Lois Weis is Professor and Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Education; Philip G. Altbach is Professor and Director of the Comparative Education Center; Gail P. Kelly was Professor and Chair in the Department of Educational Organization, Administration, and Policy; and Hugh G. Petrie is Dean of the Graduate School of Education, all at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

• Acknowledgments ForewordMary A. Jensen IntroductionLois Weis 1. OverviewChild Care in America: From Problem to SolutionEdward F. Zigler and Matia Finn-Stevenson Part I: Teachers as Child Care Providers: Select Issues 2. The Child Care Provider: Pivotal Player in the Child's WorldDeborah Phillips and Marcy Whitebook 3. Teaching and Being: Connecting Teachers' Accounts of Their Lives with Classroom PracticeWilliam Ayers 4. Does Home Hinder Professional Commitment? The Case of Early EducationKelvin L. Seifert and Laura E. Atkinson Part II: Within the Schools 5. The Accomplishment of Genderedness in Pre-School ChildenBronwyn Davies 6. Race, Gender, and Exceptionality: Peer Interactions in Two Child Care CentersElizabeth Blue Swadener 7. Work and Play in the Nursery SchoolMariajose Romero 8. Children's Rough-and-Tumble Play: Issues in Categorization and FunctionAnthony D. Pellegrini 9. Instruction and Assessment of Emergent LiteracyCarol Ann Hodges Part III: Early Childhood Education in Broader Social and Economic Context 10. Targeting Children's Motivational Resources in Early Childhood EducationWendy S. Grolnick 11. Different Care for Different Kids: Social Class and Child Care PolicyJulia Wrigley 12. Developing Preschool Education Policy: An Economic PerspectiveSteve Barnett 13. A World of Difference: American Child Care Policy in Cross-National PerspectiveSally Lubeck About the Editors Contributors Index

"Dogmatic beliefs and unexamined practice will produce neither healthy professionals nor programs and policies consistent with democratic values. The authors and editors are to be congratulated for their efforts to put current policy issues in early childhood education into perspective." — from the Foreword by Mary A. Jensen, State University of New York, Geneseo"The book's strength is that significant themes surface and then resurface later in new surroundings. This caused me to return to earlier chapters to puzzle over the controversial and timely issues they raise." — Margaret Yonemura, State University of New York, Binghamton