Title: Getting beyond childcare and quality
1Getting beyond childcare and quality
- Peter Moss
- Thomas Coram Research Unit
- Institute of Education University of London
2 Multifunctional servicesfor children 0 to 5
- The basic form of service for children from
birth to 5 and their families should be through
multi-purpose childrens centres offering part
and full-time care with medical and other
services to a very local catchment area (Tizard,
Moss and Perry, 1976)
3Legacy of the 19th century
- 19th century
- crèches for poor working families
- early education/ kindergartens for middle class
families - Split system of early childhood services
- childcare education
- 0-3 3
-
4Split system
- divided departmental responsibility
- divided structures types of provision
workforce funding regulation etc. etc. - different users and purposes
- 0-3 services The poor child the substitute
mother
5Changing understandings today
- Of early childhood services
- complement the home not a substitute
- multi-purpose for all children and families
- Of children from birth
- the rich child, born with a hundred languages,
active subject, citizen with rights - Of the workforce
- Co-constructors of knowledge reflective
practitioners researchers
6The rich child
- Our image of the child is rich in potential,
strong, powerful, competent and most of all
connected to adults and other children(Malaguzzi,
1993)
7Beyond childcare tointegrated services
- for the whole child
- for the whole community
- for many purposes (care needs of working parents
and gender equality, learning, family support,
production of culture and values, social cohesion
and solidarity.) - multipurpose services for all children
8Europe has concepts for integrated services
- Concept of pedagogy
- theorypracticeprofession
- careeducationupbringing (erziehung)
- The pedagogue sets out to address the whole
child, the child with body, mind, emotions,
creativity, history and social identity. This is
not the child only of emotions, the
psychotherapeutical approach, nor only of the
body, the medical approach, nor only of the mind,
the traditional teaching approach
9European has concepts for integrated services
- Concept of education in its broadest sense
- Concept of childrens spaces
- The concept of childrens spaces understands
services as environments of many possibilities
cultural and social, but also economic,
political, ethical, aesthetic, physical some
predetermined, others not, some initiated by
adults, others by children (Moss Petrie, 2002)
10Europe has examplesof integrated responsibility
- In welfare
- Denmark Finland
- In education
- Norway, England, Iceland, Scotland, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden?Germany, Austria
11Europe has examples of integrated services
- Sweden preschools
- England childrens centres
- Many more
12Sweden An integrated early years service
- 1996 responsibility transferred from welfare to
education - All children entitled to a place from 12 months
- 81 of 1-5s in services (2003)
- Under 1s 0 (parental leave)
- 1-2 45
- 2-3 87
- 3-5 86-97
13Sweden An integrated early years service
- Common framework for 1-5 year olds
- Preschool curriculum
- Funding (2 of GDP)
- Workforce specialist teacher for 1-5s
- Preschool (förskola) centre for children under
and over 3
14Sweden
- Enrolling children from age 1 in full-day
pre-schools has become generally acceptable. What
was once viewed as either a privilege of the
wealthy for a few hours a day or an institution
for needy children has become, after 70 years of
political vision and policy making, an
unquestionable right of children and families.
Parents now expect a holistic pedagogy that
includes health care, nurturing and education for
their pre-schoolers (Lenz Taguchi Munkhammar
(2003)
15Preschool schoolStrong and equal partnership
- Announcing the transfer to education, the prime
minister stated that ECEC should be the first
step towards realising a vision of lifelong
learning. He added that the pre-school should
influence at least the early years of compulsory
school
16- Initiatives taken since have sought to build
closer links between pre-school, free-time
services and school, treating all as equal parts
of the education system.Development work is
focusing on the integration of pre-school
pedagogy into primary schools and creating
pedagogical meeting places between all three
services (Barbara Martin Korpi)
17Re-forming the 0-18 workforce
- Rektors director of a cluster of services,
including schoolspre-school teacher or school
teacher or free-time pedagogue - 3 professions (pre-school teacher, school
teacher, free-time pedagogue) 3 trainings?1
profession and 1 training3½ year training 18
months shared 24 months specialised
18EnglandDeveloping an integrated service
- New childrens agenda
- All services for children in education
- All services share 5 outcomes
- being healthy
- staying safe
- enjoying and achieving
- making a positive contribution
- economic well-being
19EnglandDeveloping a new childrens agenda
- 2010 all schools ?extended schools offering
range of services (childcare study and leisure
facilities parenting support etc) - 2010 - Childrens Centre for 0-5s in every
community 3500 by 2010
20EnglandDeveloping an integrated service
- Childrens Centres provide range of services
- early education and childcare
- family support
- health services
- a base for family day carers employment advice
- support for other nearby services
21Beyond childcare to integrated services
- Conditions for integrated services
- One department responsible
- One funding system
- One workforce based on one profession
- One regulatory framework
- One image of the child, care, learning
- One set of coherent objectives
22Quality Targets in Services for Young Children
- Aim to implement political objectives of 1992 EU
Council Recommendation on Childcare - Affordability
- Access (urban/rural special needs)
- Care and a pedagogical approach
- Close relations with parents and communities
- Diversity, flexibility, choice
- Coherence between services
23Conditions to achieveobjectives
- Common policy framework
- Coordination of responsibility for services
- Curricular framework
- Appropriate staffing and staff conditions
- Appropriate physical environments
- Infrastructure planning, monitoring, support,
training, research - Adequate financing
24Quality Targets
- Criteria for assessing progress in achieving
objectives - Targets achievable in all countries in 10 years
- Provisional not final targets
- Method discussion and negotiation by European
group?targets vary in specificity - Inter-dependent cannot choose some but not
others
25Quality targets beyond childcare
- The Network takes the view that from a service
perspective it is neither necessary or desirable
to treat (children with employed parents)
separately from other children. The development
of services for young children should be based on
a policy that takes account of all children and
carers and all their needs - EC Childcare Network (1996)
26Quality Targets in Services for young Children
- 40 targets in 9 blocks
- policy finance level and types of services
education ratios staff employment and
education environment and health parents and
community performance
27Some examples
- Target 1 coherent statement of intent for care
and education services to young children 0-6 - Target 2 one department take responsibility for
implementing 0-6 policy - Target 7 public expenditure on services for
young children (0-6) not less than 1 of GDP
28- Target 16 all collective services for young
children 0-6should have coherent values and
objectives including a stated and explicit
educational philosophy
29- Target 25 all qualified staff employed in
services should be paid the equivalent of
teachers - Target 26 at least 60 staff should have basic
training of at least 3 years at post-18 level
(paid at teacher level) - Target 29 20 of staff should be men
30Quality Targets
- Quality is a relative concept, based on values
and beliefs - Defining quality is a processIt should be
participatory and democratic involving different
groups - The needs, perspectives and values of these
groups may sometimes differ - Defining quality is a dynamic and continuous
processnever reaching a final, objective
statement
31Beyond quality
- Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and
Care Postmodern Perspectives - Oltre la qualità nelleducazione e cura della
prima infanzia I linguaggi dell valutazione - Quality as one of the languages of evaluation
one possibility
32The language of quality
- Quality is one way of thinking about evaluation
and what we want - based on - universal norms defined and applied by experts
(structure, process, outcome) - values and assumptions universality (beyond
context), objectivity, indisputable knowledge,
certainty, closure - managerialism
33The language of quality
- Own tools and methods, e.g
- rating scales
- external inspectors
- Quality is a language of evaluation that
- assesses conformity to norms
- treats evaluation as a technical practice
- values objectivity, certainty, closure
- offers a statement of fact
34The language of meaning making
- Meaning making is an other way of thinking
about evaluation and what we want - based on - constructing meaning and judgement of value in
relation with others and to critical questions - values and assumptions subjectivity, complexity
and multiple perspectives, context,
provisionality - democratic participation
35Language of meaning making
- Own tools and methods, e.g.
- pedagogical documentation
- Meaning making is a language of evaluation
that - interprets practice and judges value
- treats evaluation as political and ethical
practice - values subjectivity, uncertainty, provisionality
- offers a judgement of value
36Pedagogical documentation
- the creation of diverse documents that make
practice visible (e.g. written notes, observation
charts, diaries, and other narrative forms,
recordings, photographs, slides, and video) - visible practice discussed, reflected upon,
interpreted, evaluated by children, parents,
practitioners, politicians and others
37Beyond childcare and quality
- We have choices
- We can go beyond childcare ? childrens
centres - We can go beyond quality ? meaning making
- Opening to change is difficult long-term
commitment different values critical thinking
and border crossing tools and support