Losing Sight of the Child? Human Capital Theory and its Role for Early Childhood Education and Care Policies in Finland and England since the Mid-1990s

Abstract

The international interest in early childhood education and care (ECEC) by supranational organisations, including the European Union, has grown considerably due to its dual function of sustaining parental employment and fostering child development. Focussing primarily on child development debates around ECEC, this article argues that human capital theory is the dominant rationale for investing in ECEC. The article discusses the development of ECEC in Finland and England, countries that are considered members of different family policy regimes. It explores the pattern of ECEC developments over time, the extent to which these developments have been framed as human capital investments, the extent that there are references to supranational policy imperatives, and whether there is a growing convergence between the countries around ECEC. Whilst we argue there is some merging in ideas around the function of ECEC in supporting parental employment, there are still differing interpretations when looking at child development that can be related to the cultural and historical origins of ECEC in the respective countries. We voice our concerns that the growing dominance of human capital theory in interpretations of ECEC is resulting in a very narrow view of children and ECEC services.

The role of emotions in building new knowledge and developing young children’s understanding

“…As a society, we have become obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge and with the notion that this provides a form of both human and social capital and power, which can be employed to shore up socio-economic growth and security and allow the country to compete more effectively at global levels (Biesta, 2013; Campbell-Barr and Nygard, 2014; Gillies, 2011; Moss, 2010, 2014). Moss (2014) suggests that as a result of the current propensities of our knowledge-based economy, priority is given to western neo-liberal values based on rationality and essentialism in all areas of life.…”

Flight turbulence: the stormy professional trajectory of trainee early years’ teachers in England

“…Wild et al 2015), Italy (Lazzari et al 2015), Serbia (Banković 2014), North America (Harwood et al 2013), Japan (Hegde 2014) and Singapore (Ang 2014), where there are also often distinctions between 'care', for children under three, and 'education', for those over three (see Lillvist et al 2014). However, as Karila (2012), Campbell- Barr and Nygård (2014) and Gunnarsdottir (2014) note, even in Scandinavia, there are current challenges from neoliberalism's instrumentalist concern with early childhood provision as economic investment and emphasis on the market, supply and demand and ready measures of academic and economic success.…”

The changing roles of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand: A shifting policy landscape

“…While Te Whāriki refers to ECCE, and to care and education as ‘inseparable’ (MOE, 1996: 18), the MOE website and more recent MOE documents refer simply to ECE. Internationally, Campbell-Barr and Nygard (2014) point to connections between the positioning of education ahead of care in early childhood and the dominance of human capital theory as privileging cognition over care. One of the examples they give is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) keenness to place education ahead of care in shifting from the acronym ECCE to ECEC (early childhood education and care).…”