International Perspectives in the Early Years

Linda Miller, Claire Cameron, Linda Miller, Claire Cameron, Author

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781446255377, 9781446255360
• eBook ISBN: 9781446292815
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

?This informative and wide-ranging book argues persuasively for the value of multiple perspectives, both international and disciplinary, in the study and practice of early childhood education, because they feed our imaginations and provoke us to think. And while illustrating the many differences that exist between countries, it highlights the shared issues confronting us, wherever we live.? - Emeritus Professor Peter Moss, Institute of Education, University of London

Stemming from original research in the field, a range of expert contributors explore the key themes and debates surrounding international perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).  Drawing on studies carried out in Norway, Mexico, France, Hungary and many more countries, the book covers a wide range of topics including: 

• the relationship between early childhood and primary education
• gender and play in ECEC
• curriculum
• inclusion
• early interventions
• working with families
• place-based learning

With case studies, detailed suggestions for further reading at different levels and discussion points, this is a key text for students of Early Years at all levels, from Foundation Degree to Masters, as well as current early years practitioners.

Linda Miller is Professor Emeritus of Early Years, The Open University. 

Claire Cameron is Senior Reader in Education at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.

CHAPTER 1

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES: THEMES AND ISSUES

Linda Miller and Claire Cameron

Overview

This book seeks to explore some of the many ways in which early childhood education and care (ECEC)¹ is understood in Europe and beyond. The main objective of the book is to bring critical attention to some key issues from both a national and international perspective relating to the themes of early education and care, intervention in the lives of children and families and the concept of children’s spaces. In this chapter, we describe the rationale and organization of the book. The book draws upon international perspectives to ‘shine a light’ on established practice in the UK and consider how to improve the ways in which services are developed and delivered to best serve all children in a very challenging and uncertain social and economic climate. The chapters reflect these changing and challenging policy agendas and aim to support the professional development of practitioners who work in this field. The book is intentionally research focused and draws on work from renowned academics, researchers and practitioners as co-researchers.

Introduction

We hope this book will offer fresh perspectives at a time of change and uncertainty across Europe and beyond, which is impacting on ECEC services. The economic crisis in particular is having a negative impact on children’s health and well-being (Bennett, 2012); European governments question whether spending on ECEC can be justified in stringent economic times. In England, although ECEC services are in theory protected and supported by legislation, the drive to localism is putting services under unprecedented pressure. After a decade or more of investment, we are seeing increased ‘marketization’ and privatization of services (Lloyd, 2012; see also Woodrow, 2011) and the transfer of funding and decision making to local authorities. The number of children’s centres offering full day care nearly halved between 2009 and 2011 (Brind et al., 2011). In 2011, a report into early intervention programmes for young children argued for funding through private investment in what have traditionally been publicly funded services (Allen, 2011). At the time of writing, further changes are proposed to the (de)-regulation of early years provision and to the training and qualifications of staff (DfE, 2013), which we believe could have a negative impact on the quality of early years provision. These developments are cause for concern to those involved in ECEC as economic and political factors can influence both practitioners and parents, so that what is appropriate for young children becomes less clear and less central in public debates. In this context, the book draws attention to a common ECEC agenda: that is the crucial role that early childhood services play in the well-being and learning of children and their families, and in forming democratic societies.

Why international perspectives?

Across the world, governments and non-governmental organizations have recognized the importance of ECEC services in supporting the development of children, and in the economic well-being of societies. The OECD carried out a high impact review of ECEC in 20 ‘rich’ countries and found that integrated early childhood policies underpin significant social and economic policies among OECD countries (OECD, 2006). In particular, early childhood programmes can have a significant role to play in reducing and lessening the impact of child poverty, and investing in children’s future at an early age has a higher rate of return than at later ages (OECD, 2006). However, such services alone cannot break the poverty cycle, and what is needed is a ‘multi-dimensional approach’ involving ‘supportive economic and social policies’ (Bennett, 2012: 11).

There are many similarities among ECEC services worldwide, but also significant differences. Table 1.1 summarizes key features of the context, including the degree of child poverty and mortality, the ranking in well-being indices, the age compulsory schooling starts, and spending on ECEC services, as well as the degree of access to ECEC that children enjoy. While data collection is far from comprehensive, it is clear that certain characteristics go together: low levels of child poverty, high rankings of child well-being, high levels of coverage of ECEC for children under 3 and unitary systems are all features of the three Nordic countries discussed in this book. These differences are complemented by others, prompted by questions such as ‘what is our image of the child?’ (Moss, 2010) and what is the ECEC system for? Does ECEC primarily prepare children for school? Or is children’s citizenship an uppermost concern and educating them for democracy the main focus? Is accessing ECEC seen as a social right for all children or a product of parental ‘choice’? Another approach is to see ECEC as a force for community cohesion, so the role of ECEC is as a site for catalysing family and community members in shaping local services. Are the services broadly ‘educationist’ or ‘protectionist’ in orientation? Do they hope to ‘rescue’ some children from the disadvantages of home life or seek to educate all – or both?

The book features two key themes. In Part 1, five chapters explore different aspects of the relationship between care and education and between ECEC and schools and consider the relevance and impact of possible ‘schoolification’ of ECEC settings in the search for improved ‘school readiness’. Chapters 4 and 6 challenge ideas of intervention within ECEC, who it is for and how it is carried out, and consider different examples of early interventions, from community-based solutions to specific programmes. The chapters in Part 2 focus on ‘Children’s spaces’. This reorients ECEC away from services as meeting the needs of societies and economies and instead considers children’s lives within services. Considering children’s spaces, both geographic and metaphoric, embracing the physical, cultural and familial, enables us to analyse some relationships between what happens within ECEC settings and what happens outside. ECEC is no longer just about what care and education provide; it is also about what children’s families and communities bring to the experience of ECEC settings.

Part 1: Care, education and notions of intervention

An enduring issue in ECEC is that of split and integrated systems of care and education. Split systems are most common worldwide, and at their extreme feature ‘care’ for children from birth to age 3 and ‘education’ for children aged 3+, with lower qualified staff in care services and higher educated teachers in education services. Integrated systems, on the other hand, recognize that children’s lives are lived as a whole and that care and education are inseparable (Bennett, 2012). The workforce is then educated to match this holistic orientation. Bennett and Moss (2010) argue that integrated systems are also better – more inclusive and more equal.

Pamela Oberhuemer sets the scene for the book in Chapter 2, pointing out the increased awareness in recent years of the advantages of well-resourced systems in ECEC. Her chapter looks at similarities and differences across the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) in relation to three key issues: the dominant vision that countries choose to follow when making decisions about the ECEC system as a whole, the staffing of early childhood services, and cooperation and networking across Europe, where early childhood systems remain ‘distinctly diverse’.

In Chapter 3, Yoshie Kaga discusses the relationship between early childhood and primary education and its current importance for early years practices. The chapter reviews three models: the school-readiness model and the ready-school model – for strengthening the linkage between the two sectors; a ‘strong and equal partnership’ model is then considered as a possible way forward for the future of the two sectors.

Chapter 4 offers a refreshing perspective on early childhood curricula. Lead authors Tullia Musatti, Donatella Giovannini and Susanna Mayer document their work in an Italian nido with early childhood practitioners and researchers to answer questions about the nature and culture of ECEC. Linking to the theme of Chapter 3, they discuss the role of educational experiences directly geared to the acquisition of specific skills and knowledge, in contrast with the broader educational goal of supporting and developing children’s full potential. They show how it is possible to construct a powerful and detailed curriculum for children in their earliest years.

Two chapters in Part 1, Chapters 5 and 6, focus on the notion of intervention in ECEC services. They raise questions about what intervention might mean. Is it the accessibility of universal services that support all children and their communities? Or is it a specific programme shaping particular outcomes such as those aimed at parents whose children attend centres and which may reduce the risk of undesirable outcomes? This idea can be understood in two ways: first, using services to support the lives of young children and families on a universalist or community basis; and second, more usual in Anglo-American countries, as a specific method to address perceived problems or deficits in a child’s upbringing.

Anne-Marie Doucet-Dahlgren in Chapter 5 provides an overview of some of the characteristics of the French approach to ECEC and family support, including specific forms of provision and early intervention. She describes the Service de Protection Maternelle et Infantile (PMI) and considers the ways in which specific groups of parents respond to a ‘folk university’ parenting initiative. She makes suggestions on how to take some elements of the French experience as a model in an international perspective.

The Roma Early Childhood Inclusion (RECI) Project is the focus of Chapter 6, in which John Bennett describes an initiative to gather data and information in four Central and South-Eastern European (CSEE) countries – the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia – about the inclusion of young Roma children and their access to public services. The chapter documents the size of the Roma population and the persecution they have had to suffer over the centuries, outlines the main findings from national reports and charts some tentative conclusions.

Part 2: Children’s spaces

Recent research has begun to explore new perspectives on children’s experience of ECEC. From many possibilities we include: children’s understanding of ‘place’ and ‘community’ and the...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle
• The Critical Issues in the Early Years Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Education at SAGE
• Contents
• About the editors and contributors
• 1 International perspectives: themes and issues
• Part 1 Care, Education and Notions of Intervention
• Part 2 Children’S Spaces
• Index
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