Abstract

It is assumed that during a child's life, education and work are conflicting, and even incompatible, activities. Children should be in school, and work conflicts with their chance to get an education. This chapter provides an overview of the core issues that arise from examining children's education and work in tandem. How are “education” and “work” understood in the literature? What are the tensions between them? And what problems arise from current attempts to eliminate these tensions? The chapter takes a global perspective on the topic, examining the conceptual and philosophical questions using examples and cases from across the globe. This reveals common patterns of interaction between children's work and education, while also highlighting the radical variation and diversity that exists in the manifestations of child work and education globally.