Eunice Lumsden

Neoliberalism, Global Poverty Policy and Early Childhood Education and Care: A Critique of Local Uptake in England.

The global rise of a neoliberal ‘new politics of parenting’ discursively constructs parents in poverty as the reason for, and remedy to, child poverty. This allows for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) to become a key policy lever by using human technologies to intervene in and regulate the lives of parents and children in poverty. The article explores the uptake of this policy locally through interviews with 30 ECEC practitioners in three locations across England. The interviews suggested that the neoliberal discursive formation of child poverty as a problem of the poor themselves had symbolic power and was a view shared by most of the interviewees. This appeared to restrict their thinking and action, shaping a limited engagement with parents in poverty. Delivering curricular requirements was seen to further delimit practitioners’ practices with children in poverty by reducing their poverty sensitivity. Although this is a small study, its findings may be of value in questioning neoliberal logics, and their implications are considered critically.

‘Seen but not heard’. Practitioners work with poverty and the organising out of disadvantaged children’s voices and participation in the early years

ABSTRACT Living in poverty disadvantages young children reducing school readiness. ‘Pedagogy of listening’ can potentially support resilience remediating against poverty’s negative effects. Little, though, is known about how early childhood education and care (ECEC) practitioners work with children in poverty and the attainment gap between such children and their peers remains significant within England and the US. This article reports research using a mixed methodology which explored these issues in localities across both these countries. We argue a dominant technocratic model of early years provision in these contexts creates normalisation and diversity reduction. This, and austerity measures, stymie pedagogical space and practice organising out listening to children in poverty. We suggest this may help explain why the attainment gap remains so stubbornly resistant to reduction across these countries.

Pre-school practitioners, child poverty and social justice

Purpose – Several ideas exist about social justice and how inequalities can be tackled to help families and children in poverty. The Coalition government released the UK’s first Child Poverty Strategy in 2011. Pervaded by neoliberal ideology, the strategy mentions “empowering” pre-school services and practitioners within the childcare market “to do more for the most disadvantaged” (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Education (DfE) 2011, p. 35). The purpose of this paper is to bring to light how Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners across England have engaged with policy discussions and adopted expectations concerning their place in addressing child poverty. Design/methodology/approach – Using a phenomenological qualitative research design the paper draws upon 30 interviews with pre-school practitioners in three geographic areas of England. All interviewees worked with families and children in poverty and were senior ECEC practitioners within their pre-school sett...

Changing landscapes in safeguarding babies and young children in England

The importance of safeguarding children from violence is internationally recognised. However, detecting, intervening and protecting children from abuse both within the family and in institutions is complex. This paper specifically focuses on safeguarding in England and how workforce reform in the early years offers the opportunity to forge new partnerships with families and professionals. These relationships have the potential to support more positive outcomes for babies, young children and families who are ‘in need’ or where the children are at risk of significant harm or abuse has occurred. The paper draws on the findings from research exploring the impact of workforce reform in the early years and how the changes impact upon the wider safeguarding agenda. It will argue that the introduction of an inter-disciplinary graduate professional in the early years has afforded an opportunity to forge new partnerships that have the potential to significantly impact on child maltreatment.

book review: Enhancing the Well-being of Children and Families through Effective Interventions: International Evidence for Practice: McAuley, C., Pecora, P.J. and Rose, W. (eds) Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2006, 383 pp. ISBN 9781843101161, £24.99 (pbk)

214 This book concludes with an insightful chapter from Dunlop, the other contributing editor. Although this is not an easy read, Dunlop not only draws together the main strands of the book, but proposes a new way of thinking about transitions, that is, the need to move beyond the problematizing of transition to capitalizing upon the process as a positive tool for change. Overall, this book is an interesting and very insightful read, dealing with what is a very topical issue. In fact it could be argued that Informing Transitions in the Early Years might go some way towards actually improving transitions for young children in the long term. Glenda Walsh Principal Lecturer in Early Childhood Education Stranmillis University College, Belfast