Risks for children? Recent developments in early childcare policy in Germany

Abstract

For some years now, a ‘child-centred social investment strategy’ has been gaining influence in the German welfare state. In this context we are witnessing a social-investive turn within the policy for children and families and a significant increase in the importance of early childcare policy. Whereas the German federal government is emphasizing that this investive turn will produce pay-offs for the society’s economy, as well as for the individual child, the analysis in this article is based on recent child-oriented critiques of the social investment approach and points out major risks for children inherent in current early childcare policy in Germany.

Risks in Early Childhood. Reconstructing Notions of Risk in Political Reports on Children and Childhood in Germany

“…Contrary to this understanding and despite the responsibility of public institutions such as the early childhood education and care system (ECEC) to minimize educational risks for children, Hübenthal and Ifland (2011) highlight the risks to children that have arisen following recent early childcare policies in Germany. According to their analysis at least two groups of children -migrant children, and children under the age of three affected by poverty and low socioeconomic status -therefore "children at risk" corresponding to the German political discourse -are at greater risk of being excluded from ECEC than other groups of children due to the social-investive reorientation of the German welfare state and its policy emphasis (ibid., p. 120). This at first irritating observation has to be understood in light of various, sometimes ambiguous political rationales, for example, due to current legal regulations in Germany which focus on integrating mothers and fathers into the labor market, children of unemployed parents have difficulty obtaining places in kindergarten at an early age.…”

“…This is the case, for example, when economic principles such as efficiency and effectiveness in institutions for children cause the children to experience "adult specific phenomena" such as stress, time pressure and performance anxiety, etc. (Hübenthal and Ifland 2011). Therefore, research is needed to explore the sometimes ambiguous rationales of policies and their implications for the current lives of children and also for their futures.…”

Early childhood education and care in times of crisis

“…The counter-productive effects induced by these international trends have been documented in recent studies attesting the growing emergence of schoolification processes as well as an increasing tendency to neglect child-specific needs in favour of economic rationalisation of ECEC (Hübenthal and Ifland 2011;Jensen, Bröstrom, and Hensen 2010). As it has been pointed out in a recent essay written by Kjørholt and Qvortrup (2012) on these issues, a central question to be addressed is whether the emphasis on children as coming adults and human becoming -underpinning the social investment arguments -is irreconcilable with a recognition of children as competent human beings 'here and now'.…”

The “competent child” in times of crisis: a synthesis of Foucauldian with critical discourse analysis in Greek pre-school curricula

“…The specific point about this cooperation is that the State has an interest in exercising more control over young children and their families (Donzelot, 1997). Parents' involvement in their children's education can be understood as a strategy of economisation (Hübenthal and Ifland, 2011), and as a vital part of a wider neo-liberal governmental biopolitical technology. In other words, this discursive strategy can be considered as an important contribution to the economic growth and competitiveness of the Greek economy.…”