I-Fang Lee is Associate Professor of Early Childhood/Primary education in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her current research foci are on contemporary issues relating to changes and reforms in early childhood education and care, constructions of Asian childhoods, children's mental health and wellbeing, and global knowledge on appropriate pedagogical practices in the early years. Fundamental to these research foci are her critical perspectives on issues relating to equity and justice across different early childhood care, and education systems in multiple cultural contexts. I-Fang is interested in international collaborations with researchers and higher degree research students on topics related to education and care in early years. Sue Saltmarsh is Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is Interdisciplinary Researcher whose work sits at the nexus of childhood, cultural and educational studies. She is particularly interested in the ways that constructions of children and childhood are shaped by cultural, social, economic and political discourses, and in considering the role these intersecting discourses play in systemic and structural inequalities and disadvantage. Her research is informed by cultural theories of everyday life, consumption and violence, and post-structural theories of power, gender and subjectivity. She works extensively with qualitative methodologies, with particular expertise in ethnography, social semiotics and discourse analysis. She has conducted extensive research on the relationship between parents and schools, and works in collaboration with national parent representative groups to enhance understandings of the complexities and challenges of parent-school engagement. Her recent work on global childhoods concerns the intersection of policy, education and everyday life, and the implicationsof these for children growing up in global cities of Asia and Australia. Nicola Yelland is Professor of Early Childhood Studies in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her teaching and research interests have been related to the use of new technologies in school and community contexts. She has also worked in East Asia, and examined the culture and curriculum of early childhood settings. Nicola’s work engages with educational issues with regard to varying social, economic and political conditions and thus requires multidisciplinary perspectives.
