Getting beyond childcare and quality

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Getting beyond childcare and quality

• Peter Moss
• Thomas Coram Research Unit
• Institute of Education University of London

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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)

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Legacy 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

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Split 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

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Changing 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

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The 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)

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Beyond 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

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Europe 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

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European 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)

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Europe has examplesof integrated responsibility

• In welfare
• Denmark Finland
• In education
• Norway, England, Iceland, Scotland, Slovenia,
  Spain, Sweden?Germany, Austria

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Europe has examples of integrated services

• Sweden preschools
• England childrens centres
• Many more

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Sweden 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

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Sweden 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

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Sweden

• 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)

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Preschool 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

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• 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)

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Re-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

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EnglandDeveloping 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

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EnglandDeveloping 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

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EnglandDeveloping 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

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Beyond 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

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Quality 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

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Conditions 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

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Quality 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

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Quality 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)

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Quality 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

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Some 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

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• Target 16 all collective services for young
  children 0-6should have coherent values and
  objectives including a stated and explicit
  educational philosophy

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• 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

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Quality 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

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Beyond 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

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The 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

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The 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

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The 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

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Language 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

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Pedagogical 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

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Beyond 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