In Ireland there is an unprecedented policy focus on education and care for children in the years before compulsory schooling. This policy focus is warranted. Studies have demonstrated that for young children, particularly those living with the injustice of poverty, high quality education and care leads to measurable gains in thinking and social skills. These gains are primarily determined by the quality of educator-child interactions. However, due to a dearth of research on these interactions in Ireland, there is little knowledge of the actual pedagogical practices to support children’s learning being implemented in early education and care settings. There is, therefore, a lack of insight into how learning and development opportunities might be maximised in those contexts. Drawing from socio-cultural theory, contextualised within educational inequality, the study is qualitative in nature, informed by an interpretive paradigm and employs a case study research strategy. The focus of this thesis is on scheduled small group learning experiences, with a particular emphasis on the interactions between three educators and three to four year old children in three selected early childhood education and care settings, in urban areas designated as disadvantaged. Research in Ireland has highlighted the link between educational inequality, variation in language use and success in primary school. Early childhood settings, in areas of disadvantage, have a significant role in providing the kinds of language experiences that will support children to engage with and make the kinds of meanings that are expected at school. These kinds of language experiences can be acquired through extended purposive conversations between educators and children. The findings suggest that the educators established warm reciprocal relationships with the children and engaged in interactions that could be seen as enhancing social and emotional development. However, they may need to emphasise interaction strategies such as open-ended questioning to engage young children in extended purposive conversations. The fuel for such conversations could be in enriching, cognitively challenging and meaningful scheduled small group learning experiences. The findings have implications for the implementation of the Free Pre-School Year, implementation of the Workforce Development Plan and the content of early childhood education and care tiaining programmes.