Abstract
This paper addresses the contradictory characteristics of the situation in 2020 when Danish ECEC institutions partially reopened after a monthlong closedown due to the covid pandemic. Empirically the paper draws on several Danish research projects, but primarily on our own project (observation and interviews in 3 institutions), which took place in April-May 2020.
Institutions were reopened but for fewer children, shorter daily hours and with an extensive number of hygienic behavioral guidelines: Children’s moving around between classrooms were practically forbidden. Children had to wash their hands often. Parents were not allowed to enter the institutions. Etc.
In this way the opening was heavily regulated and may be considered an extreme case (Flyvbjerg 1991) of institutional life. Even so the period was also characterized by improved child-staff-ratios, more free play, more interaction and closeness between pedagogues (teachers) and children. In general this lead to a positive evaluation from many practitioners (and researchers) of the effect of the covid regime for the everyday life in ECEC institutions. This is in contrast with experiences from other countries (Bertram & Pascal 2021;
RECE 2020).
We view the Danish situation in spring 2020 as paradoxical: on the one hand a stronger state governance and more restrictions were enforced on the everyday practice. A serious downside was also that the same steps caused a great number of families and children to be cut off from ECEC institutions. On the other hand, the situation opened for a more available, close and caring pedagogical practice, as well as more predictable relations for attending children.
The positive changes in everyday life were to a large extent caused by the massive improvement in de facto child-staff ratio. But we did also see other reasons for changes e.g. smaller and more clear groups of children, a different time structure, less emphasis on curriculum and much stronger use of outdoor facilities.
The raison d’être behind these positive changes were to hinder spread of covid. But at the same time, they generated a situation where ECEC personnel experienced changes – and maybe more importantly – that radical changes overnight are possible. This was also the case because the covid regime was introduced less than a year after a huge movement for mandatory minimum child-staff-ratios.
So, although the situation now is back to ‘normal’ we discuss opportunities of reconceptualizing ECEC in the light of experiences from this period.
Institutions were reopened but for fewer children, shorter daily hours and with an extensive number of hygienic behavioral guidelines: Children’s moving around between classrooms were practically forbidden. Children had to wash their hands often. Parents were not allowed to enter the institutions. Etc.
In this way the opening was heavily regulated and may be considered an extreme case (Flyvbjerg 1991) of institutional life. Even so the period was also characterized by improved child-staff-ratios, more free play, more interaction and closeness between pedagogues (teachers) and children. In general this lead to a positive evaluation from many practitioners (and researchers) of the effect of the covid regime for the everyday life in ECEC institutions. This is in contrast with experiences from other countries (Bertram & Pascal 2021;
RECE 2020).
We view the Danish situation in spring 2020 as paradoxical: on the one hand a stronger state governance and more restrictions were enforced on the everyday practice. A serious downside was also that the same steps caused a great number of families and children to be cut off from ECEC institutions. On the other hand, the situation opened for a more available, close and caring pedagogical practice, as well as more predictable relations for attending children.
The positive changes in everyday life were to a large extent caused by the massive improvement in de facto child-staff ratio. But we did also see other reasons for changes e.g. smaller and more clear groups of children, a different time structure, less emphasis on curriculum and much stronger use of outdoor facilities.
The raison d’être behind these positive changes were to hinder spread of covid. But at the same time, they generated a situation where ECEC personnel experienced changes – and maybe more importantly – that radical changes overnight are possible. This was also the case because the covid regime was introduced less than a year after a huge movement for mandatory minimum child-staff-ratios.
So, although the situation now is back to ‘normal’ we discuss opportunities of reconceptualizing ECEC in the light of experiences from this period.
| Bidragets oversatte titel | Restriktioner og åbninger - daginstitutionsliv under covid-regime |
|---|---|
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
| Publikationsdato | 24 jun. 2022 |
| Status | Udgivet - 24 jun. 2022 |
| Begivenhed | 31st Annual Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education Conference: Being together in/with place: Reimagining Pedagogies in Transformational Times - Hybrid konference, Vancouver, Canada Varighed: 23 jun. 2022 → 26 jun. 2022 Konferencens nummer: 31 https://receinternational.org/2022-rece/ |
Konference
| Konference | 31st Annual Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education Conference |
|---|---|
| Nummer | 31 |
| Lokation | Hybrid konference |
| Land/Område | Canada |
| By | Vancouver |
| Periode | 23/06/2022 → 26/06/2022 |
| Andet | We invite early childhood researchers, scholars, educators, pedagogues, teacher‐educators, and activists to the 28th Annual Hybrid Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education (RECE) Conference, to be held at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.<br/><br/>The conference theme reflects our current times of radical uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought suffering, loss and material hardship to millions of people around the world. Combined with this, people continue to differently experience ongoing climate emergencies, large scale ecological and environmental disasters, mass migrations and displacement in the world.<br/><br/>At the same time, new connections are made. In the midst of these ongoing crises, the 2022 Conference will offer members of the RECE community and their allies opportunities to come together, to reaffirm their sense of community, agency, creativity and commitments. It will bring us together to once more explore ways for co-creating a more livable, equitable, just, caring and welcoming world for children, families and early childhood educators around the globe.<br/><br/>In light of existential and multifaceted social and environmental issues, the 2022 hybrid RECE conference centers on the notion of place. However, place is always political and not innocent. RECE 2022 will be in Vancouver, a city situated on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.<br/><br/>The conference seeks to engage with the histories and presents of these Indigenous peoples and the histories and presents of other Indigenous peoples across the globe. In honouring place, it seeks to elevate relations with Land and the ongoing destructive effects of colonization, displacement, and the fatal impact of residential schools on children and families. In honouring place, RECE 2022 acknowledges the work of contemporary Indigenous researchers, educators and allies who center Land in reviving cultural identity, community, resurgence and decolonization.<br/><br/>Place is inherently relational. It is a multilayered construct that can help us open up, hold, and sustain generative conversations across disciplines and from our different locations. The theme of place calls conference attendees to explore the ways we inhabit and relate to the world. Attending to place compels us to move beyond the autonomous individual, and state to find the dynamic relations between place, identity, and community.<br/><br/>Place invites us to notice, attend, and respond to what and who makes up the human and more-than-human places we live in. Importantly, it calls on us to take responsibility, engage in creating sustainability and commit to reparation. By re-centering place, we strive to address and respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. How do early childhood researchers, educators, children and communities attend to climate emergencies? What kinds of pedagogies nurture care for and with our world?<br/><br/>Finally, the pandemic with its attendant restrictions leads to a rethinking of the practices of conferencing. Coming together in-person and in-one place since the pandemic began has been a challenge and is a provocation to re-envision the meaning and possibilities of gatherings. This conference offers an opportunity to question what it might mean to come together while also being isolated. How might place be (re)configured with the opportunities and dilemmas that new communications technologies present?<br/><br/>RECE 2022 poses and responds to new questions about acts of gathering, their purpose, possibilities, and responsibilities especially in relation to being together in/with place. How can we create more engaging, equitable and sustainable place/s for the exchange of ideas while continuing to build a robust community of reconceptualizing scholars and educators? Most importantly, RECE 2022 hopes to reconnect old friends, enable new connections and sharing of stories of life during the last two years, and for reimagining RECE’s work in a post-pandemic world.<br/> |
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