Early Childhood Education And Care Provision Research Articles

Privatization and Coercive Isomorphic Pressure in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (1987-2020)

This article analyses the privatization of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) provision in Norway between 1987 and 2020. My analytical framework combines theories of structured organizational fields and gradual institutional change to investigate how the scope and field position of private ECEC providers have evolved during this period. Based on an analysis of official policy documents, I illuminate how ECEC quality enhancement has gradually been institutionalized as the common, legitimizing endeavour of the ECEC provision field by means of coercive isomorphic pressure. Along with increasing regulation of working conditions, this has altered the meaning of private ECEC provision. Both the scope and field position of private provider organizations have evolved accordingly. Currently, small providers and larger provider corporations face different sets of legitimacy challenges, resulting in a conflict of interests. Tensions between these groups are likely to fuel ongoing field dynamics that are capable of yielding institutional stability as well as change. My analysis contributes towards building a more comprehensive theoretical framework for organizational fields by illuminating the interplay between coercive isomorphic pressure and organizational characteristics within a structured field.

Socioeconomic and attitudinal differences between service users of private and public early childhood education and care in the Finnish context

The marketisation and privatisation of welfare services such as early childhood education and care (ECEC) have been a global trend in recent decades. Earlier research suggests that market-based ECEC provision often leads to inequalities and stratification of service users. In Finland, as in other Nordic countries where provision of ECEC has traditionally been a public responsibility, ECEC services have also been undergoing marketisation and privatisation. Until now, especially in Finland, little has been known about service users of public and private ECEC or parental decisions between public and private ECEC. This study addresses that gap by showing that the clientele of private and public ECEC differ in their socioeconomic attitudinal characteristics. It appears that the combination of marketisation and privatisation of ECEC extends processes of educational and social distinction into the early childhood.

Together from kindergarten: exploring quality to inform inclusion in early childhood settings in Bulgaria

ABSTRACTThe Bulgarian Government has made a commitment to inclusive early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). High-quality ECEC settings are more inclusive and responsive to children's individual learning needs. In partnership with UNICEF, the Ministry for Education established a pilot project, ‘Together from Kindergarten’, to enhance quality and support early childhood settings in creating and maintaining quality conditions that support all children's right to access and participate in ECEC. As part of this project, the ECERS-3 was used as a broad measure to explore quality across 40 kindergarten settings. Evidence suggests that despite the positive attitudes of ECEC teachers towards inclusion, the quality of the kindergartens was low, with particular challenges concerning teacher–child interactions and individualised learning supports. The study offers important insights into how ECEC settings in Bulgaria can enhance quality to develop conditions that support children with SEND to participate in mainstream ECEC provision.

Pedagogical practices in ECEC institutions and children’s linguistic, motor, and socio-emotional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a longitudinal multi-perspective study in Germany

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic, German early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions had to limit their provision of ECEC, implement protective measures, and handle new organizational tasks. Data from two longitudinal surveys (October 2020 to July 2021) among ECEC managers and pedagogical staff were analysed. Limited staff resources, limited access, and high pandemic-related challenges (i.e. difficulties and conflicts related to implementing protective measures), were negatively associated with the frequency of pedagogical practices (Models 1, 2). Manager ratings suggested increased developmental needs for children with low socio-economic status; also higher frequency of pedagogical practices at early stages of the pandemic (T1) was associated with lower increase of developmental needs at a later stage (T2, about 5 months later). In sum, this contribution provides evidence about how the COVID-19 pandemic might have affected quality in ECEC provision on both the structural and interaction level and how this, subsequently, impacted child outcomes.

Policies of quality and autonomy in times of economic crisis: Governing the sector of early childhood education and care

This study focuses on the debate surrounding global policies and practices related to the sector of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), utilizing the Greek policy context as an example. Drawing on the critical education policy studies literature, this paper interrogates the complex concepts of quality and autonomy, which are core in the global agenda. We do this by exploring how the international and national austerity measures, imposed in many countries – and especially in Greece, marked by a devastating economic crisis in the last decade – have affected their re-interpretation and translation. Our empirical data suggest that municipal ECEC directors, interviewed in the context of our research, hold diverse views on quality, raising issues of inequality, limited participation and low attainment. The study generates reflections, suggesting that the idea of autonomy has been systematically associated with Greece’s economic struggles and therefore understood and re-interpreted by the participants in a constrained way that limits their action. The way these notions are re-contextualized at the municipal level, and the consequences for ECEC provision, pose as key issues of this research.

Early childhood education and care in South America — a new curricular wave?

ABSTRACT In recent decades, a global consensus has emerged that acknowledges that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) requires systemic, cross-sectoral approaches. In this context, integrated early childhood approaches are flourishing in South America. Although these policies have been successful in many aspects, ECEC provision in the region continues to be fragmented. In this exploratory article, we analyse the role of ECEC curricula in the conceptual integration of ECEC systems in South America. We focus on the ‘regulative intent’ of curriculum frameworks to explore the extent to which these policy instruments support systemic change. Our analysis draws on an extensive revision of documentary sources and interviews with key local informants in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. We reconstruct the institutional architecture of ECEC provision in each country and examine curricula against this background. Our findings highlight the emergence of a new curricular wave in the region that contributes to integrated approaches. Recent curriculum frameworks move away from sectoral intents and towards more comprehensive and cohesive regulative intents. We call for a reconceptualisation of ECEC curricula from a whole-systems perspective that supports the holistic nature of the education and care of young children.

Negotiating the value of “corporations’ capital” in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care provision

ABSTRACT In this article I investigate how corporate Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) providers negotiate their position by contributing to a national ECEC policy development process. I discuss how their political engagement connects to changes in the institutional arrangements of the ECEC sector. The ECEC provider corporations’ written responses to a policy consulting process are obtained and analyzed in light of Bourdieu-inspired theories of institutonalized organizational fields. The proposed new regulations are both countered and reframed in their responses. Providers with corporate organizational structures in unison call for for firmer national guidelines on ECEC centre quality and funding. I interpret their responses as attempts to increase the relevance of ‘corporations’ capital’ over the raditional, local network embedded capital forms in quality ECEC provision. At this juncture, the corporate providers failed to shift competence from municipalities to national ECEC authorities The following parliamentary debate illuminates how non-profit provision in corporate organizational structures may appeal to left-wing parties rejecting commercial welfare provisions. A subgroup of for-profit corporate providers emphasizes sector cost-efficiency, connecting strongly to right-wing politicians’ ambitions to limit public spending. Corporate providers hence represent an impetus for institutional change, able to build allies across the whole left–right spectre of politics.

Selectivity of clientele in finnish private early childhood education and care

ABSTRACT In accordance with the Nordic welfare model, the Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) system has traditionally been based on public provision and the idea of universalism. However, over the last twenty years the ECEC system has undergone market-oriented reforms. As a result, the share of private for-profit ECEC provision has grown significantly. By applying impression management theory, this qualitative research examines how representatives of private ECEC providers describe the selection and selectivity of their clientele and how they aim at managing the impression they convey through their descriptions. The study shows how three different mechanisms of selectivity are produced and legitimized in the interview talk. Furthermore, the study makes visible the cultural assumptions and expectations related to private ECEC provision and the potential selectivity it produces.

Identifying Barriers and Solutions to Increase Parent-Practitioner Communication in Early Childhood Care and Educational Services: The Development of an Online Communication Application

There is considerable evidence that highlights the importance of family involvement in early childhood education and care (ECEC) on children’s development and how when combined with professional involvement has a very positive impact on children’s holistic development and therefore, quality ECEC. However, in practice, communicating with families from diverse backgrounds who have limited time, employment obligations, and varying expectations for their child’s ECEC has proven to be challenging. To investigate family involvement practices in ECEC services, 18 semi-structured interviews with Irish practitioners and 15 families were conducted. To understand the influence of family involvement on children’s development, this study was underpinned by Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-ecological framework. The interviews demonstrated that there is a dearth of communication between the home and ECEC services which results in misunderstandings between ECEC stakeholders (practitioners and families). Five barriers to family involvement (attitudinal, structural, cultural, environmental, and welfare) were identified during the interview phase. Subsequently, the development of TeachKloud, a cloud-based management ECEC tool, originated in part, to facilitate quality family involvement practices. TeachKloud was trialled for three months by seven ECEC services and 13 families of children aged 2.8–5.6 years old. A survey was administered after the respective trials to assess the efficacy of TeachKloud in supporting quality practice in ECEC services. This paper focuses on TeachKloud’s impact on family involvement. Findings indicate that online technologies such as TeachKloud decrease barriers to family involvement and make children’s learning more visible to families, thereby, improving the quality of ECEC provision.

Rationalising public support for private early childhood education and care: the case of Finland

ABSTRACTIn Finland, early childhood education and care (ECEC) is traditionally publicly provided. However, private ECEC provision has increased during the past decade, largely as a result of financial support from the public sector. Drawing on qualitative interviews with municipal decision-makers, this article identifies three frames within which publicly subsidised private ECEC provision and marketisation are rationalised: the pragmatic frame, the government frame and the choice frame. The results show that even though market logics and tendencies seem to have gained a strong foothold in local policies, there is a keen interest in universalism and maintaining public control over local ECEC provision.

Parent-practitioner partnerships in early childhood provision in England, Hungary and Kazakhstan: similarities and differences in discourses

ABSTRACTWhilst international policymakers have reached consensus on the importance of investing in early childhood development and increasingly monitor that investment using standardized measurement, the nature and rationale of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision remain diverse. In the context of that disparity, this article explores an aspect of ECEC provision that is commonly recognized for its potential to enhance young children’s development and learning, yet for which characteristics remain variable: partnerships between ECEC practitioners and parents. The article reports and discusses results from a cross-cultural narrative study that investigated the nature of such partnerships in three different countries: England, Hungary and Kazakhstan. During focus group interviews, ECEC academics (n = 16) discussed five themes that emerged from literature reviews. Findings indicate more differences than similarities between the countries’ narratives concerning ECEC parent-practitioner partnerships, suggesting such partnerships may be an aspect of ECEC provision for which a homogeneous approach and quality measure across countries are not feasible.

Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship in Early Childhood Education and Care. Lessons from Three Case Studies of Innovative Services in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The paper presents the results of an eight-month research program undertaken under the InnoSI project framework, funded under the European Research Program Horizon 2020. We adopt the theoretical framework of social innovation of Westley and Antadze (2010), applying the four-dimensional scheme of social innovation elaborated by Hochgerner (2011): resources, authority flows, routine and beliefs (Bassi, 2011). We also refer to the typology of social innovations in the field of welfare policy emerging from the research of Evers, Ewert and Brandsen (2014). We use a multiple case study research model (Yin, 1993; 1994) that highlights the relationships among the micro, meso, and macro level of analysis of a program, project, and intervention at the local level. The case study analyses the integrated system of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Emilia-Romagna as an example of how increasing the accessibility and quality of ECEC provision could be pursued through a partnership between the public and private not-for-profit initiatives which pro-actively engage with local actors. The rationale for selecting the units of analysis, three early childhood services distributed across the regional territory, is therefore linked to the social demands underlying services’ implementation: reconciliation of family and working life responsibilities for parents; equal educational opportunities for children’s development and growth; and participation of groups which are at risk of social exclusion (low-income families, children from ethnic minority background).

Reforming Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Provision (2009–2015)

IN 2007, AUSTRALIA COMMENCED a national, systems-wide change to governing the quality of its early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision. The federal, state and territory levels of government agreed on a national vision for early childhood, a new learning framework, a national quality standard and a collective governance process for all childcare services, preschool-kinder programs and outside school hours care services that receive funding from governments. As with other federated countries, the context of ECEC in Australia is complex and varied both within and across localities, and inevitably, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners are required to consider and provide some account of children's learning environments prior to school. As a point of reference, this paper provides an overview of the context of ECEC provision in Australia, a summary of core components of the National Quality Framework (NQF) and argument about the necessity of these reforms. Raising the quality of children's early learning and development experiences is challenging, and systems change-fatigue becomes part of the landscape.

Parallel discourses with unparalleled effects: early years workforce development and professionalisation initiatives in Germany

Just over a decade ago, an OECD Starting Strong team reviewed the system of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Germany. Regarding the staffing of early childhood provision and referring in particular to resistance at the political level to raise the formal qualification level of educators in alignment with European trends, the evaluative report noted in 2004 that the chosen approach may be overlooking the issue of the sustainability. The article explores key discourses and paradigmatic shifts which have shaped early years professionalisation initiatives and workforce developments since this time. One of the most notable changes has been a remarkable growth in the size of the workforce, which has almost doubled over the past eight years. What are the reasons for this fast-paced expansion, and can it be sustained? Have qualification requirements been lowered, and has the composition of the workforce changed? What are current challenges facing the sector? As ECEC provision develops across Europe, other countries face similar issues. Exploring how they are played out in one particular country context may help to stimulate critical analysis in others.

Germany's ECEC workforce: a difficult path to professionalisation

In a European comparison, the childcare profession in Germany has taken a distinct path of development which is closely interwoven with the history of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in general. Institutional choices critical to this path are the assignment of childcare as part of social welfare, the pursuit of a maternalist tradition in the care of young children, the privileged position of voluntary associations and the churches in the provision of day-care services, and the decentralised governance of the sector with main responsibilities assigned to the level of the 16 Bundesländer. This inheritance also has shaped the development of the ECEC profession and impeded a course of development similar to other countries. Only over the last decade have new dynamics emerged in the field. There has been an enormous expansion of ECEC provision and, interrelated with it, an intensive debate on professionalisation. Starting from the recent debates and developments, the article outlines the specific path of development of the childcare profession in Germany. In doing so, it takes a closer look at particular historical trajectories and critical junctures. A core question is whether the present strategies to enhance professionalism in the field of ECEC indicate either a modest modernisation or a radical change of traditional concepts of the profession.

The use of documentation in a participatory system of evaluation

Pedagogical documentation is a practice currently used in Italian early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to make visible children’s learning processes in ECEC, to promote parents’ participation and to support professionals’ reflexive competences. These functions of pedagogical documentation have been enhanced within a system of participatory evaluation of ECEC service quality, which has been implemented in several Italian sites. Specific procedures of documentation of children’s and parents’ experience in the ECEC setting were proposed. On the basis of the documentation, all stakeholders participated in the evaluation process and expressed and discussed the quality of ECEC provision from their different perspectives as professionals, parents or managers. They expressed their judgements considering whether children’s and parents’ experiences in the service were congruent with the educational goals and objectives pursued. The use of documentation guaranteed a common basis for anchoring discussion among stakeholders to concrete matters as well as for making judgements transparent for everybody. The final outcome of this discussion is also documented and constitutes the basis for further planning and improvement of the quality of the service.

Changing Policy, Changing Culture: Steps Toward Early Learning Quality Improvement in Australia

Across Australia a combined government effort is underway to reform early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision. A National Law Bill passed in 2010 heralds a new legal, regulatory and accountability framework that embraces all types ECEC provision. As a result, service providers face rapid change to address a new orientation and higher regulatory standards. This paper reviews the Australian system change in light of the tools selected under a human capital development conceptualisation, international debate about ECEC provision and what is at stake in the reform of ECEC systems. Questions are raised about the capacity of national reform enterprise within complex systems to change local practice. The tools selected to address quality in an ECEC system affect both the implementation of ECEC programs and the outcomes. Local leadership and community engagement in ECEC provision is paramount if improvements in the quality of provision are to be assured.

Early Childhood Education and Care: Learning from Finland

In 2002 a long-term strategic plan for New Zealand early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision was announced with three goals, those of increased participation, improved quality and the promotion of collaboration. To realise these goals, New Zealand can learn much from Finland. Finland participated in the Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy project conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2000. The purpose of the project was to provide comparative information to help inform ECEC policy-making in OECD countries. This article reviews the OECD report on Finland. An outline of Finnish ECEC provision is briefly described and a brief critique of some Finnish ECEC issues is provided. The article concludes with some comparisons with New Zealand ECEC policy issues.