The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is initiating the International Early Learning Study, a cross-national assessment of early learning outcomes involving the testing of 5-year-old children in participating countries. The authors use this colloquium to inform members of the early childhood community about this project and to raise concerns about its assumptions, practices and possible effects. The authors also invite readers' comments, to start a process of democratic dialogue and contestation. Keywords Cross-national assessment, early childhood education, early learning outcomes, OECD Anglo-Saxon 'testology' … is nothing but a ridiculous simplification of knowledge, and a robbing of meaning from individual histories. (Malaguzzi, in Cagliari et al., 2016: 378) The very act of ordering and measuring the world also changes the world.

A group of Australian researchers from a range of disciplines involved in studying children's sexual development developed a framework for researching healthy sexual development that was acceptable to all disciplines involved. The 15 domains identified were: freedom from unwanted activity; an understanding of consent; education about biological aspects; understanding of safety; relationship skills; agency; lifelong learning; resilience; open communication; sexual development should not be "aggressive, coercive or joyless;" self-acceptance; awareness and acceptance that sex is pleasurable; understanding of parental and societal values; awareness of public/private boundaries; and being competent in mediated sexuality.

This paper discusses how child resistance is lived on a daily basis through the construction and operation of mealtime rules in four Australian families with young children. It focuses on the sociologically neglected situation of everyday parent-child conflict and resistance and posits young children as actively engaged in contestation and negotiation of power relationships within the family. Analysis of domestic dialogue and conflict episodes demonstrates how mealtime rituals function as techniques of discipline through which young children are normalized. Although resistance and contestation occurred in all families, the construction and operation of mealtime rules were also a regulatory mechanism for constituting boys and girls in different ways. Girls were constructed as helping to prepare, serve and clean after meals, which boys were the recipients of this service from their mothers and sisters.

Changing times and postmodern perspectives have disrupted the taken-for-granted relationship between child development knowledge and the preparation of early childhood teachers. Despite ongoing exchanges about how best to respond to the critique of the developmental knowledge base, few descriptions of how particular teacher educators have gone about reconceptualizing their curriculum exist. Employing postmodern views of knowledge, power, and subjectivity, this paper describes three pedagogies employed by the authors to enact a teacher education for "new" times. After describing each of these pedagogiessituating knowledge, multiple readings, and engaging with images --an example from classroom practice is given to illustrate how these strategies come together to assist students to understand how teaching enacts power relations. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges involved in trying to shift from developmental to postmodern practices in the preparation of early childhood educators.

A major challenge facing teachers is how they can help children to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to become scientifically literate citizens. Early childhood teachers are often hesitant about teaching science because they lack confidence in their conceptual knowledge and understandings. This paper describes a professional development initiative which enhances teachers’ understanding of science concepts, and supports their teaching of the subject. The workshops adopted a ‘child-centred’ approach that was scaffolded by teacher educators. Thus, the teachers’ learning paralleled those exemplary experiences advocated for children. Feedback from teachers was overwhelmingly positive and they reported an increased motivation for teaching science coupled with a better understanding of contemporary strategies. By capitalising on personal experiences of investigation of everyday phenomena in the workshop, teachers were able to identify those contemporary approaches consistent with effective science teaching and to understand why these approaches are effective.

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In 2009, the Commonwealth Government of Australia published the first national learning framework for use with children aged birth to five years. The framework marks a departure from tradition in that it emphasizes intentional teaching, learning as well as child development, a particular type of play-based learning, outcomes, and equity. This article analyzes aspects of the document that depart from well established approaches to early childhood education in Australia and identifies challenges for educators who are required to use the document. It concludes that ongoing and supportive professional learning opportunities must accompany the introduction and enactment of the document.

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