TY - JOUR
T1 - Making space for ‘learning’
T2 - Appropriating new learning agendas in early childhood education and care
AU - Dannesboe, Karen Ida
AU - Westerling, Allan
AU - Juhl, Pernille
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Early learning agendas are currently being introduced in early childhood education and care (ECEC) by transnational organizations such as the EU and OECD. In this paper, we focus on Denmark, where such agendas interweave with a pedagogical tradition emphasizing a child-centered approach and children’s play. Based on ethnographic research, we explore learning agendas as part of practice in ECEC centers, pursuing the situated meanings of a learning program as part of everyday practice in ECEC centers from three different perspectives: of children, professionals and managers. Informed by psychological and anthropological traditions, this design employs an agentic stance and conceptualizes children, professionals and managers as subjects actively contributing to the co-creation, transformation and translation of policies in everyday contexts. Key findings suggest that the appropriation of national and international learning agendas in ECEC settings characterized by local traditions is an ambiguous process. On the one hand, the learning program’s structure can support existing professional practices and traditions. On the other hand, the program’s focus on learning goals and evaluation practices reduces the focus on pedagogy and supports administrative and political logics, which in turn marginalizes important knowledge about children and their engagements.
AB - Early learning agendas are currently being introduced in early childhood education and care (ECEC) by transnational organizations such as the EU and OECD. In this paper, we focus on Denmark, where such agendas interweave with a pedagogical tradition emphasizing a child-centered approach and children’s play. Based on ethnographic research, we explore learning agendas as part of practice in ECEC centers, pursuing the situated meanings of a learning program as part of everyday practice in ECEC centers from three different perspectives: of children, professionals and managers. Informed by psychological and anthropological traditions, this design employs an agentic stance and conceptualizes children, professionals and managers as subjects actively contributing to the co-creation, transformation and translation of policies in everyday contexts. Key findings suggest that the appropriation of national and international learning agendas in ECEC settings characterized by local traditions is an ambiguous process. On the one hand, the learning program’s structure can support existing professional practices and traditions. On the other hand, the program’s focus on learning goals and evaluation practices reduces the focus on pedagogy and supports administrative and political logics, which in turn marginalizes important knowledge about children and their engagements.
KW - ECEC
KW - Early learning
KW - everyday life
KW - participatory research
KW - policy appropriation
KW - social practice
U2 - 10.1080/02680939.2021.1979659
DO - 10.1080/02680939.2021.1979659
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0268-0939
VL - 38
SP - 302
EP - 320
JO - Journal of Education Policy
JF - Journal of Education Policy
IS - 2
ER -