From "Closing the Gap" to an Ethics of Affirmation: Repositioning Early Childhood Research and Policy

• In Event: Anti-Bias and Inclusive Early Education Policy, Practice, and Perspectives in Cross-National Contexts

Abstract

This paper offers a critical enquiry into the landscape of European and international policy approaches and strategies towards young children, their families, and communities in a rapidly changing global context. Over the past two decades, early childhood has attracted unprecedented attention of policy makers and international bodies. The mainstream policy narrative is grounded on a consensus about the ‘need to increase participation in early childhood education and care’ (Council of the European Union, 2011) and has been framed mainly by a ‘human capital’ discourse (Tan, 2014) that promises high returns on investment in early intervention, and social cohesion through increased educational achievement. While members of the early childhood research and practice community have welcomed (or actively contributed to) this argument in order to raise visibility and support, questions arise whether policies and practices grounded in this logic are appropriate and have made a difference in the lives of children and families, especially those from marginalized backgrounds.

Drawing on experiences from recent European and international research projects (Romero & Torrado, 2013; Šikić-Mićanović et al., 2015; Urban, 2012; Urban et al., 2012), this paper argues that early childhood policies that aim at ‘closing the gap’ between children from marginalized and dominant groups in society are grounded in a logic of integration and assimilation into an assumed normality that no longer exists. Instead, marginalization, hyper-diversity, rising inequality, and fragmentation have become the defining feature of all Western societies. Against this background, the paper explores possibilities and strategies for developing ‘competent systems’ (Urban et al., 2012) for all children, families, and communities that are based on democratic practices (Freire, 1998, 2004, 2007; Unger, 2004), recognition, and affirmation (Braidotti, 2011). These strategies should include a radical revalidation of what, leaning on Gramsci (1971), could be called a hegemonic relationship between minority and majority world epistemologies and practices in early childhood development.

Author

• Mathias Urban, Roehampton University