Devastating impacts? Investigating ‘edu-quality’ discourse in early childhood policy and its implications

Hunkin, Elise

doi:10.1080/02680939.2019.1690709

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…It is not sufficient to question or disrupt developmental discourses from a theoretical or philosophical perspective without suggesting possible alternatives, or raising further critical questions (Hunkin, 2019). By identifying learning and development as messy constructs, this analysis challenges the uncritical interpretation of developmentalism in the EYFS, based on particular norms, values and power relations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Persuasive policy discourses are evident in many international contexts, where similar political ideologies prevail. Focusing on Australia, Hunkin (2018, 2019) contests the uses and misuses of discourses of quality as a key trope in the ECE reform agenda, specifically the governance of human capital. Utilising Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, Hunkin (2018: 452) argues that the neo-liberal approach to quality reform does not necessarily improve the capacities of the sector to enact selective notions of quality.…”

Section: Critical Discourse Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning, development and the early childhood curriculum: A critical discourse analysis of the Early Years Foundation Stage in England

Wood

2020

Journal of Early Childhood Research

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This article focuses on the national policy framework for early childhood education (birth to 5 years) in England – the Early Years Foundation Stage, specifically the use of child development theories as the underpinning knowledge base for practice. The aim is to understand what constructions of learning and development are foregrounded in policy, and their implications for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Critical Discourse Analysis methods are used to expose learning and development as messy constructs, and to propose three arguments. First, the evidence base for the Early Years Foundation Stage relies on selective appropriation of child development theories, and findings from government-funded research. These sustain normative discourses, reflecting a Piagetian ontology of ‘development leads learning’, through which children become ‘knowable’ and ‘measurable’. Second, the Early Years Foundation Stage shifts from developmental processes to learning outcomes as the basis for constructing curriculum, assessment of children’s outcomes and school readiness. Third, the Early Years Foundation Stage constitutes a discursive regime, which influences how practitioners must fulfil performance criteria that serve multiple purposes of assessing outcomes, evaluating standards and defining ‘quality’. From a critical perspective, this analysis questions the efficacy of the Early Years Foundation Stage in addressing the problems of equity and inclusion in diverse societies. The Early Years Foundation Stage exemplifies the policy technologies that can be discerned in international contexts, through which specific forms of curriculum coherence and control are produced. An alternative ‘learning leading development’ onto-epistemology is proposed, which offers potential for challenging the (il)logic of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Critical Discourse Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning, development and the early childhood curriculum: A critical discourse analysis of the Early Years Foundation Stage in England

Wood

2020

Journal of Early Childhood Research

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“…meaning that without interception they will continue to reshape the sector with devastating impacts. (Hunkin, 2021: 206)…”

Section: Early Years Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, its focus is on a quality reform agenda – an edu-business model that aligns with increasing competition between private providers as market-based solutions to the low status of ECEC workers, poor remuneration, low skill sets and qualifications, and poor uptake of professional development opportunities (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2019). Hunkin (2021: 205–206) interrogates this rapidly changing policy direction in ECEC reforms in Australia and the political orientation towards a ‘coordinated, global quality reform movement through packages and programmes that systematise, standardise, “improve” and regulate education in early childhood settings’ – a ‘quality’ movement, she argues, that needs challenging on ‘ontological and epistemological grounds’. McGillivray (2008: 244–245) recognises that ‘constructs of children and childhood and those who work with children are woven together from cultural and economic strands within society’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Symbolic policy can be harmful, like the placebo that gives only the pretence of treatment’ (Marshall, 1999: 62). Second, we examine a select literature review showing that researchers internationally are all grappling with low status and poor working conditions in the ECEC sector (Chang-Kredl, 2018; Chang-Kredl et al, 2019; Hunkin, 2021; Moss, 2006, 2007; Osgood, 2006a, 2006b, 2009; Taggart, 2011; Urban, 2008). Third, we outline the research methodology for this inquiry: a critical feminist policy analysis and an empirical study of ECEC workers’ perspectives using a purposive sample of 104 workers who completed a national survey and, within this sample, 11 participants who took part in interviews (Creswell and Creswell, 2018; Marshall, 1999; Ozga, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Simmie

Murphy

2021

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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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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Reconceptualising Pedagogical Leadership for Quality in Early Childhood Education: From Individual Dispositions to Systemic Creativity

Nuttall,

Henderson,

Wood

et al. 2023

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development

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Devastating impacts? Investigating ‘edu-quality’ discourse in early childhood policy and its implications

Cited by 11 publications

References 35 publications

Learning, development and the early childhood curriculum: A critical discourse analysis of the Early Years Foundation Stage in England

Learning, development and the early childhood curriculum: A critical discourse analysis of the Early Years Foundation Stage in England

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

Reconceptualising Pedagogical Leadership for Quality in Early Childhood Education: From Individual Dispositions to Systemic Creativity

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