Learning at the Centre—Under What Terms?:
How does the convergence of care and education terminology in the Irish early
childhood sector present an opportunity for learning at the centre of policy?
Maria Gallo
[email protected]
Key words: early childhood, care, education, Ireland, learning
Introduction
Over the past decade, the early childhood sector in Ireland has experienced an identity crisis. The
list of terms used by the Irish government in recent policy discourse is varied: childcare, early
years education, early childhood education, early childhood care and education, early childhood
development and care. Do all these terms mean the same thing? This article limits its discussion
to the situation in Ireland, arguing that the polarised terminology between care and education is
the legacy of two anchoring documents: the National Childcare Strategy (Eire, 1999) and the
White Paper of Early Childhood Education Ready to Learn (DES, 1999).
The terms used to describe the sector reflect the converging of a dichotomy between
care and education hinged more in politics than in practice. The coming together of care
and education is particularly evident after December 2005, when the Office for the Minister
for Children was designated as the lead department for the sector. As the gap between
care and education in early childhood narrows, the focus of the discourse becomes
increasingly child-centred - that is, the focus is on the benefit of the sector to the child. The
early childhood sector in Ireland is in its infancy, however, and government policy must
first consider the growth of systems and infrastructure in order to have a positive impact on
children. By putting learning at the centre, new opportunities open up enabling the
appropriate foundations to be built with outcomes to benefit the child.
The analysis offered in this article shows how recent government rhetoric places the
child at the centre (OMC, 2006a; CECDE, 2006). However, the child at the centre of
provision and the child at the centre of policy are very different. It is arguable, therefore,
that the government needs to put learning at the centre of policy, so that the growth and
learning required by the sector contributes to building a child-centred provision. In
addition, the term early childhood care and education (ECCE), now widely used, implies
policy is outcome-focused for the child. A critical analysis of recent policy suggests,
however, that the government may be in danger of forgetting that the sector is still in
transition.
Ranson (1994, 1998) presents an anchoring assumption for the learning society:
learning is at the centre of polity. The learning society can be described as a holistic
approach to society, whereby "learning is the organising principle” (Ranson, 1998, 96). To
build a learning society, Ranson suggests that:
It is only when the values and processes of learning are placed at the centre of the
polity that the conditions can be established for all individuals to develop their
capacities, and that institutions can respond openly and imaginatively to a period of
change. (Ranson, 1994: 106)
The dynamic nature of such a learning society fits well with the rapid changes taking place
in the early childhood sector. By applying this concept, I wish to argue the case for laying
the foundations for a learning society in order to progress policies of lifelong commitment
to learning in all environments (Ranson, 1994), and that an inter-departmental approach is
poised to place learning at the centre of policy development, implementation and
evaluation. This model will not only have an impact on children, but will enable the Irish
government to foster the ethos of a learning-society.
This context prompted a number of questions that will be explored in this paper:
•
how do the seminal government documents in the early childhood sector
polarise the terminology between care and education?
•
how has the evolution of the terminology changed to become more childcentred?
•
how does the convergence of the terminology related to care and education
provide an opportunity for learning for the sector at the centre?
The analysis concentrates on key government documents, including the National
Childcare Strategy (Eire, 1999), now the responsibility of the Office for the Minister for
Children, and Ready to Learn (DES, 1999), a White Paper published by the Department of
Education and Science. It then examines documents published since the establishment of
1
the lead government department, the Office for the Minister for Children. This includes the
revised National Childcare Strategy 2006-2010 (OMC, 2006a; OMC, 2006b; OMC, 2006c)
and Síolta, the National Framework for Quality for Early Childhood Education (CECDE,
2006).
Finally, it shows how the rhetoric in current government publications shifts to becoming
child-centred but how the actual policies presented present the opportunity to shift to a
learning-centred model. In her book, The Foundations of Learning, Fisher makes specific
reference to learning for young children using a construction analogy: “Foundations take
longer to create than buildings” (Fisher, 2002, 118). However, this could easily be applied
to the rapidly developing early childhood sector in Ireland as a whole, where Government
policy in early childhood has changed rapidly in the last decade and will lay a lasting
foundation that will inevitably have a direct impact on all children.
History of the Early Childhood Sector in Ireland
Traditionally, young children in Ireland were cared for in the home with little need for a
formal, facility-based early-years provision, described as ‘childcare’ services, outside of the
traditional school system (DJELR, 2004). Even as recently as 1998, only 17% of children
under twelve attended a centre-based service, with 70% of this care being in pre-school
provision emphasising child development instead of the need to facilitate parents’
opportunites to work, train or pursue education (Eire, 1999). Until 2006, policy-making and
regulation of the sector were diffused, being spread between eleven government
departments (Eire, 1999), with public investment in the sector being less than 0.5% of
Gross Domestic Product (NESF, 2005; National Children’s Office, 1999; Corrigan, 2004).
This resulted in early-childhood policy silos, with Government policy being implemented
with little inter-departmental cooperation.
In 1999, the Irish Government published two significant documents related to the early
childhood sector. The first was Ready to Learn (DES, 1999), the White Paper on Early
Childhood Education, which outlined a number of key objectives and referenced the low
base of education provision for children under the age of six. The document noted the
Government’s existing contribution to early years education with junior and senior infant
classes in primary schools for four and five year olds1 (DES, 1999). Therefore, Ready to
Learn focused exclusively on early childhood education in a school setting, addressing
1
Children in Ireland are not required by law to start school before six years of age.
2
high teacher to pupil ratios in classrooms, quality indicators and the need for an
appropriate curriculum for children under six (DES, 1999).
In the same year, the Irish government published a second important document, the
National Childcare Strategy (Eire, 1999), which proposed an inter-departmental and interagency collaboration to address the issues of childcare in Ireland. The document
distinguishes between childcare and education and excludes primary school classes (Eire,
1999, 14-15). The guiding principles and recommendations in the National Childcare
Strategy are ambitious, marking a significant shift in the work of the sector, but the
document does not outline a timeframe for implementation, nor does it outline what
outcomes will be used as measures of success.
The legacy of the National Childcare Strategy is the Equal Opportunities Childcare
Programme (EOCP), which has been realised through a significant investment received
from European Union Structural Funds. As the first major early-childhood programme in
Ireland, the objectives of the EOCP included the “promotion of equality of opportunity in
the work place and the removal of barriers to female participation in the labour market”
(DJELR, 2004: 13). Following from the recommendations of the National Childcare
Strategy, the EOCP was the responsibility of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law
Reform (DJELR).
The main targets of the EOCP included increasing the number of childcare places in
Ireland in order to enable parents to return to work, training or education. Over six years,
the EOCP invested over €500 million and created over 36,000 new childcare places.
Under the EOCP, the government also established a local childcare support infrastructure
in the form of the City and County Childcare Committees (CCCs). The role of the CCCs is
to work on co-ordinating the efforts of local partners in order to increase the capacity and
quality of childcare, based on the recommendations of the National Childcare Strategy
(Eire, 1999: 73). Our Children, Their Lives, the Irish National Children’s Strategy (2000),
reinforced this support for the EOCP insofar as it sought to “ensure that all children have
access to quality support services offering early education, developmental and
socialisation opportunities” (EIRE, 2000: 50).
In December 2005, an historic government announcement made the Office for the
Minister for Children, under the Department of Health and Children, the lead department in
3
taking these developments forward. The Government also launched the successor to the
EOCP - the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 (NCIP). Unlike the
EOCP, this new programme is exchequer-funded, with a focus on breaking the cycle of
disadvantage through the development of high quality, child-centred provision (OMC,
2006a, 3-5) and it has clear, measurable targets, including the creation of 50,000 places
by 2010. The updated National Childcare Strategy also includes an Early Childcare
Supplement2 payment, made directly to parents, and a National Training Strategy.3
At the same time, following the recommendations from Ready to Learn, the
Department of Education and Science established the Centre for Early Childhood
Development and Education (CECDE) in 2002, to investigate issues of quality in early
childhood education. Four years later, the CECDE launched Síolta - the National Quality
Framework for Early Childhood Education, which provided a blueprint for quality in settings
for children under six, including full day-care, pre-school settings, child-minding and infant
classes in schools.4
Policy and Discourse
Care
With wide sector representation, the findings of the Expert Working Group on Childcare
were published as the National Childcare Strategy (1999), with the purpose of providing
the Government with strategic direction for the sector. However, at the time of formulating
the Strategy, no specific government department held the responsibility for delivery.
Therefore, the Strategy reads as a catchall response to the needs of the sector without an
agenda for any particular government department. The recommendations are broad: from
standardising practitioner training to reassessing regulation; from investing in infrastructure
to building local partnerships; from enhancing social benefits to increasing childcare
places. The Strategy also discusses the outcomes required for the sector but only briefly
describes the systems needed to realise the change.
2
The Early Childcare Supplement is a payment of €1,000 per year paid directly to parents on a quarterly
basis for all children under the age of six.
33
The National Training Strategy targets a commitment of 17,000 qualified childcare workers by 2010.
However, at time of writing, the government has not yet released the Strategy itself, the resources or the
definition of a ‘qualified childcare worker.’
4
At time of writing, the Irish government has yet to commit assessment tools, funding, resources and support
to providers to attain the Síolta standards.
4
The National Childcare Strategy defines childcare with a wide outcome focus: “services
offering care, education and socialisation opportunities for children to the benefit of
children, parents, employers and the wider community” (Eire, 1999: xxiii). While the
definition unites the three service elements with ‘and’, implying that all three need to be in
place, the rhetoric focuses primarily on outputs for parents. For instance, the Strategy
advocates an increase in childcare places to meet the increased demand, especially from
working parents (Eire, 1999).
In the social context section of the Strategy, five out of the six factors highlighted
directly target the needs of parents, employers and practitioners. Only the final factor in
this section refers to the rights of children, but even then this is brought back to the wider
stakeholder group:
There has been growing recognition, both nationally and internationally, of the role of
quality childcare services in providing enhanced social and educational opportunities
for children, in addition to the substantial benefits it brings to families and communities in terms of its contribution to health, educational attainment, socialisation,
participation in training and employment and job creation. (Eire, 1999: 7)
The multi-stakeholder approach is repeated throughout the Strategy, presenting the
beneficiaries of childcare as society, communities, providers, parents, employers and
children (EIRE, 1999: 52).
Although the National Childcare Strategy does recognise and outline the benefits of
early childhood education for children (Eire, 1999), it is evident in reading the document
that education is kept at an arm’s length from childcare. The most extensive mention of
education in the document is under the heading “Needs and Rights of Children” (Eire,
1999: 44), where two key international documents are endorsed by the Expert Working
Group: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Quality Targets
of the European Commission Network on Childcare (Eire, 1999), defining the latter as the
‘educational element of childcare’ (Eire, 1999: 45). By using the term ‘element’ instead of
‘elements,’ the Strategy appears to consider education as a separate but clearly defined
aspect of childcare, with no overlap with other aspects of a childcare programme.
5
To add further distance between the terms childcare and early childhood education, the
National Childcare Strategy widens the definition of childcare to include out-of-school care
for children up to twelve years of age. This also distances it from the educational aims of
childcare by identifying the benefit to parents. For instance in the Strategy, childcare
services, such as pre-school or full day-care facilities are not explicitly mentioned as
having a responsibility for rolling out an early childhood education agenda; instead the
Strategy locates this responsibility with early childhood programmes, which are left
unspecified, an entity and structure that are not defined (Eire, 1999).
While the rhetoric in the document presents a division between care and education, the
Strategy does make clear where the two areas converge: “Care and education are
inextricably linked elements in a child’s holistic development - this reality must be reflected
in the ethos and programme of all services” (Eire, 1999: 45, 50). The Strategy excludes a
care and education link in the development of Government policy, but acknowledges the
link that occurs in practice through the delivery of services (including childcare services).
Moreover, when referring to the benefits for children, early childhood care and education
(ECCE) and childcare are used interchangeably to imply the same thing: “In addition to the
benefits of early childhood care and education to children there are also clear benefits to
parents and the wider community from quality childcare.” (Eire, 1999: 54) On the surface,
this seems like an innocuous use of varied terminology, implying that quality childcare is
early childhood care and education. However, this statement shows that for children,
ECCE is relevant, while childcare is for the benefit of other stakeholders.
The National Childcare Strategy (Eire, 1999) broadened the definition of the term
childcare to have multiple meanings, including educational assumptions. Throughout the
document, childcare is defined as: a means of social economy; the type of service, such
as pre-school or full day-care, or as a ‘by product of other activities’ (Eire, 1999: 18); as an
emerging employment sector; as a private business sector; and as an enabler for parents
(in particular mothers) to have equality of opportunity in the labour force. With so many
agendas and expectations within such a diverse sector, the term ‘childcare’ had different
meanings for different people reading the document. The use of the term childcare in this
way throughout the document therefore gives the Government latitude to prioritise one
aspect of childcare over another, to satisfy one stakeholder group or to progress a
particular agenda. Thus, in the National Childcare Strategy, the core definition of childcare
6
outside of the formal school system is left open to wide interpretation, and includes
crèches, pre-school and home-based settings.
Education
Also in 1999, the Department of Education and Science published Ready to Learn, a
White Paper on Early Childhood Education (DES, 1999). This document focused on
education, starting with a reference to early childhood education in schools, specifically
infant classes (DES, 1999: 1.3). This paper was written before the significant capital
investment of the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme and therefore the availability
of centre-based facilities was limited, giving parents little choice of provision. Ready to
Learn is firmly focused on the education to the child, emphasising process not outcome.
Although the White Paper acknowledges the relationship between care and education,
it is not without a caveat: “It should, however, be emphasised that early education is
important in its own right” (DES, 1999: 1.2). Terms such as ‘early education’ in the White
Paper are exclusively linked with the responsibilities of the DES, focusing not on the child,
but specifically on education, similar to primary education or secondary education. In
contrast, early childhood education is used in the White Paper to describe the shift of
emphasis in childcare services to bring an educational element into the provision and in
this context, the term acknowledges the child.
Moreover, care is absent from the Department’s mission, which is described as being
“to support the development of a high quality education system which will enable
individuals to develop to their full potential as persons and to participate fully as citizens in
Ireland’s social and economic development” (DES, 1999: 1.1). The terms used in Ready to
Learn are carefully crafted: the Department of Education uses the single term ‘education’
to take responsibility for this area, while ‘early childhood education’ remains at arm’s
length from the Department and thus at arm’s length in terms of their responsibility. The
term ‘childcare’ in Ready to Learn is completely absent and the Department of Education
appears to accept no responsibility for child care-related initiatives (DES, 1999). It is
apparent therefore that Ready to Learn focuses primarily on pedagogy, curriculum and on
the process of providing young children with an education; however, the document makes
no mention of the setting for this education - infant classes in primary schools or otherwise.
The following quote shows how DES employs terms carefully to preserve the role of
education:
7
This White Paper sets out Government policy on education for young children. It is
concerned chiefly with the formulation of policy concerning the education component
of early education services, whatever the context, while, at the same time, taking
account of the care needs of children when planning education provision in a variety
of contexts. (DES, 1999: 1.1)
It is important to note that the term ‘young children’ is connected in this context to
‘education’, not to ECE or ECCE. In addition, the age range of ‘young children’ is not
defined; unlike the National Childcare Strategy, the White Paper focuses on process to
achieve outputs, namely teaching, in the discourse. Education is matched with strong
words like ‘chiefly’, while care is linked with weaker rhetoric like ‘taking account’ as an
incidental part of a larger educational purpose.
In the section entitled ‘Policy Debate on Childcare in Ireland’ (DES, 1999: 1.2), ECE is
outlined as a benefit for children. The term childcare, however, is only mentioned once in
this section, specifically as an output in the context of outlining an objective of increasing
the number of childcare places. This is an important distinction, since education is used
interchangeably with the term early childhood education, whereas childcare is not
automatically referenced to care (DES, 1999).
The tone of the document implies that childcare provision is of less importance than the
educational aspects of early childhood education: “All early childhood services must
encompass, not only childcare, but also education. Put simply, care without education
cannot succeed in promoting educational objectives” (DES, 1999: 1.4). Thus the White
Paper distances childcare from educational inputs. By the third sentence in this paragraph,
the word ‘care’ completely disappears: “Moreover, the benefits of early childhood
education accrue only where interventions are of sufficiently high quality”. The phrase
childcare is also used in a negative sense: “There is little point in using childcare as a
mechanism for tackling disadvantage if it does not address the educational and
developmental needs of children.” (DES, 1999: 1.6) This phrase again puts distance
between childcare and early childhood education and disparages childcare as a service
that is less important than providing an appropriate curriculum.
8
Narrowing the Funnel
Since the turn of the century, the early childhood sector in Ireland has seen a rapid and
visible change and the descriptions used in the sector are evolving, both in meaning and
application. The terminology used in the National Childcare Strategy (childcare) and
Ready to Learn (early childhood education, early education) make it clear that there is a
recognised shift in terminology to reflect a joined care and education ethos.
To visualise this change, Figure 1 outlines the funnel effect of the terminology,
converging progressively from a broad and diverse starting point towards a narrow base.
Figure 1: The Convergence of Care and Education Terms in the
Irish Early Childhood Sector
Early
Childhood
Education
Care
Childcare
Early
Childhood
Development
and Care
Education
Early Years
Education
Early
Childhood
Education and
Care
Early
Childhood
Care and
Education
This illustrates how the discourse in the Irish early-years sector has moved, since 1999,
from the top of the funnel towards the neck and that, despite the variety of terms for the
sector in Government discourse, there is an emerging common language that is gaining
acceptance.
Below is a brief overview of some agencies and government departments in Ireland
that have used different terms to describe the sector. Even the OECD (2004) noted the
wide variance of terminology used to describe the Irish early childhood sector and issued a
caveat that this variance could lead to wide interpretation among stakeholders in the
sector.
9
Term used in Irish
Government Policy
Early Childhood
Education (ECE)
Childcare
Child Care
Early Education and
Development
Early Childhood
Development &
Education
Early Childhood
Education and Care
(ECEC)
Early Childhood Care
and Education- ECCE
Early Years Education
Early Childhood
Development and
Care
Reference by
Department/ /Agency
Department of Education
& Science (DES, 1999);
National Council for
Curriculum & Assessment
(NCCA, 2004)
Expert Working Group on
Childcare (Eire, 1999)
Child Care Act 1991 and
Child Care (Pre-School
Services) (No 2)
Regulations 2006 (EIRE,
1991; EIRE- OMC, 2006d)
National Children’s Office
(NCO, 2000, 52)
Brief context
Ready to Learn, White
Paper on ECE; NCCA
working group on ECE
to create a curriculum
for early learning
National Childcare
Strategy document
Regulatory document
for the inspection of preschool services
Recommendations from
the National Children’s
Strategy
Centre for Early Childhood Establishment of the
Development and
CECDE by the
Education (CECDE, 2002) Department of
Education and Science
National Children’s Office Reference to the High
(NCO, 2005)
Level Working Group on
Early Childhood
Education and Care for
the development of
government policy
National Economic Social NESF: Outlining a policy
Forum (NESF, 2005);
framework for the ECCE
Centre for Early Childhood sector in Ireland;
Development and
CECDE document
Education (Fallon, 2005,
Evidence and
CECDE, 2006)
Perspectives; Síolta
document
Early Years Education
Establishment of a new
Policy Unit - Office for the Early Years Education
Minister for Children/
Policy Unit to develop
Department of Education
the National Training
& Science (EYEPU, 2006) Strategy
Office of Social Inclusion,
Outlining the needs for
2007 (OSI, 2007)
children under the
National Plan for Social
Inclusion
Although the use of different terminology continues to be evident, the phrase “Early
Childhood Care and Education” (ECCE), as illustrated by Early Childhood in Ireland:
Evidence and Perspectives, has increasingly emerged as the most common term, even
though its precise meaning is still contentious: “Because of the rapidly developing
10
landscape in ECCE in Ireland, many issues to do with terminology have not yet been
resolved” (Fallon, 2005: 2).
Internationally, ECCE has also been recognised as the most common term in the early
childhood sector (UN General Assembly, 2002; UNESCO, 2006). For instance, the United
Nations General Assembly ratified an action plan entitled A World Fit for Children, outlining
the importance of early childhood care and education (UN General Assembly, 2002).
Moreover, UNESCO published Education for All (2006), a document that was part of the
process of monitoring the progress of attaining a number of goals by 2015, including those
in the field of early childhood care and education, outlining the progress and initiatives in a
number of countries across the globe and using the term ECCE to describe the work
completed.
A UNESCO Policy Brief acknowledges the complicated nature of terminology within the
sector: “Given the multifaceted nature of early childhood, the existence of several labels
may be inevitable. The range of institutional interest is such that it may, in fact, be a futile
attempt to seek a unifying label” (UNESCO, 2002: 2). This issue is evident in
developments in Ireland, where early childhood policy has used a variety of terms to serve
the specific agendas of different Departments or agencies, although there now appears to
be a growing acknowledgement of ECCE as a commonly understood term, which
addresses the holistic development of the child.
The Childcare Act 2006 in the United Kingdom also demonstrates the varied use of
terminology: early years provision; early childhood services; early years provider. The
definitions are explicit and all stem back to an omni-definition of ‘childcare’, however, so
the Act avoids polarisation and interlinks care and education:
“Childcare” means any form of care for a child and, subject to subsection (3), care
includes –
(a) education for a child, and
(b) any other supervised activity for a child.
(s.18, ss.2, Childcare Act, 2006).
In contrast, the equivalent legislation in Ireland, the Child Care Act 1991, separates the
words child and care, thus broadening the role of the Act from adoption to residential care
11
and the inspection of pre-school services (Eire, 1991). So while Irish Government policy
uses varied terms to define the sector, the legislative framework provided by the Child
Care Act provides no clear definition or guidance on appropriate terminology.
When the Government announced the extended National Childcare Strategy from 2006
to 2010, the term ‘childcare’ was still dominant in the policy, but with further
acknowledgement that childcare and early childhood care and education were seen as as
synonymous (OMC, 2006b: 1; OMC, 2006a: 1). Government rhetoric reflected the
electorate’s familiarity with the term ‘childcare’, which was understood as the provision of
services to care for children while parents are working whilst inside the sector, there has
been a visible growth in addressing the quality of provision, including training and
qualifications of practitioners.
The guiding principles of the NCIP focus primarily on the outcomes for children rather
than on the nature of the policy. When discussing a child-centred approach, however, and
arguing that “All children should be respected, cherished and supported by their families
and the wider community” (OMC, 2006a: 3), there is an absence information about how
the government links practice to these outcomes. Rather, the outcomes-based policy
focuses on outlining guiding principles, including the fourth principle:
To further develop the structures for co-ordination between statutory and nonstatutory actors in the sector, to deliver quality early childhood care and educational
services centred on the needs of the child. (OMC, 2006a: 5)
This provides another outcome statement, in which a child-focused ethos is linked to the
quality of provision, but which is then linked to a quantitative output - viz. the creation of
further places (OMC, 2006a: 5) - embodying an assumption that an increase in places
automatically creates quality places.
Another key objective in the revised National Childcare Strategy is “to further develop
the childcare infrastructure to meet the needs of children and their parents for quality early
childhood care.” (OMC, 2006b: 1) The terminology used here is significant, the word
education being absent, although it reappears later in the document through the DEIS
programme (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), which is explained as a
programme for tackling educational disadvantage (OMC, 2006b: 3-4). While DEIS is a
12
Department of Education and Science initiative, the updated National Childcare Strategy
document contends that the NCIP role in DEIS is to increase pre-school places (OMC,
2006c: 3-4).
Under the direction given by Ready to Learn (1999), the Centre for Early Childhood
Development and Education (CECDE) launched Síolta: the National Framework for
Quality for Early Childhood Education in 2006. Síolta (the word for ‘seeds’ in the Irish
language) emphasises the importance of the term ECCE for the sector and has adopted it
throughout the Síolta programme (CECDE, 2006), noting that the term Early Childhood
Care and Education is expanding in use in Ireland:
This term has gained strong endorsement from the diverse range of stakeholders in
the provision of services for young children as it reinforces the inseparable nature of
care and education essential in the provision of quality early learning experiences.
(CECDE, 2006: 3)
When defining the context in which the common term was chosen, the Síolta document
makes explicit reference to early childhood education, but not to childcare.
It is through Síolta and other recent government publications that ECCE has emerged
and come to be acknowledged as the overarching term for the sector. This narrowing of
focus has led to widespread agreement about the importance of placing children at the
centre (CECDE, 2006: 1; OMC, 2006a: 5). Síolta presents a comprehensive programme
for quality in all early-years settings and the focus on the child at the centre of policy is a
major advancement since the first major documents in this sector were published in 1999.
However, the document is again process-based - the routes for attaining quality are
discussed, but the assessment tools, policy and Government resources required to roll-out
the programme in the sector are absent.
In the next section of this paper, I argue that when learning is at the centre of
Government policy - that is, it becomes a learning exercise for all those involved in the
sector - there is a greater onus on the Government to identify appropriate resources for
implementation, support and monitoring, thus increasing the potential for this learning to
have a direct impact on children. Unfortunately, although Síolta is child-centred in its
ethos, it cannot be implemented widely because it lacks Government investment. If
13
learning were central to policy, Síolta would provide for Government funding to pilot or
even roll-out this framework to improve the quality of services, thus providing positive
opportunities for children. This would enable the Government to monitor the roll-out of
Síolta, making the policy a learning tool for all stakeholders involved.
Putting Learning at the Centre
In spite of the greater clarity that has arisen from the movement away from the polarisation
of ‘care’ and ‘education’ in policy, towards their eventual integration within the term early
childhood care and education, this has also narrowed the focus to the child, leaving the
original ethos of the care/education division (a multi-stakeholder approach for care;
pedagogy/curriculum for education) unresolved.
Exploring the idea of learning in this context refers in particular to learning for an
organisation or agency. Argyris (1999) argues that a combination of single-loop and
double-loop learning within an organisation is required (Argyris, 1999: 68 and 151-2).
Single-loop learning is unquestioned, repetitive routines (Argyris, 1999: 68; Argyris, 2003:
1179) while double-loop learning is more reflective, and involves making adjustments
when problems or challenges arise (Argyris, 1999: 68) along with questioning the routine
(Argyris, 2003, 1179). While this paper does not focus on learning styles per se, when
exploring learning at the centre of policy it is these single/double-loop learning
opportunities that are required to build a learning organisation (Argyris and Schon, 1978,
cited in Argyris, 1999: 67-69).
A learning-centred view enables policy-makers to look beyond the economic factors,
labour-force pressures, structured pedagogy and even child-centred views, to examine the
learning and knowledge investment needed for providers, practitioners, policy-makers, and
the support infrastructure in the sector, in order to make a positive impact on the learning
environment for children. To put learning at the centre of policy and the polity lends itself to
an hourglass image (see Figure 2), in which the narrowing of terms becomes broad again
to embrace and facilitate this learning, education and caring environment for children.
Therefore it is not specifically the learning needs of children that are the prime
consideration (shown as the narrowing of section in Figure 2), it is the learning needs of
the sector as a whole, since meeting these will enable it to implement and then analyse
the impact of the implementation, thus creating an environment of double-loop learning for
14
all stakeholders-practitioners, owner/managers, and the support infrastructure and policymakers. Figure 2 illustrates this analysis.
The bottom half of this diagram illustrates the opportunity for the Irish early-years
sector. Currently, the sector is at the centre, with children at the centre of policy
development. By broadening once again and keeping the united care and education ethos,
the conditions are right to bring learning to the centre of policy, thus enabling the sector
stakeholders to contribute to an effective implementation of policy to advance the sector.
Figure 2: The Convergence of Care and Education Terms in the Early Years Sector
in Ireland and Potential Divergence to Learning at the Centre of Policy
Early
Childhood
Education
Care
Childcare
Caring of
children
needs of
stakehold
ers and
labour
force at
centre of
policy
Education
Early Years
Education
Early
Childhood
Development
and Care
Early
Childhood
Education and
Care
Pedagogy
and
curriculum
at the
centre of
policy
Early
Childhood
Care and
Education
Children at the centre of policy
Training needs of
practitioners
Double
loop
learning
(analysis
and
bringing
about
new
routines)
Support for sector
infrastructure
Learning opportunities in
early childhood for other
stakeholders (e.g.
parents, policymakers)
Single loop learning
(unquestioned routine)
Identifying
resource
needs
Examining
international policy
and practice
Learning at the centre of policy
15
The example of parents seeking provision for a child puts the idea of the child being at the
centre of policy in perspective: if access to the provision is unaffordable, unavailable or
inaccessible to families, then whether or not the provision offers a high quality environment
for children becomes irrelevant. Moreover, barriers to accessing provisions do more than
limit opportunities for the child, they can also restrict the learning and employment
opportunities for the parents. According to Ranson, if policy is clearly taking a learningcentred approach, there needs to be a concerted effort to respond to and critically review
change (Ranson, 1994: 106). As a rapidly developing sector, policy in Ireland for the early
years should be more flexible and act as an enabler for the learning opportunities for all
members of the family. Thus although the child should be at the centre of policy-making
with learning at the centre, there are several other important considerations.
Irish policy-makers therefore need to distinguish between the child at the centre of a
service and the child at the centre of policy. It is to be hoped that in any setting, the players
involved - practitioners, parents, managers of the service, and regulatory bodies - have the
best interests and welfare of children at heart. However, this assertion is idealistic since
some services may focus on regulation, or cater for the needs of parents as their main
priority. Therefore, to build awareness and consciousness of children at the centre of a
service, learning within the sector must be at the centre of policy; policy-makers and those
responsible for implementation still have too much to learn about the sector in Ireland and
international best practice to rest on their laurels. Ensuring that practices of learning
remain at the centre of policy will mean that children’s learning remains at the centre of the
sector’s work. Consideration must also be given, however, to parents in terms of their
opportunities for accessing learning, understanding and interacting better with the early
childhood services and the process of children’s assessment, and also by their having the
means to access their own training or education.
In order to be able to achieve the vision of an appropriate universal service for children
under six, learning for early-childhood practitioners is the key. This may need to start with
single-loop learning, whereby the practitioners learn the context and build a routine based
on policy. The progression routes for existing practitioners need to continue to be
developed and the education of practitioners about developments and policy in the sector
needs to continue, for without appropriately qualified staff, the policies cannot be
implemented effectively. This will then build the knowledge-base in the sector in order to
bring practitioners into a phase of double-loop learning, whereby they are reflecting on
16
their own practice. There is also a need for continued capacity building; the fact that a
large proportion of early childhood provision in Ireland is managed by volunteer
management committees (comprised primarily of parent volunteers) needs to be in the
minds of policy-makers, since ensuring that their ongoing learning needs can be met is
important in terms of providing a high-quality service. Addressing parents’ learning needs
will also enable parents to understand the importance of early childhood education
opportunities for their children, thus enabling them to make informed choices in relation to
children’s services.
Community-based agencies, such as the County and City Childcare Committees and
National Voluntary Childcare Collaborative, are in place to support the sector, and these
agencies also need to be at the forefront of the double-loop learning - not simply
implementing policy as instructed, but questioning and analysing the implementation
process in order better to support the process of putting policy into practice. Building
capacity and fostering learning within the sector will help to ensure strong roots and the
development of the best services for young children. The sector, including policy-makers,
also constantly needs to be aware of good practice and how effective policy works in
practice. There is therefore also an element of learning needed here in order to find those
models, perhaps even international models, which are best to replicate in the Irish context.
This cannot be done effectively, however, unless learning can be situated at the centre of
policy.
The adoption of too narrow a perspective in policy-making, such as thinking only of the
labour force or about children, does not serve the needs of the sector as a whole and there
are a number of issues that need to be addressed. The sector is underdeveloped, not only
in terms of the quantity and range of services it offers, but also in terms of the resources it
is allocated compared to other countries. Service users (i.e. parents and families) are also,
as yet, not fully aware of what constitutes quality in terms of provision and therefore need
to be fully informed and empowered in order to demand and access the best service.5 In
addition, early childhood practitioners themselves are only at the early stages of accessing
continued professional development and bringing this learning to practice.
5
It should be noted that parents also encounter other barriers (e.g. cost, availability)
to accessing the provision of their choice.
17
The revised National Childcare Strategy 2006 - 2010 addresses many of the
recommendations from the original Strategy through new policy initiatives, such as the
Early Childcare Supplement and National Childcare Training Strategy. In this context, by
placing learning at the centre of policy, there is an opportunity to monitor the success of
these policies to achieve more equal opportunities in terms of access to quality provision.
Both policies also provide learning opportunities - the former to act as a potential enabler
for parents and the latter as a learning initiative for practitioners working directly with
children.
An example illustrates the value of a learning-centred approach; consider a pre-school
setting managed by a volunteer management committee of parents with a staff of three. If
the organisation only has children at the centre of their work, the impulse may be to
provide better equipment, more trips for children and to introduce a new curriculum. A
child-centred ethos is the outcome, however, when learning-centredness is the output; the
link between the output and the outcome is how learning translates into better outcomes
for children. In this example, the focus on a better learning environment for all - learning to
become better managers for the setting; training and professional development for staff;
training in a new curriculum model; understanding best practice models from other preschools - has the knock-on effect of producing a positive environment for children.
Resources are used to link outputs to outcomes. Thus, a high quality pre-school
programme does not automatically mean children get a better transition to school, but it is
the process of learning in between - for practitioners, managers and policy-makers - to
ensure the provision is fully accessible (both physically and in terms of affordability) for
children and families, making the opportunities to achieve outcomes attainable.
In keeping learning at the centre of policy development and implementation, however,
outputs will not automatically lead to the desired outcomes unless there is also
consideration of not only the resources, but how the resources translate into learning for
the sector as a whole and better learning opportunities for children. Since Ireland is in the
process of building the infrastructure in this sector, it is learning by the sector that needs to
stay at the centre of the process and to address a number of questions such as: how can
stakeholders, including practitioners who work directly with children, be educated and
foster better outcomes for children? how does government policy encourage learning for
managers/owners of services on curriculum issues, the importance of continuing
professional development for practitioners in the setting? how can the resources (including
18
funding) be best used to ensure a high quality environment? These questions all include a
component of continuing learning for the sector. With an early childhood sector that is in a
state of transition, it is easy to say claim that the policy and setting are child-centred.
However, although this is a benevolent sector and it is therefore easy to have policies and
practices that claim to have the best interests of children at heart, by incorporating
learning-centred principles into policy, the government can have the best interests of
children both in the head and at heart.
Conclusion
The terminology used within the early-childhood sector in Ireland will continue to evolve
and be employed both carefully and carelessly in policy. While different terms point
towards a common rhetoric, however, it is of paramount importance that the earlychildhood sector considers first and foremost the development and learning needed to
strategically build a healthy sector.
In her book Foundations of Learning, Fisher draws an analogy between early-childhood
sector and the construction of a building: “If new buildings are to be added to existing
buildings, making the right connections between the foundations is crucial” (Fisher, 2002,
124). In this context, Fisher asserts the importance of making connections for learning in
early childhood. Moreover, this analogy underlines the need for a harmonisation of
terminology and vision in order to build on the foundations of existing policies and
infrastructure in Ireland. This building must also, however, connect to the sector’s
foundation documents, Ready to Learn and the National Childcare Strategy, and take
stock of these in order to construct foundations appropriately.
The wide variation in the terms used in policy, and the focus of previous policies and
practices on the participation of women in the labour force and the principles of child
centred-ness, has meant that early childhood education in Ireland has not yet realised its
full potential. By putting the principle of learning at the centre, however, the appropriate
mindset and foundations can be built in order to identify the learning that needs to be done
by stakeholders, society, providers, practitioners and the support infrastructure, in order to
bring about positive outcomes for children and families.
19
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