Policy and Governmentality of Early Childhood Education and Care in England

Mikuska, E. (2023) Policy and Governmentality of Early Childhood Education and Care in England. Pedagoška stvarnost, 68 (2). pp. 123-138. ISSN 0553-4569

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Abstract

This paper provides an overview and investigates the English Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy landscape. It introduces the political and ECEC policy history, and the development of the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (DfE, 2021) framework, whose publication in 2008 was a significant milestone in ECEC in England. Twenty-two nursery workers from a variety of nursery settings were interviewed to learn what they think, know, and how this policy influences their professional practices. Foucault’s (1988) and Dean’s (1999) idea of ‘governmentality’ was used to analyze the data, as governmentality offers a way to create critical analyses of the ECEC policy that affects young children. The analysis recognizes the nursery worker's strong and often stressful relationship with government policy and highlights how policy documents mandated their work.The study also reveals that despite government regulations and guidance, most of the participants decide to continue with their professional development and enrol to study for a higher education degree.

Publication Type: Articles
Additional Information: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Policy, early childhood, education, England, narrative research, Foucault, governmentality, care policy
Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1139 Early childhood education
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1705 Education and training of teachers and administrators
Divisions: Academic Areas > Institute of Education, Social and Life Sciences > Childhood
Academic Areas > Institute of Education, Social and Life Sciences
Research Entities > Centre of Excellence for Childhood, Inclusion and Society (CECIS)
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Eva Mikuska
Date Deposited: 04 Apr 2023 15:22
Last Modified: 15 Jul 2024 09:12
URI: https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/6771

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