Abstract
The recent Covid‐19 global health pandemic has negatively affected the political and economic development of communities around the world. This article shares the lessons from our multi‐country project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) on how children in communities in Brazil, Eswatini, South Africa, and Scotland have experienced the effects of the pandemic. This article benefits from having co‐authors from various countries, bringing their own located knowledge to considerations of children’s rights and early childhood education in the wake of the pandemic. The authors discuss different perspectives on children’s human rights within historical, social, and cultural contexts and, by doing so, will discuss how the global pandemic has placed a spotlight on the previous inequalities within early years education and how the disparity of those with capital (economic and social) have led to an even greater disproportion of children needing health and educational support.
Highlights
Cameron and Moss (2020, p. xv; see Bambra et al, 2020) articulate an increasingly common narrative on the Covid‐19 pandemic and the policy responses to it: Covid‐19 swept across continents and countries, leaving disruption, suffering and death in its wake, compelling governments to take in unprecedented steps to try to contain and suppress this plaque, placing populations under lockdown and mobilising
This article presents a multi‐country analysis of how young children and their human rights have fared due to the pandemic and its responses. It draws from the project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) and the partner countries of Brazil, Eswatini, Scotland (UK), and South Africa were used
Drawing on frameworks developed by Kagan et al (2016) and pol‐ icy discourse analysis by Bacchi (2012), the teams were undertaking documentary analysis, selective stakeholder interviews, and analysed available statistical data. With this foundation of pre‐pandemic analysis, the team were in the position to continue with their stakeholders at national and community levels to explore the implica‐ tions of the pandemic and its policy responses for young children and their families, as these impact their early childhood education
Summary
Cameron and Moss (2020, p. xv; see Bambra et al, 2020) articulate an increasingly common narrative on the Covid‐19 pandemic and the policy responses to it: Covid‐19 swept across continents and countries, leaving disruption, suffering and death in its wake, compelling governments to take in unprecedented steps to try to contain and suppress this plaque, placing populations under lockdown and mobilising. This article presents a multi‐country analysis of how young children and their human rights have fared due to the pandemic and its responses It draws from the project Safe, Inclusive Participative Pedagogy: Improving Early Childhood Education in Fragile Contexts (UKRI GCRF) and the partner countries of Brazil, Eswatini, Scotland (UK), and South Africa were used. Drawing on frameworks developed by Kagan et al (2016) and pol‐ icy discourse analysis by Bacchi (2012), the teams were undertaking documentary analysis, selective stakeholder interviews, and analysed available statistical data With this foundation of pre‐pandemic analysis, the team were in the position to continue with their stakeholders at national and community levels to explore the implica‐ tions of the pandemic and its policy responses for young children and their families, as these impact their early childhood education. It uses this framework to consider each country’s policy responses to the pandemic and concludes by dis‐ cussing common themes as we face continued uncer‐ tainty for both human rights and public health
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