In Ireland, early education programs followed a particular path in their development due to a high empowerment of the parents, who, by constitution, were held responsible for their preschool children education. Today, nation wide education policies are highly influenced by nonguvernmental organizations at the community level. The aim of the present article is to disentangle the effects of this context over the organization of the preschool programs as well as over the filosofy that lie beneth teachers training programs. We will present the main forms of preschool programs as well as the nonguvernmental organizations that offer training, counseling, and support for the institutions that provide early education programs. We will also analyse teachers training programs from the curriculum perspective.

Keywords: early childhood education, curriculum development, education policies