Lesley Abbott is Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Institute of Education at the Manchester Metropolitan University. She is director of the government project Birth to Three Matters, a framework to support children in their earliest years. Her publications include `Working with under threes. Training and professional development? and `Responding to children?s needs? with Helen Moylett. She co-edited with Gillian Pugh `Training to work in the early years? and directs the Birth to Three Training Matters Project funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Priscilla Alderson is Professor of Childhood Studies in the Institute of Education, the University of London. She has extensive experience as a theorist, researcher and author in the field of research ethics with children. Her wide range of publications includes `Learning and inclusion?, `Children?s consent to surgery? and `Institutional rites and rights: A century of childhood?.

Gary Allen is Manager of Research Ethics at Griffith University, Australia. He was appointed by Australia?s National Health and Medical Research Council to review and reform ethical clearance processes covering a range of human research disciplines. Gary has collaborated with experts in research ethics in Australia, the UK, Canada, the United States and New Zealand.

Ceris Anderson has worked as a Research and Forward Planning Officer for the Leisure Department of a large local authority in London and also a consultant and now Research Manager for PMP, the UK?s largest sport and leisure consultancy practice. Ceris has undertaken a wide range of quantitative and qualitative studies with children and young people, many exploring their views about play and leisure activities.

Jessica Ball is Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria, Canada. Professor Ball has worked extensively in South East Asia and Africa as a consultant to community service agencies and government ministries in education, health, and social services. Jessica is Co-Coordinator of First Nations Partnership Programs based at the University of Victoria. Her work has broken new ground in the incorporation of indigenous knowledge into our understandings of how to protect and promote child well being, while sustaining culture, traditional languages, and community social structures.

Monica Cuskelly is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, the University of Queensland. She publishes widely in the area of disability.

Susan Danby is Senior Lecturer and Key Researcher in the Centre for Innovation in Education at Queensland University of Technology. She is Coordinator of the Doctor of Education program at QUT, the largest provider of doctoral programs in Australia. She publishes ethnomethodological research into children?s everyday experiences.

Tricia David is Emeritus Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College. She has been an academic at was a Canterbury Christ Church University College and Warwick University. Her publications include fifteen books (single authored or edited by her) and around one hundred journal articles and chapters in books. Tricia is known internationally for her work with l?Organisation Mondiale pour l?Education Prescolaire (OMEP) and the OECD.

Ann Langston is Project Manager for the Birth to Three Training Matters Project with the DfES and Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked as an Early Years Adviser and managed an Early Years Childcare and Development Partnership. With a background in teacher education, Ann co-authored `Managing staff in early childhood settings?.

Glenda MacNaughton is Associate Professor in the Department of Learning and Education al Development at the University of Melbourne, Australia.Virginia Morrow is a social researcher at Brunel University with extensive experience in conducting social research in health, education and community settings.

Carla Patterson is Associate Professor in public health at Queensland University of Technology.

Sacha Powell is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department for Educational Research at Canterbury Christ Church University College, England. Her research interests are in the areas of international childhood and community studies, and include sociocultural constructions of childhood, education in the People's Republic of China, and family education, all with particular reference to the early years of childhood. Before joining CCCUC to study for a PhD, Sacha worked at the University of Sussex, and the British Academy, and in early childhood settings and schools in England, China, Taiwan and Spain.

Kylie Smith is a postgraduate student at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Lee Tennent is a Researcher in the Centre for Innovation in Education at Queensland University of Technology. She has been a researcher in major projects with young children and their families in rural and remote communities and in statewide evaluation of a preparatory year for some 2000 young children in Queensland schools. She has authored many scholarly publications and presented her work to numerous international conferences in early childhood education and care.

Collette Tayler is Professor and Head of the School of Early Childhood at Queensland University of Technology. In 2004 she led the OECD Review of Early Childhood Education and Care in 22 countries. She has advised to the joint National Foundation for Educational Research / England Qualifications and Curriculum Authority International Thematic Study of Early Years Education Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks, specifically focusing on continuity of early learning across services. Collette has served on the British Council/DfES funded International Study of the Integration of ECEC Services (in 5 countries). She has published extensively in the areas of early literacy, early childhood curriculum and policy.

Kerryann Walsh is a Lecturer in the School of Early Childhood at Queensland University of Technology. She is Course Coordinator of the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood). Her research in child abuse and neglect is highly recognized and she is sought internationally to present her findings to practitioners, academics and policy makers.