Education International Round Table on Early Childhood Education

1. ECEC Systems in Europe Education International Round Table on Early Childhood Education Sofia, Monday 24th October, 2005 John Bennett, OECD E-mail: bennett.paris@gmail.com

2. Overview of presentation • The OECD Starting Strong review of 20 countries • Classification of European countries and their characteristic approaches to families and young children • The Sea - an example of learning from Finland • Two contrasting curricula • Two contrasting professional profiles

3. Part I The OECD Starting Strong review

4. The OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care, 1998 – 2004 • Expert teams • Country report • Review team visit • OECD report

5. The OECD Education Committee • From 1998-2004, 20 countries volunteered to invite OECD teams to review their services • Australia • Austria • Belgium • Canada • Czech Republic • Denmark • Finland • France • Germany • Ireland • Hungary • Korea • Italy • Mexico • Netherlands • Norway • Portugal • Sweden • United Kingdom • United States .

6. Part IIA classification of European countries and their characteristic approaches to families and young children

7. Gospa Esping-Andersen • Liberal economies; conservative economies; social democratic economies… more recently: • The liberal welfare model • The continental (European) welfare model, and • The Nordic welfare model • A major difficulty is the complexity of analysing masses of economic and social data across so many indicators and countries

8. Europe

9. Low public investment, mixed market approach(liberal social welfare model) • Investment: less than 0.5% of GDP: Australia, Canada, Ireland, Korea, US… UK (much improved but still below 5%) • Values: conservative social values with economic dynamism through labour market deregulation and flexibility… • Political discourse: children subsumed under family policy, childcare a labour market necessity, readiness for school… • Pattern of provision: childcare is weakly developed, predominated by family and informal care; early education begins a year or 2 years before obligatory schooling

10. Low public investment, mixed market approach contd. In some countries, high female participation rates… with low levels of cc provision. Shortages prevented through: • Mothers withdrawing from labour. • Reliance on pools of informal carers • Creation of flexible labour markets…. • Encouragement of private for-profit carers… • Some positive signs of improved regulation and investment…

11. Continental welfare model

12. 2. The mid-investment, pre-school model • Values: mixed social values, a wide range of economies and labour market policies … • Neo-familial tendencies: a privileged place for the family unit under which, the interests of women and children may be subsumed with a corresponding ambiguity concerning mothers of young children at work • Political discourse: necessity of a mix of family, public, private and voluntary childcare (the EU compromise); and of free, publicly financed early education from the age of 3 years…

13. The mid-investment, pre-school model, contd. • Investment: 0.4% to 0.9% of GDP: continental EU countries, and UK since 1997… • Pattern of provision: childcare is weakly developed, except for Belgium and France; strong early education systems with universal access, going toward long-day services… • Continental leaders, Belgium and France, have also the conservative contradictions

14. The high investment (social-democratic model)

15. 3. The high investment, public provision model • Public investment is strong, ranging from 1.3% in Finland to 2.3% in Sweden. Public funding is channeled directly to providers through the municipalities • Children have a special claim on society’s resources … • Day care a cornerstone of social, gender equality and family policies, yet not expected to solve upstream poverty issues… • Parental leave lasts about a year • Gender equality is protected

16. The high investment, public provision model, contd. • Services are universal: Access runs from 64 % of 1-3 years having access in Denmark (1999 figures), Sweden 80% (2-3 years, 2004) reaching full coverage in the pre-school year • Links encouraged between services, families and communities… parent committees have a decisive role… • The development of young children as citizens is a primary pedagogical aim… a preparation for life rather than readiness for school • Staff are highly trained and correctly remunerated in keeping with the educational and social importance of their task.

17. Part IVTwo contrasting curriculum frameworks

18. Some definitions… Curriculum framework : • A statement of values, goals and pedagogical principles • A summary of programme standards • A general guideline to the knowledge, skills, dispositions andvalues that children can be expected to learn at different ages in the early childhood period… Vs The traditional school curriculum: • A structured progression of instructional activities and lessons

19. Curriculum Issues – Key Findings of Starting Strong • Many countries are progressing from academic curricula toward curriculum frameworks • Agreement on the utility of curriculum frameworks • To promote an even level of quality… • To help guide and support professional staff • To ensure pedagogical continuity between kindergarten and school • Much agreement about curricular principles and aspirations • Active and play-based • Cognitive learning fields • Particular aspirations shared • In reality –the majority situation reflects the traditional split between education and care, and the different approaches of the social pedagogy and pre-school traditions

20. Two main approaches… Two main approaches to curriculum • The social pedagogy approach, e.g. broad developmental goals • The readiness for school approach, e.g. the old Foundation Stage Profile Broad goals Focussed goals (a danger of over-contrasting the approaches…) On the continuum, where does the focus fall ?

21. Pre-school tradition Centralised development of curriculum A focus on learning standards, teachers, classroom environment Often prescriptive clear targets and outcomes Assessment often required A growing focus on individual language and competence in the national language, both oral and phonemic Social pedagogy A broad central guideline with local development of curriculum Focus on broad developmental goals. Interactivity with educators and peers encouraged Broad orientations rather than prescribed outcomes. Assessment not required. Individual goals for each child are set A growing focus on individual language and oral competence in the national language Pre-school and social pedagogy traditions

22. Emerging professional profiles Part V

23. Early childhood lead professional profiles

24. New skills for the EC pedagogue or teacher • The choice between the social pedagogue or the early childhood teacher… or team working… Different role emphases • The social pedagogue: focussing on both family and early education (a social emphasis: care and upbringing of children in a learning environment, parental outreach…) Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway… Sure Start… • The early educator focussing on both children’s learning and on motivating parents to support children’s learning (a pedagogical emphasis in which knowledge and content is important)… Finland, Hungary, Sweden… • Multi-disciplinary teams with always early educators… and in diversity, low income conditions, always a social pedagogue to animate outreach to families

25. A task for the unions • The development of participatory, national curricular frameworks that set high standards for ECEC services • Defence of the necessary conditions of effective ECEC, that is, requisite structural (input) features:adequate financing; well-qualified and well-paid staff; well-resourced learning environments, suitable facilities… • The necessity of certification, that is, of a specific training and diploma to exercise in the early childhood field • An adequate concept of pedagogy: Betreung, Erziehung und Bildung - an approach to young children that includes care, upbringing and education as learning…