level of qualification requirements for the practitioners, but also in countries with poorly subsidised ECEC systems and low qualification requirements. CPD initiatives based on the active engagement of practitioners and on peer exchanges within a shared scientific framework, proved to be the most effective.

This article aims to examine how changes in mothering induced by international migration become transformed into ‘troubles’. Based on the analysis of 79 selected articles on transnational families published between 2004 and 2013 in national press and Internet media portals in Lithuania, along with interviews with transnational mothers conducted between 2008 and 2014, the authors raise questions about how changes in mothering due to migration come to be constructed as troubles and how mothers who emigrate to work abroad while their children remain living in the country of origin engage in mothering display. The authors bridge Goffman’s theoretical ideas with the current frame of family display suggested by Finch to extend the understanding about the ways the scripts of ‘good mothering’ are both referenced and transformed through multi-local interactions. The analysis of the portrayal of transnational mothers in mass media demonstrates how mothering across borders is scripted. The cases discussed by the authors show the way transnational mothers respond to the discrediting scripts and normalize troubles, investing in bringing new meanings to mothering. The analysis of newly emerging transnational practices gives empirical evidence to the assumption that transnational mothers do not simply ‘follow’ scripts but also shift them and create new stories of mothering.

There is broad consensus amongst researchers and international organisations that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC), which means the wellbeing of children and families, depends on welleducated and competent staff. This remains a challenge in Europe, since part of the workforce is also represented by low-qualified ECEC assistants in many EU countries. In the CoRe study (2011), assistants are defined as 'invisible workers', meaning that their presence is usually not taken into account in policy documents and that they have far fewer possibilities of qualification and professional development than core practitioners. Building on the findings of the CoRe study, a recent NESET II report reviewed the profiles of ECEC assistants in 15 European countries and their professionalisation opportunities. This article describes the report's findings, with a focus on the roles of assistants and on how to create coherent pathways towards their qualification and continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities. The latter is shown through the examples of three case studies carried out in Denmark, France and Slovenia. Recommendations for policy makers are included in the conclusions. The framework of the article is the 'competent system': as pointed out in the CoRe study, individual competences alone are not sufficient to create quality. A 'competent system' is needed which includes collaboration between individuals, teams and institutions and has competent governance at policy level.This means working within a holistic 'educare' approach that is able to value the educative role of caring and the caring role of education.

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Global migration rapidly modifies family life in the Baltic Sea region and, for the several last decades, has presented a challenge to migration scholars. The impact of migration on a family attracts the interest of researchers not only because the number of such families is on the rise, but also because it poses certain challenges to the academic discipline, especially when it comes to revising family theories rooted in the ‘low-mobility’ family discourse. The purpose of this article is to review the impact of global migration on family life in the Baltic Sea region, introduce the ‘family change’ perspective for studying migrant families and, to provide an example of how to apply this perspective, by examining the migratory experience of the Lithuanian families. The article demonstrates that the Baltic Sea region can be considered as heterogeneous in regard to migration patterns as well as challenges and opportunities facing its families. To facilitate the analysis of migrant families, the authors of the article propose the ‘family change’ perspective, which is based on the ideas about interactions, orders and identities articulated by symbolic interactionism, and further supplement these ideas with contemporary awareness about the imagined family configuration structure; the suffusion of intergenerational, kin, and personal relationships; and the analysis of family change with a perspective of memory and temporal dimensions. We draw data from the mixed method study conducted from 2012 to 2014 to analyze the migratory experience of Lithuanian families. We discuss familial resources as a latent relationship matrix that can be activated in the case of migration and emphasize the overlap of kin and non-kin ties in this matrix. We also reveal the importance of family relationships in conceptualizing migrant families and demonstrate how role behavior and related identities could constitute an axis for the study of migratory behavior.

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