Child Care in a Global World

03/02/2006

Listening looks easy, but it's not simple. Every head is a world.
Cuban Proverb

In Globalization and Privatization: The Impact on Child Care Policy and Practice,Michel Vandenbroeck reports on the impact of globalization on child care since the late 1970s. The paper examines the changes in views of children, parents, and public services that are a result of recent political and economic changes, particularly in Belgium and selected other western European nations. Vandenbroek examines the typical early childhood themes of quality and accessibility of services in light of “shifting power relations between [sic] the state [nation], child care providers, parents and experts.” For North American readers and for members of the community of the World Forum on Early Care and Education, the paper provides a thought-provoking examination of another, but related, view of early childhood.

A brief historical survey of the role of child care in the 19^th, 20^th and early 21^st centuries leads the author to the “study of social functions of child care ... in the context of growing diversity.” Belgium, like the United States and other Western nations, distinguishes between early childhood programs as education and as child or day care, particularly the differences between center- and home-based caregiving. While the former is governed by a department of education and requires an educated, well-paid teaching staff, the child care programs are viewed from a social welfare perspective and have much different requirements, pay scales, and expectations. The rise of child care programs is closely linked to social class differences and the national power structure that designated poverty, unemployment, and harsh living conditions as the responsibility of individual families. Child care would, as in the United States and many countries, correct these problems and allow disadvantaged families to join the more responsible middle class.

With the rise of the era of globalization at the end of the 20^th century, a “devolution of authority, decentralization of decision-making, and increased involvement of NGOs via partnerships” occurred. [Many American early childhood professionals will remember Social Service Block Grants and SSBG programs and the issue of parental choice in selecting child care services.] Influences on early childhood practices and policies left the slow-moving academic and publishing processes of transferring information to enter the rapidly changing results of interaction brought about by the influences of The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), powerful academic consortia, international conferences, and the Internet. One result of the activities has been the expanded emphasis on the economic role of child care — working mothers and their personal career development; an expanding, competitive workforce; and the preparation of future employees.

Ultimately, Vandenbroek claims that the key question for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers must be “What about quality?” Belgium has experienced a new approach to quality that resembles the American move toward privately-developed accreditation systems. Its emphasis on private sector control of programming requirements over public or national standards and regulations leads to the need to balance three conflicting dilemmas:

governmental responsibility versus autonomy
standardization versus diversity
inclusion versus exclusion

In light of these issues that affect every nation in some way, the author calls for a “reconceptualization of quality” by examining three functions of early childhood education: the economic function, the educational function, and the social function. Every nation must address some combination of these functions by working simultaneously on both the micro-level of individual program provision and on the macro-level of national policy.

Vandenbroeck, M. 2006. Globalization and privatization: The impact on child care policy and practice. Working Paper 38. Bernard van Leer Foundation: The Hague, The Netherlands. For a PDF version of the paper, go to http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7065.

For information about the Bernard van Leer Foundation, go to http://www.bernardvanleer.org

Contirbuted by Edna Ranck — [email protected]

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