Playgroups: Moving in from the Margins of History, Policy and Feminism

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cris Townley
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
New South ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Key Players ◽  
Education And Care

PLAYGROUPS BEGAN IN AUSTRALIA in the early 1970s, at the same time as significant changes in early childhood education and care (ECEC) began taking place. This paper explores how early playgroups were positioned in the ECEC policy, and the experiences of playgroup organisers in New South Wales. Methods used were documentary analysis of Project Care (Social Welfare Commission, 1974) and interviews with key players. Findings were that playgroups grew rapidly in response to grassroots demand from mothers wanting their children to learn through quality play, besides the demand for adult social support. Since Project Care was strongly influenced by feminist lobbying and the objective of enabling women to engage in paid work—and playgroups relied on mothers to deliver the service—playgroups were an uneasy fit in the ECEC policy. Although Project Care integrated playgroups into its recommendations for ECEC services, subsequent funding was at a low level. Today, ECEC services would benefit from a strengthening of the community playgroups model.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 772-786
Author(s):  
Geraldine K Nolan
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Current State ◽  
Irish Context ◽  
Social Feminism ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Childcare Policy

‘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.

Social Investment and Childcare Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.

scholarly journals Professionalisation of early childhood education and care practitioners: Working conditions in Ireland

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110101
Author(s):  
Geraldine Mooney Simmie ◽  
Dawn Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
The State ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
Education And Care

The last decade has revealed a global (re)configuring of the relationships between the state, society and educational settings in the direction of systems of performance management. In this article, the authors conduct a critical feminist inquiry into this changing relationship in relation to the professionalisation of early childhood education and care practitioners in Ireland, with a focus on dilemmatic contradictions between the policy reform ensemble and practitioners’ reported working conditions in a doctoral study. The critique draws from the politics of power and education, and gendered and classed subjectivities, and allows the authors to theorise early childhood education and care professionalisation in alternative emancipatory ways for democratic pedagogy rather than a limited performativity. The findings reveal the state (re)configured as a central command centre with an over-reliance on surveillance, alongside deficits of responsibility for public interest values in relation to the working conditions of early childhood education and care workers, who are mostly part-time ‘pink-collar’ women workers in precarious roles. The study has implications that go beyond Ireland for the professionalisation of early childhood education and care workers and meeting the early developmental needs of young children.

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