This is the second of two special policy editions of the International Journal of Early Childhood which canvass and analyse policy in early childhood education and care (ECEC) from around the globe. Taken together, the two editions (IJEC 45, 2, 2013; and IJEC 46,1,2014) bring contributions from Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Ireland, Malawi, New Zealand, Scotland and the United Kingdom. Utilising a range of methodologies to understand national policy contexts and analyse the consequences of policy in implementation, these collections of early childhood research enable both a sense of the flow of policy rationales and objectives across the globe as well as national specificities. In this second issue, as in the first, the reader can discern the emergence of common policy themes across national borders, and importantly, distinctiveness in the way in which seemingly common or familiar themes are expressed within national and cultural contexts. The unique policy challenges facing na ...