scholarly journals Everything in My Hand: Reflecting on Meanings and Processes of Art in Early Childhood Settings

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-36
Author(s):  
Kim Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Early Childhood Educator ◽  
Children's Art ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Art Practices ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

This paper explores art practices in early childhood education and care. Drawing on the author’s work as an early childhood educator and as a pedagogical facilitator working with educators and children, this paper challenges developmental perspectives of art as leading to particular learning outcomes. By presenting concepts of modern art and artists and using these as a lens through which to view children’s art, the author suggests new approaches in thinking about children, materials, and art processes.

Caring about care: Reasserting care as integral to early childhood education and care practice, politics and policies in Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-322
Author(s):  
Rachel Langford ◽  
Brooke Richardson ◽  
Patrizia Albanese ◽  
Kate Bezanson ◽  
Susan Prentice ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Public Good ◽  
Ethics Of Care ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Care Policy ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Care and education have deep historical divisions in the Canadian policy landscape: care is traditionally situated as a private, gendered, and a welfare problem, whereas education is seen as a universal public good. Since the early 2000s, the entrenched divide between private care and public education has been challenged by academic, applied and political settings mainly through human capital investment arguments. This perspective allocates scarce public funds to early childhood education and care through a lens narrowly focused on child development outcomes. From the investment perspective, care remains a prerequisite to education rather than a public good in its own right. This chapter seeks to disrupt this neoliberal, human capital discourse that has justified and continues to position care as subordinate to education. Drawing upon the feminist ethics of care scholarship of philosopher Virginia Held, political scientist Joan Tronto, and sociologist Marian Barnes, this chapter reconceptualizes the care in early childhood education and care rooted through four key ideas: (1) Care is a universal and fundamental aspect of all human life. In early childhood settings, young children’s dependency on care is negatively regarded as a limitation, deficit and a burden. In contrast, in educational settings, older children’s growing abilities to engage in self-care and self-regulate is viewed positively. We challenge this dependence/independence dichotomy. (2) Care is more than basic custodial activities. The premise that care is focused on activities concerned with the child’s body and emotions, while education involves activities concerned with the mind, permeates early childhood education and care policy. Drawing on Held’s definition of care as value and practice, we discuss why this mind-body dualism is false. (3) Care in early childhood settings can be evaluated as promoting well-being or, in contradiction to the meaning of care, as delivering poor services that result in harm to young children. We will explore the relevancy of Barnes’s contention that parallel to theorizing about good care in social policy, “we need to be able to recognize care and its absence” through the cultivation of “ethics sensibilities and skills applied in different practices in different contexts.” (4) Care must be central to early childhood education and care policy deliberation. Using Tronto’s concept of a “caring democracy,” we discuss how such deliberation can promote care and the caring responsibilities of educators in early childhood settings, thereby redressing long standing gendered injustices. We argue that these four ideas can be framed in advocacy messages, in ways that bridge the silos of care and education as separate domains and which open up the vision of an integrated early childhood education and care system. A feminist ethics of care perspective offers new possibilities for practitioners, advocates, researchers, and decision-makers to reposition and reclaim care as integral to the politics and policies of early childhood education and care.

scholarly journals Ontario Early Childhood Educators’ understandings of care, carework and care practices in ECEC Program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Early Childhood Educator ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Care Practices

This major research paper presents findings from a critical qualitative inquiry study, that includes how seven registered early childhood educators (RECEs) understand care, carework and care practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study used a political economy of care theoretical framework. Findings suggest that RECEs feel: (1) their carework is devalued; (2) care and education activities are different; and (3) there are barriers to caring well in ECEC programs. This paper provides recommendations that can potentially assert the value of care in the ECEC sector and aims to modestly give a voice to the marginalized perspectives of RECEs on the value of their carework in ECEC programs. Key words: Early childhood education and care, care, carework, registered early childhood educator, political economy of are, maternalism, feminization, marginalized, racialization, critical qualitative inquiry

scholarly journals The Association of Early Childhood Education and Care with Cognitive Learning Outcomes at 15 Years of Age in Finland

Psychology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 500-520
Author(s):  
Aino Saarinen ◽  
Jari Lipsanen ◽  
Minna Huotilainen ◽  
Mirka Hintsanen ◽  
Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Cognitive Learning ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Cognitive Learning Outcomes

scholarly journals Ontario Early Childhood Educators’ understandings of care, carework and care practices in ECEC Program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Early Childhood Educator ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Care Practices

This major research paper presents findings from a critical qualitative inquiry study, that includes how seven registered early childhood educators (RECEs) understand care, carework and care practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study used a political economy of care theoretical framework. Findings suggest that RECEs feel: (1) their carework is devalued; (2) care and education activities are different; and (3) there are barriers to caring well in ECEC programs. This paper provides recommendations that can potentially assert the value of care in the ECEC sector and aims to modestly give a voice to the marginalized perspectives of RECEs on the value of their carework in ECEC programs. Key words: Early childhood education and care, care, carework, registered early childhood educator, political economy of are, maternalism, feminization, marginalized, racialization, critical qualitative inquiry

Social Investment and Childcare Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.

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