The book will serve as a helpful reference for undergraduate and post-graduate students of Psychology and Education. Understanding the nature of a child or learner, the context in which they live and grow, and building perspective on the process of development forms the basic framework for all courses in Education. This book focuses on human development and diversity as the dominant themes that cut across early, middle and late childhood, and adolescence, which in turn correspond to the pre-primary, primary, secondary and senior secondary levels of schooling. Understanding Childhood and Adolescence links existing theories in educational psychology with concerns of contemporary Indian society. It covers early childhood care and education; socio-cultural, philosophical, and psychological perspectives on childhood and adolescence; contemporary lifestyle changes affecting these life-stages; and concerns of diversity ranging from multilingualism, gender, to intelligence and development of self and identity. The textually informative chapters cover the historical trajectory and important theories of each life-stage, and raise relevant debates and issues related to each of them. Key Features: • Looks at childhood and adolescence from multiple contours such as developmental aspects, issues, trends, challenges, interface with society, its institutions and policy provisions • Traces historical evolution of the basic concepts and contextualizes these to the Indian socio-cultural milieu through examples and cases • Discusses key concepts related to compulsory foundational courses in development and diversity in all teacher education programmes • Contains mid-chapter exercises and chapter-end questions to help readers check their understanding as well as reflect on issues in teaching–learning processes