Every Blooming Thing: The Growth of Preschool Education

Preschool education has attracted interest worldwide in recent decades. Until the mid-1950s, preschool education was not widely available to most children. Interest in preschool education further accelerated during the 1970s when it became freely available to all children in Australia and other parts of the world. The underlying rationale for free preschool education was that early preparation for school may assist in closing gaps in inequity and disadvantage for some groups of children. Studies on brain development such as those of McCain, Mustard, & Shanker 2007) from Canada along with research from the United States showing the long term positive effects of high quality preschool for children born in poverty (Schweinhart, Montie, Xiang, Barnett, Belfield, & Nores 2005) have strengthened arguments that high quality early education is not only beneficial for all children but the earlier the disadvantage gap is closed, the narrower it may be in the future for some children. While preschool education may be one way of preparing children for school and addressing early disadvantage and inequity, it is also important that preschool curriculums and programs are situated within the social context and culture of the community (Bronfenbrenne 1979).