Early childhood education and CARE: Won’t somebody think of the children?

Abstract

‘Won’t somebody think of the children’ is a battle cry calling into question the current positioning of the child and care within international/national childcare policy. This plea is constructed within a framework that recognizes that childcare policies may be guided, developed and implemented in good faith. Nevertheless, there are often (un)intended consequences. The documentary analysis traces the international and Irish quality, affordability and equality arguments underpinning childcare policies and reveals that we may have not only lost sight of the child, but the child is nowhere in sight ([un]intended consequence). While this documentary analysis makes specific reference to the Irish context, the discussion may nonetheless be relevant to the wider international Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) community. The analysis draws on my Irish study ( Nolan, 2019 ), a social feminism exploration of ECEC leadership that revealed the difficulty the stakeholders had in marrying their understanding of children and care within the constantly changing international/national conceptualizations of both. While the depiction of the child and the current state of care in the sector may appear bleak, there is the hope that by drawing attention to this situation, somebody (you and I) will answer the call to battle, and begin a dialogue/debate on the child and care in ECEC.

Care in Early Learning and Childcare Transitions

“…This is a finding which has not been replicated in ELC settings that do not have the differentiation between teachers and teaching aides or assistants. At times the notion of care best suited to this theme was also overlapping with other related concepts such as love (Aslanian, 2015) and maternalism (Nolan, 2020). While there were slight variations in some of the definitions given above, the underlying theme was that care was a natural quality.…”

“…Transitions and transition practices, particularly in the early years, are well researched due to the implications on wellbeing and future outcomes (Dockett et al, 2012). However, much of this research is focussed on the transitions associated with the start of formal schooling (see Brooker, 2010;Dunlop, 2002;O'Connor, 2018) involving children of a different developmental stage (Jovanovic, 2011) rather than the transitions of much younger children associated with ELC, who may therefore have differing needs (Van Laere et al, 2018) including physical care needs, such as feeding and toileting (Nolan, 2020). A further unintended consequence may be the increase in standardisation discussed above, which may threaten the place of hard to quantify aspects of ELC, such as care or play.…”

“…This main question will be supported by sub questions. The role and nature of ELC has evolved throughout time (Nolan, 2020), and the most recent changes to provision may reflect a need to reconsider the purpose once again (Rogers, 2020). With longstanding debates around educare (McShane, 2016), it will be critical to investigate and establish through sub question one: "What is the role of ELC?"…”

“…Just as there are ambiguities associated with the nature of ELC, so too are there contentions around how care is enacted within these settings (Aslanian, 2015;Nolan, 2020) which link to the competing priorities around the multifaceted role of ELC. Despite featuring in the title of ELC, there are often assumptions that care is antithetical to learning (Van Laere et al, 2018), assumptions which are complicated further given the connotations with professionalism associated with learning (Brooker, 2010) which are not afforded to care, which has traditionally been, and arguably continues to be associated with undervalued, underpaid work (Douglas & Gittell, 2012) often synonymous with the female gender role (Taggart, 2011).…”

„Jó játszást!?”

“…Számos recens kutatás irányult az ide tartozó intézményekben történő jelenkori változások feltérképezésére (pl. Aabro 2020, Haggerty et al 2020, Moloney et al 2019, Nolan 2020, Osgood 2006, Wasmuth-Nitecki 2020, különös tekintettel azon folyamatokra, melyek a neoliberális logika és közpolitikák terjedéséhez köthetők. Számos országban (pl.…”