Danish early childhood services in a European context

1
Danish early childhood services in a European
context

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

2

• The broad picture Denmark in Care work in
  Europe, research across the lifecourse from
  0-100
• Why the British (and other English speakers)
  dont know about pedagogy!
• Focus on 0 to 6 services (early childhood)
  Denmark in a European context
• Conclude with 4 reflections

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Care work in EuropeCurrent Understandings and
Future Directions

• EC funded 2001 - 2005
• 6 Partners
• Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK and
  Denmark (Jytte Juul Jensen, Helle Krogh Hansen)
• Main objective
• to contribute to the development of good quality
  employment in care work in services that are
  responsive to needs of changing societies

4
Specific aims

• What is care work? Analyse and compare
  understandings of care work across different
  types of care work and different countries
• How is care work structured? Identify
  different approaches to and models of care work
• Why is care work womens work? Examine the
  causes and consequences of the gendered nature of
  the care workforce
• What directions to take? Identify conditions
  necessary for the development of good quality
  employment in care work

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Why is care work important to the EU?

• As a source of good quality employment
• As a condition for reconciliation of work and
  family life (e.g. 1992 Council Recommendation on
  Childcare, 2002 Barcelona Targets), therefore
  for
• increased employment
• gender equality
• As the main determinant of quality of care
  servicesgood quality of life for Europes
  citizens

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The underlyingproblem

• Changing demands increasing demand for paid
  care work increasing recognition that care
  work is complex and demanding
• Changing supply care work unpaid and paid
  dependent on women working in poor conditions and
  subsidizing costsbut supply is decreasing.
• Is this system sustainable? Is it desirable? Is
  there a crisis of care?

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Three stage study

• Mapping the workforce surveying use and demand
  for services reviewing literature on quality,
  job satisfaction and gender issues
• Cross-national case studies of work
• - with young children (HU, DK, SP)
• - with older people (SW, ENG, SP HU)
• - with adults with severe disabilities (DK, NE,
  SW)
• Development of video-based method for
  cross-national study of practice in care work
  (SOPHOS)
• 3. Innovative practice (36 examples)
  dissemination
• All reports at www.ioe.ac.uk/tcru/carework.htm

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Border crossing study

• Cross national
• Cross sectoral from 0 to 100
• Policy and practice, structures and
  understandings

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What is care work?

• Concept often unclear, e.g. many have difficulty
  defining social care?
• Border between care and other fields is
  blurring, e.g.
• (child)care ? education, e.g. Spain moving from
  childcare to education for young children
  (guarderia gt escuela infantile)
• (elder)care ? health and housing

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What is care work?

• Care is not a distinct field of policy,
  practice or employment, e.g.
• Denmark, care as inseparable part of pedagogy,
  holistic approach to working with peoplenot
  care work but pedagogical work, not care
  workers but pedagogues
• pedagogy important theory, practice and
  profession in Continental Europebut almost
  unknown in English-language world

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The invisible pedagogue

• In the UK and other English-speaking countries
  the word pedagogy usually denotes the science
  of teaching and learning didacticsAcross
  Continental Europe, pedagogy has a much wider
  meaning , the very breadth of which can at first
  be perplexing to a British ear (Petrie et al.,
  2006)
• In translation Pedagogy?education
  pedagogue?teacher

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The invisiblepedagogue

• Despite decades of exchanges and collaboration
  it is still almost impossible to make
  English-speaking colleagues and students in
  social work understand the nature of social
  pedagogy (Lorenz, 1998)

13
Making the pedagoguevisible

• TCRU working for 5 years to understand, explain
  and advocate for pedagogy in the UK
• Shown benefits of pedagogy in residential care
• The pedagogic approach appeared to be more
  likely to promote social integration, both
  currently and for their future social benefit. In
  Denmark and Germany, more often than in England,
  staff set out to provide young people with
  resources for social integration and did so on
  the basis of coherent vales, understandings and
  practice

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Making the pedagoguevisible

• Pedagogy provides a foundational concept for
  policy and for training the childrens
  workforceacross childrens services
• Now some government interest but only for
  residential care
• Pedagogy as education in its broadest sense

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Concepts and definitions

• For purposes of study focused on 3 areas
• Childcare and free-time services
• Child and youth residential and foster care
• Care for adults with disabilities, including
  eldercare
• And on paid front line care work, e.g. not
  managers or unpaid carers

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The care workforceEducation-based typology

• High (tertiary level education)
• Mainly work with children and young people only
  small groups (except Denmark) work with adults.
  Include teachers and (social) pedagogues
• Medium (upper secondary education)
• Mainly work with adults (e.g. auxiliary nurse in
  Sweden), but also childcare workers
  (e.g.nursery workers in Hungary, UK)
• Low (secondary education or none)
• Home-based workers some assistants. Include
  family day care, home carers, personal assistants

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The care workforceGeneral picture

• Highest level in work with childrenlowest in
  work with elderly people
• Highest level overall in Denmark, then SwedenUK
  at lower end
• Largest care workforce in Denmark (10) and
  Sweden (9) Netherlands and UK (7-9, but high
  part time) Hungary and Spain (lt5, but low
  part time)

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The care workforceProfile of care workers

• Highly gendered ( women highest with children
  and elderly)
• Mostly 25-44 (like total workforce) - many have
  own care responsibilities but no information
• Often (not always) low paid
• Mostly specialise in education, employment
• Career prospects usually limited vertically and
  horizontally

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Danish pedagogueunique profile

• High level of education
• Less gendered 25 male in some services
• Better pay (and other conditions)
• Generalist - work with people from 0 to 100
  main worker with children, young people and
  younger adults
• Broad career prospects - vertical and horizontal

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Conclusions

• Care work should not be a separate field of
  policy and employment
• Situation in most countries undesirable and
  unsustainable facing a crisis of care
• Two tier workforce reflective professional with
  tertiary level education other worker with
  upper secondary education
• ?Generalist workforce educated to work across
  all/most of the life course (Danish model)

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Early Childhood

• Denmark has
• Very high levels of provision and public
  expenditure
• DK 2.1 of GDP
• SW 1.7
• FR 1
• UK 0.5
• US 0.4
• Universal entitlement for under and over 3s

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Early childhood

• an integrated 0-6 servicebut it is 1 of only 2
  countries where 0-6 is integrated in welfare
  (other Finland)
• Countries with 0-6 integrated in education
  include Brazil, England, Iceland, New Zealand,
  Norway, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

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Early childhood

• Denmark is one of the few countries to have
  integrated and revalued the 0-6 workforce (50
  graduates)with Sweden and (soon) New Zealand
• Three different models
• Denmark lifecourse pedagogue
• Sweden 1-16 teacher
• New Zealand 0-6 teacher

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Early childhood

• Other Nordics (Spain) 0-6 profession but under
  50
• Germany 0-6 pedagogues but with lower level
  qualification
• Other countries have split workforces
• Childcare/nursery worker with low education/pay
• Graduate teacher for older children
• Low cost solution

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Early childhood

• Denmark is only Nordic country with significant
  age-segregated services
• Relationship between early childhood and school
• Strong and equal partnership
• Schoolification early childhood prepares
  children for school
• ?how to describe Denmark?

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CWE case study 0-6 services in DK, ES, HU

• DK fully integrated in welfare ES part
  integrated in education HU split between
  welfare and education
• DK some services age-segregated, family day care
  widespread ES and HU most services
  age-segregated, fdc uncommon
• DK and HU large public sector ES large private
  sector, especially 0-3 (much for profit)

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CWE case study

• All have two main occupations
• HU nursery workers and kindergarten pedagogues
  total age segregation
• ES 0-6 teacher and technician in early
  education partial age segregation
• DK pedagogues and pedagogue assistants no age
  segregation

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CWE case study

• Male workers DK5 ES and HU very few
• Pay (2003) DK - 2300-3200/month ES
  1150-1650 HU - 160-360. Pay lower for work
  with 0-3s in ES and HU
• Career opportunities best in DK vertically and
  horizontally. In ES and HU, specialist training
  limits career opportunities

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CWE case study

• All workers consider work to be very important
  DK workers think work has become more valued by
  society, ES and HU workers think work has low
  social recognition
• All express satisfaction with work the best is
  being with children
• HU and ES workers most dissatisfied with pay and
  low social recognition no clear picture for DK

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CWE case study

• DK workers - view of work
• More than childcare broad social function,
  upbringing and cultural formation
• Centres children and adults live together and
  participate in a community
• Focus on perspective of child there for
  children, live alongside children, work through
  relationships
• Support childrens development and learning
  ideal autonomous, competent, democratic
• A lot to do with parents
• Distinguish selves from school teachers!

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• Although upbringing is a terrible word, I cannot
  think of any other appropriate descriptionI
  believe we pedagogues are gaining an increasing
  influence on the upbringing of childrenThe
  children must be placed somewhere but they should
  not be stored away in that place. They must be
  given a good life. A life with challenges, a life
  that is worth waking up toWe teach them to
  socialise, the learn about materials, the forest,
  the world and basically everything

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CWE case study

• Danish pedagogues give high value to
• Nature and creativity
• Relating
• Democratic relationships
• Communicating and discussing
• Reflexivity
• and they are very talkative and articulate!

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CWE SOPHOS0-6 services in DK, EN, HU

• Danish observers see 3 Rationalities
• DK childhood R (purpose is childrens
  acquisition of experience and making discoveries
  on their own terms)
• EN school R (highly controlled by adults and
  very structured knowledge transfer)
• HU home/family R (carer as mother and
  upbringer, with ideal of the good family)

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CWE SOPHOS

• EN observers value competent, independent/
  choice making child ?Neoliberal influence
• DK observers refer to childrens autonomy and
  self-governing, but closer to inter-dependence
  than independence. ?Continental concept of
  competent human being who is only free if in
  balanced relation with the community

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Final reflections

• DK has a strong, well-funded and integrated
  system of early childhood services workforce
  revaluation and beyond childcare
• Pedagogy and pedagogue most developed in
  DKimportant contribution to European thinking if
  made visible and advocated
• Future relationship between ECEC/pedagogue and
  school/teacher very unclearcan there be a
  strong and equal partnership based on a new
  pedagogical meeting place?
• Need more research on understandings of early
  childhood institutions and practices