Policies of Early Childhood Education and Care

Strandell, Harriet

doi:10.1057/9780230314054.0019

Cited by 7 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…In this article, we present an analysis of practices that are framed by a discourse of the competent child, which currently seems to be intertwined with monitoring children for early intervention (Harrikari, 2004). This monitoring and push for early intervention is coloured by neo-liberal discourses, where children are on the agenda as investment in future citizens (Strandell, 2012).…”

Section: Theoretical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A discourse of the competent child has been fundamental and highly celebrated in the policies and practices, homes, schools and day-care institutions of Nordic countries (Brembeck et al, 2004). This child-centred discourse, traditionally emphasising children's agency, rights and value in the present, has now in many ways become intertwined with an increased demand to monitor and govern individual children (Franck, 2014;Strandell, 2012). The discourse of the competent child, intertwined with a discourse of early intervention, has come to represent standards for children's 'normal' capabilities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The (in)competent child: Subject positions of deviance in Norwegian day-care centres

Franck

Nilsen

2015

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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In line with social studies of children and childhood, it is necessary to pay attention to local contextual understandings and practices in those places where constructions of children and childhood occur. The authors argue that the discourse of the competent child has become intertwined with a discourse of early intervention. In Norwegian day-care institutions, new practices of increased monitoring and evaluation of individual children have been observed. In this article, the authors explore day-care staff members' descriptions of children who have not been formally diagnosed but who are positioned in between what is considered normal and deviating. While political documents stress the importance of early intervention and discovering special needs in the day-care setting, the authors suggest that this 'discovery' is context-bound, valuebased and intertwined with ideas about children and childhood. From a study with day-care staff members, the following question is explored: 'Which subject positions are present in day-care staff descriptions of children in between, and how do these positions legitimise the positioning of some children as deviating from perceived normality?'

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Section: Theoretical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The (in)competent child: Subject positions of deviance in Norwegian day-care centres

Franck

Nilsen

2015

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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“…Embedded in this is the growing emphasis on children as human capital and learning subjects (Kryger, ). From a global North perspective, it has been argued that this construction of children from an early age is related to the social investment state in a globalised economy, underlining Esping‐Andersen's () point that life chances and social inclusion are increasingly dependent on social, cultural and cognitive capital (Strandell, ). In Norway as in other European countries, we witness an emerging emphasis on various forms of assessment and national tests related to children's cognitive skills and educational performance from an early age, linked to the growing concern about the EU's capacity to compete in a global market.…”

Section: Valuing Children As Human Resources and Objects Of Investmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood as Social Investment, Rights and the Valuing of Education

Kjørholt

2013

Children & Society

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This paper discusses the impact of and close interplay between global discourses on children, notions of (a good) childhood at the national and local levels and childhoods as these are lived and experienced in particular social contexts. Two increasingly powerful global images of children are explored: Children as individual subjects with rights to participation as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and children as human capital and early childhood investment. I argue that the market‐oriented politics and ‘global images’ of childhood are connected to particular ideological notions of what it means to be a human being, and an increasing individualization, separating children from an intergenerational social order. The discussion is empirically grounded in case studies in Norway and Ethiopia. The paper highlights the contradictions especially with respect to safeguarding local livelihoods and knowledge suggesting limits to the ‘sector based’ approach to children's participation and rights to education. It highlights the need to move the focus from children as objects of investments to a ‘politics of recognition’, in ways that value individual dignity and knowledge as constructed by children and adults within local ‘belonging communities’.

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“…When developing child services, such as schools, early childhood education and care and after‐school care, the investment in the child individual becomes a core issue. The aim is to raise the child's social capital for the benefit of both the child and the society (Strandell, ). The governing of the individual and individuality in the history of modern society has been addressed in research on governmentality (Dean, ; Miller and Rose, ).…”

Section: Welfare Policies Reconsideredmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However with the shift in welfare policies in the 1990s, new ways of generating and implementing political reforms were introduced. The change has been described as a shift from stating normative and prescriptive goals and standards by the central government to governing by the provision of information and by setting only loose terms of reference (Strandell, ; Sulkunen, ). The state withdrew its responsibility from governing social services in detail, and delegated both the freedom and the responsibility for service development to local municipalities (Temmes, ).…”

Section: Centralised Policy…mentioning

confidence: 99%

After‐school Care as Investment in Human Capital – From Policy to Practices

Strandell

2013

Children & Society

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After-school reform in Finland is analysed as a case of state intervention in childhood and of inscribing political goals in an activity with children. The paper asks what understandings of children and childhood are communicated in and through the reform and its dispersed implementation. Theoretically, the paper is informed by new ways of governing in the late 20th century and by the concept of the social investment state. These are combined with an ethnographic approach which troubles the concept of governance and shows how it becomes enacted through social practices in local institutional settings. The paper explores the discursive 'truths' about children's after-school time and how these differ across contrasting institutional contexts, shaping and reshaping ideas around what is good in and for childhood.

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Policies of Early Childhood Education and Care

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

The (in)competent child: Subject positions of deviance in Norwegian day-care centres

The (in)competent child: Subject positions of deviance in Norwegian day-care centres

Childhood as Social Investment, Rights and the Valuing of Education

After‐school Care as Investment in Human Capital – From Policy to Practices

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