Early Childhood Education and Care: A Sociocultural Approach, celebrates the ideas of children, families and teachers. Drawn from research conducted with preschool teachers from the City of Casey,Vic., this book highlights how sociocultural theory can be used in practice. The City of Casey has one of the highest populations of children aged 0 - 4 in Australia. In a commitment to best practice, the City of Casey Managed Kindergartens embarked on a research project to develop new understandings of children's development. This book traces the development of this project and through teacher examples and commentary shows how ideas from sociocultural theory can be and are realised in practice. This text provides a strong introduction to the key ideas emerging from sociocultural theory and is suitable for students, trainee teachers and practitioners interested in extending their thinking around key appraoches to early childhood education and care, including observations, and programming and planning. This book represents a powerful and contemporary framework for action. As Vygotsky argued, thinking differently about something we know well, is not easy. But, as teachers have shown in this book, the rewards are enormous.