Society’s Children:

Gilliam, Laura; Gulløv, Eva

doi:10.2307/j.ctt1jktscx.7

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…It has also been shown that policy learning agendas for ECEC potentially curricularise family life and rupture other ideals (Schmidt, 2020; Vallberg Roth, 2012. Furthermore, there have always been questions and conflicting norms about the balance between the responsibilities and authority of child institutions and families in terms of children under the auspices of the welfare state (Gilliam and Gulløv, 2017). There is also an ongoing public debate about parents’ responsibilities and a need to recognise the fundamental differences between the family as an institution and public child institutions if they are not to be reduced to resemble each other (Gulløv, 2018).…”

Section: The Home-learning Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing policy ideals for parental cooperation in early childhood education and care

Schmidt

Alasuutari

2023

Global Studies of Childhood

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How parents spend time with their children, what they teach their children and how they raise them in the early years have again become topics of policymaking and public debate. There is an intensive discussion about parental involvement in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Starting Strong series provides ECEC policy guidelines for national governments that include guides for parental involvement. With inspiration from the sociocultural policy approach, this paper suggests that there has been a shift in the Starting Strong series from underlining policy ideals for parental partnership to focussing on the learning environment. This paper examines how these transnational ideals (re)appear, transform and shift in the ECEC policy documents released in the first two decades of the 21st century in two Nordic countries: Denmark and Finland. Both Nordic countries have been involved in the Starting Strong series since the turn of the millennium. The paper also outlines how transnational ideals have become entangled in policy documents in these Nordic contexts in varied ways and how parental involvement is politicised across each of the two countries. We argue that this politicisation not only marks an intensification in parenting but also attempts to institutionalise the ECEC–family relationship, implying that the parent as well as the child must be enlightened. Thus, we seek to question the process of problematising the parent and the child’s home in the policies and to enable new thinking and action to address this issue.

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Section: The Home-learning Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing policy ideals for parental cooperation in early childhood education and care

Schmidt

Alasuutari

2023

Global Studies of Childhood

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“…We recognise that this usage has been challenged inasmuch as in Elias’ work; there are elements of the notion of a universal modernisation process and European cultural superiority, but we accept van Kreiken’s (2005) argument that there is within this theory “a more objective understanding of those social and political conditions, practices, strategies and figurations which produce whatever ends up being called civilization, founded on a reflexively critical awareness of the way in which particular conceptions and experiences of ‘being civil’ get constructed and produced in one way or another” (van Kreiken, 2005: 41). This view is taken up by Gilliam and Gulløv (2017) in their analysis of Danish childcare and education policy explaining how the civilising process encompasses the perspectives afforded by related concepts such as “disciplining,” “educating,” “childrearing,” and “socialisation.” There are parallels here to Foucault’s analysis of the relationship between modern medicine and civilising processes (2012). We use this interdependency between structures of society and identity formation to highlight the state’s need to engage in the civilising process, while acknowledging the complexity of creating, controlling, and implementing activities that empower citizens to live, belong, and contribute to society at large.…”

Section: How Do States Raise Their Children?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gillam and Gulløv (2017) advocate studying civilising processes as site-specific practices to be studied as contextualised layers of evidence, rather than as outcomes of variations on particular dimensions. This approach provides insights into what explains outcomes.…”

Section: How Do States Raise Their Children?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The state role in civilising childcare – comparing policy intentions with childcare in Brazil and Denmark

Møller,

Lotta,

Thomazinho

et al. 2023

J. int. comp. soc. policy

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It has become universal to claim a relationship between social cohesion and quality public childcare. The more we invest in our children, the better the return later in life. We explore how childcare is used to strengthen social life by comparing the state role in civilising childcare as described in policy and educational guidelines. At one level, we find that policy intentions are framed by the idea of using childcare to reduce inequalities between people and social groups, and at another by the idea of civilising children to adapt to existing social structures. The analysis unfolds these two sets of intentions by showing how pedagogical ideas of child development become linked to the ways two very different states – Brazil and Denmark – formulate and organise ECEC policies as well as using childcare to bridge between people and social groups, and to civilising children to adapt to existing social structures.

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“…Denmark has a long history of state supported early childhood education dating back to 1919 (Gilliam & Gulløv, 2017). During the 20 th century, as an aspect of the development of the welfare state, kindergartens developed from an initial focus on the protection of children at risk to accommodating all children (Grumløse, 2019;Gulløv, 2017).…”

Section: Brief Presentation Of the Danish Context And The Research Pr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By using the term pedagogue, we wish to draw attention to the rich cultural and ideological history of the trained professionals who work in the ECEC (see Petrie et al,2009 andMoss, 2011 for discussions of the profession, confusion of meaning, and the cultural hegemony that is entailed in the translation into English) working with a broad concept of learning. Kindergartens have generally been considered important spaces for children's democratic socialization because children are expected to gain practical experience of democracy as a way of life in kindergartens (see Ahrenkiel et al, 2012;Gilliam & Gulløv, 2017;Prins, 2019).…”

Section: Brief Presentation Of the Danish Context And The Research Pr...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“It is not that I didn’t already know these places, but I never thought of them like this.” Methodological approaches to community research in early childhood education in Denmark

Thingstrup

Prins

Smidt

2021

Forskning og forandring

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The aim of this article is to discuss how participatory methods might contribute to research concerning the development of inclusive, socially just and community-oriented pedagogical practices within the field of early childhood education, as well as contributing to shared knowledge production about relations between kindergartens1 and local communities. The article starts from a critique of dominant political and institutional approaches in Denmark to patterns of cooperation between kindergartens, parents, and local communities, which often in practice lead to top-down and compensatory approaches to cooperation, in which parents are expected to adapt to the agendas of the institutions. We argue that there is a need to develop alternatives to these approaches. This article explores how kindergartens might respond to the needs and views of parents and local communities, rather than the other way around. We explore this by asking what (local) communities for children and parents are and might be, and how kindergartens as significant shapers of children’s lives and experiences might create links between children’s lives inside and outside of the kindergarten. We discuss how communities, pedagogues and children might cooperate in pedagogical research processes and how such research processes affect (understandings of) children’s lives, communities, and kindergartens. Furthermore, we look at how these cooperations and insights might contribute to the development of more inclusive, community-oriented pedagogical practices. Our findings show that shared explorations of the many relations between kindergartens and communities have the potential to build more respectful and reciprocal dialogues and innovative pedagogical practices. Yet at the same time they show that this is an unfinished, imperfect endeavor that requires continuous attention to the complex and changing nature of communities, and to the closures and exclusions entailed by any community practice. Also, the findings point to an understanding of communities as performative phenomena that develop and grow through the very process of involvement and shared engagement. We argue that participatory, community-oriented pedagogical research methods should reflect these dynamics. The article describes and discusses research methods, showing how participatory research methods can deepen our understanding of the complex roles of early childhood education for children and communities, while also inspiring inclusive and community-oriented pedagogical practices.

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Society’s Children:

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

The changing policy ideals for parental cooperation in early childhood education and care

The changing policy ideals for parental cooperation in early childhood education and care

The state role in civilising childcare – comparing policy intentions with childcare in Brazil and Denmark

“It is not that I didn’t already know these places, but I never thought of them like this.” Methodological approaches to community research in early childhood education in Denmark

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