Complex factors affect young children and their families in today's increasingly diverse world characterized by globalization, the transnational movement of people, and neo-liberal government policies in western and industrialized countries. This book focuses on three of these factors-culture, language and learning-and how they affect children's development and learning in the context of their communities, families and schools. Taking an ecological perspective, it challenges normative and hegemonic views of young children's language, literacy and numeracy development and offers examples of demonstrated educational practices that acknowledge and build on the knowledge that children develop and learn in culturally specific ways in their homes and communities.