An Ecological Approach To the Study of Child Care

Family Day Care in Israel

Miriam K. Rosenthal

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317782292
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

A new type of childhood is experienced these days by many children in industrial societies that provide child care services. The studies summarized in this book stem from a conceptual model based on an ecological approach to the study of development. The family day care system in Israel is presented as a "case study" for the discussion of issues derived from this conceptual model -- issues which are of central concern to the investigation of child care in any society.

This book establishes how historical and socio-economic processes:

*influence the values and goals set by the society for its children, and its social policy concerning child care service;

*are interpreted by parents and early childhood educators;

*relate to different definitions of "quality care."

Unique in its integrative analysis of the daily experiences of infants and toddlers in family day care, this volume examines cultural and social policy issues, family background and parental beliefs, caregiver's background and beliefs, the nature of the child care environment, and the child's personal characteristics.

Its "theoretical" and "applied" orientation is important to researchers interested in the study of out-of-home-care for young children, as well as educators, developmental psychologists, sociologists, and social workers interested in the study of environmental influences on the child development. The ecological model and the applied implications of the study are of special relevance to practitioners in the field of early childhood.

1

The Social and Historical Context for the Development of Child Care

In order to understand the development of out-of-home child care and, in fact, the entire education and child welfare system in Israel (Jaffe, 1982), it is necessary to take a closer look at some of the social ideologies and processes that evolved during the pre-state era.

The cultural context for nonparental care in modern Israel has its roots in the historical tradition of the Jews who struggled to maintain their cultural identity when they were dispersed throughout the world and exiled from their land. This struggle to preserve their identity led to the development of a rich and intricate community life. Community services, as well as educational and welfare institutions were developed to strengthen the links between the individual, the family, and the community. Jewish communities throughout the world always assumed responsibility for the welfare of their members and provided education for their very young. The main goal of these services was to strengthen and maintain the community identity, continuity, and community ties, rather than meet the needs of individuals.

Although Jews have lived in and immigrated to Israel for more than 2,000 years, contemporary Israeli society is generally regarded as dating back to the latter part of the 19th century. Three major historical processes took place during the last hundred years that laid the foundations of modern Israeli society: (a) the persecution of Jews in Europe; (b) the evolution of political Zionism as a national liberation movement in the context of other national movements in Europe; and (c) the establishment of a Jewish homeland as a haven for Jews fleeing a hostile environment wherever they lived.

During the 45 years since its independence, Israel has remained the haven for Jews from all over the world and has done its best to absorb continuous tides of immigrants from a myriad of cultures, including the Jews of Kurdistan, Iran and India, North Africa, South America, Western and Eastern Europe, the English-speaking countries, and recently, Ethiopia. Thus, Israeli society has evolved as a society of immigrants hailing from a wide variety of cultures, with each group contributing its ethos to the emerging new society.

The Pre-State Era

The first flaw of immigration (1882–1903) brought with it a “revised conception of Judaism” (Bentwich, 1965) that was basically nonreligious. It regarded Jewish national liberation and political autonomy as its new self-identity. One of its major revolutionary achievements was the revitalization of ancient Hebrew as a modern living language.

The newcomers of the second period of immigration (1905–1914) were intensely involved with ideologies of social and cultural revolution. Many of them were intellectuals who had witnessed the revolutionary struggles in Eastern Europe, and who had been disillusioned by the gap between the revolutionary dream and its political reality.

Their goal was to establish a productive, self-sufficient society based on socialist principles. During this period the first kibbutz, the first all-Jewish city, and the first Jewish self-defense force were established. Although Palestine was at that time under Turkish rule, the Jewish community established its own democratically elected institutions, paralleling the structure of a parliament and cabinet. Its central authority (Vaad Leumi) developed and supported socioeducational services alongside those developed by the local communities. The Jewish working class organized (1920) into what was to become one of the most powerful institutions in the country, the General Federation of Jewish Labor (Histadrut). It established comprehensive mutual aid institutions, including a sick fund, social welfare services, a housing company, day-care centers, and so forth. These early decades were characterized by incessant experimentation with various forms of social organization and ways of life.

In addition to large numbers of Halutzim (pioneers) who were motivated to immigrate by social and nationalistic ideals, this wave also included tradesmen and manufacturers who set up commercial and industrial enterprises, and who contributed to the development of urban life (M. Smilansky, Weintraub, & Hanegbi, 1960).

Trade and industry continued to be developed, during the pre-state era, by the subsequent arrivals of immigrants, the last one of which (1933–1948) consisted primarily of Jews who had escaped from Europe following the rise of the Nazis to power, and those dislocated Jews who had survived the Holocaust (M. Smilansky et al., 1960).

At the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1948, the 650,000 members of the Jewish community in Palestine were mostly of European background. Within the next 3 years (1949–1951), this community, while fighting for its physical survival, absorbed 754,000 Jewish refugees from the surrounding Moslem countries, providing them with housing, jobs, health, social, and educational services. The demographic and ethnic composition of this immigration, its social and economic character and the process of its absorption has changed Israeli society over the past 45 years in ways that cannot yet be fully understood. In contrast to the earlier European waves of immigration, these refugees were generally characterized by traditional, large, and extended families; a high birth rate; and low levels of literacy and vocational training (Gross, 1970). Although the immigration from Europe included both the middle and lower social strata of the Jewish community, it was mainly the less modernized and poorer elements that came to Israel from certain Middle Eastern communities. Many of these immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries, accustomed to an agrarian, pre-industrial society, had difficulty in adjusting to the social and economic patterns in Israel previously established by immigrants from industrialized Western societies. Furthermore, these Jewish communities had not undergone the social and cultural upheavals to which the European Jews had been exposed and were therefore less prepared for the changes in attitudes toward traditional habits and beliefs.

Social Ideology and its Effect on Early Childhood in the Pre-State Era

The pioneers of the first periods of immigration were mostly young people in their 20s who rebelled against their parents and against the traditions they represented. They had not only left home and country never to return, but also sought to transform the Jewish nation by building an independent society with a “normal” occupational structure and a “modern” social and political outlook (M. Smilansky et al., 1960). Their goal was to develop an alternative culture, based on new beliefs and ideologies, that was as different as possible from the culture of the diaspora (Super & Harkness, 1986). It soon became evident, however, that some of their deep-seated cultural beliefs had not changed at all. In accordance with traditional practice, these immigrants also looked to their children, the future generation, to realize the cultural transformation. These children were expected to become the “New Israelis,” strong, healthy, free, and proud Jews, living in their own land, speaking their own language, and adhering to the ideology of equality and fraternity.

Possibly the most extreme but also most representative example of this trend is that of the children’s homes in the kibbutzim. Ideology, practical life necessity, and later on a rationale based on psychodynamic theory, resulted in a social system in which, from the first days of their life, children were reared in communal homes and spent only a few hours a day with their parents (Kraft, 1967; Levin, 1985; Neubauer, 1965). This system enabled both parents to work outside the home, which was not only an economic necessity but also an ideological norm. It further enabled the community to provide the housing, hygiene, medical care, and safety facilities needed to ensure the survival of its young. Thus, although their parents lived in tents and were plagued by illness, undernourishment, and fever, the young generation lived in houses, received the best food available, and were raised by carefully chosen caregivers (metaplot), trained in both the latest ideas of modern education and the most revered principles of social revolution. The provision of a professional educator was expected to help both child and parent overcome the “bourgeois” past, as well as to avoid the intergenerational psychological strain of nuclear family existence (Levin, 1985). Although in the 1990s the kibbutz movement encompasses only 4% of the population of Israel and its educational ideology concerning early childhood has changed considerably, the child-care and education systems that developed in the kibbutzim in the early years had a great impact on the evolution of overall preschool education in Israel.

A similar trend emerged in the cities and towns. The first priority was to guarantee the survival of children. All over the country, the community’s responsibility for the health of its young was expressed through the establishment of a network of mother and child health centers that attended to the needs of pregnant women and their infants. Trained public health nurses instructed mothers in “modern” ideas of pre- and postnatal care, as well as in nutrition and hygiene practices. In later years, these centers also provided the necessary inoculations and other measures of preventive medicine, all free of charge; the cost was covered by public community resources.

Once their health care was secured, the next step was to rid these “new Israeli” children of any traces of the Diaspora Jew mentality for they were to be the foundation on which the new culture and society would be built. In many cases, for this reason the pioneers even disqualified themselves as parents who were competent to rear their own children. After all, they did not know the language that was supposed to be their children’s mother tongue and they could not shake off all the old customs and habits.

Just as their forbears had done so often in other times of distress, these pioneers also sought help from community resources. This time, they turned to the professional educator, to provide guidance and models for the cultural socialization of their children.

Half-day nursery schools, run by teachers whose education was similar to that of the kibbutz teachers, were opened throughout the country. It was from their children who attended these nursery schools that parents learned nursery rhymes, new ways of celebrating the Jewish holidays, and in many instances even the Hebrew language. This commitment to preschool education as a major vehicle in the acculturation of the young in a principally immigrant society has remained a central feature of Israel’s educational policy. In this context one should note that policymakers in the revolutionary Soviet Union adopted a similar commitment to early childhood education as a vehicle for social and cultural change (Bronfenbren-ner, 1970; Lamb, Sternberg, Hwang, & Brogerg, 1992).

1948–1993: 45 Years of Child Care in Israel

Shared Community Responsibility for Child Care

With the advent of statehood, many institutions that had been organized on a voluntary basis were transferred and adapted to the state authority. The mutual responsibility based on sectional or other small group ties gave way to state laws and bureaucracy and the responsibility of the community became the responsibility of the state. The state adopted the two major national goals relating to the future generation: assuring the survival of the young and integrating the children of new immigrants into a unified Jewish Western society.

In order to meet the first goal, the new government assumed responsibility for the provision of a healthy and safe beginning for infants while they were still at home. This was accomplished in two ways:

First was legislated maternity leave enabling working mothers to receive 70% of their salary while staying home for 12 weeks following delivery. The National Insurance Institute paid for maternity leave and also provided each family with a special grant on the birth of a child. This policy has evolved over the years so that working mothers in the 1990s can take an additional 9 months of unpaid leave while their job is held secure, thus encouraging at-home care by the mother and extending it up to 12 months.

Second, the network of mother and child health centers (better known by its pre-state title Tipat Halav, meaning “a drop of milk”) became the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. It provided free pre- and postnatal care, emphasizing health (immunization and inoculation), nutrition, and physical care to all mothers and their children up to the age of 3. In recent years, many of these centers have also started screening all infants for early detection of developmental risk, using an abbreviated form of the Bayley Infant Test. In the 1990s, these services are used by over 90% of the population. Together with the general medical care system, this service is probably responsible for the steep decline over the years in infant mortality in Israel (Israel Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, 1987).

Attempts to meet the second goal continue to this day, partly because Israel continues to absorb waves of immigrants and partly because earlier attempts at social and cultural integration have met with only partial success.

The Commitment to Education

The newly created State of Israel perceived the education system as an integral part of its struggle for social integration and its search for cultural identity. This system was expected to provide the means by which its extraordinarily diverse population of refugees from post-Holocaust Europe, Middle Eastern Arab countries, and Eastern Europe could share equally in the challenges and opportunities of a society rapidly moving toward increased industrialization (Lombard, 1973). The commitment of the new state to education was exemplified by the Compulsory Education Law enacted in September 1949, less than 8 months after the election of the first Israeli Parliament (Kleinberger, 1969). In fact, so important were educational issues that violent political conflicts over education policies led to the resignation of the government and to new elections in 1951.

The Compulsory Education Law of 1949 provided each child with 9 years of education, starting with kindergarten at age 5 and covering 8 years of primary school. Approximately 20 years later, the law was extended to provide free high school education. The inclusion of at least 1 compulsory year of kindergarten was seen as a necessary prerequisite for the later success in school of children whose immigrant parents neither spoke the Hebrew language nor were familiar with a modern educational system (Lombard, 1973). These laws applied to all citizens of Israel, including the 20% non-Jewish minorities.

Lombard (1973) and other researchers (e.g., M. Smilansky & Smilansky, 1967) noted that the evolution of government policy reflected the continuous struggle to find a solution to the problems facing the education system, when more than 50% of the children entering school were described as “educationally disadvantaged,” with very poor prognosis of academic achievement. Following the failure of earlier attempts, in 1967 the Ministry of Education decided to put its efforts into a policy that supported intellectual development and skill acquisition necessary to educational success (Lombard, 1973). This policy, combined with an awareness of the importance of t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The Social and Historical Context for the Development of Child Care
• 2. Research Goals and Methodology
• 3. Parents of Children in Family Day Care
• 4. FDC Caregivers
• 5. Growing up in two Socializing Worlds
• 6. The Behavior of Infants and Toddlers in FDC
• 7. Family Day Care as a Childrearing Setting
• 8. The Interface between Family, Child, and Child Care
• 9. Summary of Results and Implications for Future Research
• 10. Child-Care Policy
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index