Helen Logan

Uncovering hidden dimensions of Australian early childhood policy history: insights from interviews with policy ‘elites’

ABSTRACT This article considers the value of elite interviews as a frequently overlooked methodology in investigations of policymaking in early childhood education and care (ECEC). We contextualise the discussion within a study that examines constructions of quality in Australian ECEC policymaking between 1972 and 2009. We conclude that, despite their limitations, the use of elite interviews can enhance understandings of the complexity surrounding policymaking processes.

Tensions in constructions of quality in Australian early childhood education and care policy history

ABSTRACT In pronouncements of early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy the importance of quality appears as a seemingly irrefutable concept. Yet, attention to ECEC policy history reveals tensions between discourses that construct quality in ways that endure whereas other ways are ostensibly forgotten. Drawing on a Foucauldian-influenced post-structuralist framework this article problematises three prominent discourses – of community, markets and investment – that construct quality in diverse ways across 40 or so years of Australian ECEC policy history. Data are drawn from key government policy documents and interviews with influential policy actors engaged in policymaking circles between 1972 and 2009. Utilising Bacchi’s ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach to policy analysis reveals tensions between prominent discourses that identify instances of policy forgetting as important sites for policy learning. The article argues that examinations of policy history provide valuable insights about complex explanations of quality in contemporary ECEC policy.

Play in Early Childhood Education: An Historical Perspective

Play is currently under threat and challenge in early childhood education. This chapter provides the history of play, demonstrating its role and legacy in learning cultures beyond the current imperatives for standards and standardization.

Retaining meanings of quality in Australian early childhood education and care policy history: perspectives from policy makers

Abstract This paper presents lesser known accounts from policy makers whose experiences as elite informants span 40 or so years in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy history between 1972 and 2009. Drawing on a post-structuralist theoretical frame, this paper employs a Foucauldian-influenced approach to discourse analysis. Given the complexity of policy-making contexts, an adaptation of Bradley’s categories was utilised to categorise the elite informants as policy insiders according to their roles and positions within organisations. Bacchi’s approach to policy analysis was drawn upon to critically analyse the effects of policy insider categories on meanings of quality in the formation of ECEC policy. The findings raise questions about what could be known and spoken about meanings of quality in past policy-making processes. They suggest the innermost categories of policy insiders struggle to retain complex meanings of quality in final ECEC policy decisions.

Can we belong in a neo-liberal world? Neo-liberalism in early childhood education and care policy in Australia and New Zealand:

Since the 1990s, neo-liberal economics has profoundly altered the nature and delivery of early childhood education and care in both Australia and New Zealand through the creation of childcare markets. Accompanying the rise of the market has been a discourse of childcare as a commodity – a commodity marketed and sold to its consumers (read parents) as a private benefit. The stratifying impact of neo-liberalism in education policy has been argued by numerous scholars of education. Arguably, in both Australia and New Zealand, early childhood education and care is more commodified and subject to the market than any other area of education. Thus, the authors consider whether early childhood education and care has shifted away from being understood as a social good, a site for social cohesion and democratic practice – all of which the authors consider to be implicated in a conceptualisation of belonging appropriate to the project of early childhood education and care. This article considers the impact of neo-liberal policies on early childhood education and care in Australia and New Zealand, especially in relation to understandings and manifestations of ‘belonging’. The authors trace the impact of neo-liberalism in early childhood education and care policy and examine the ways in which the discourse of early childhood education and care provision has changed, both in policy and in how the market makes its appeal to parents as consumers. The authors argue that appeals to narrowly defined, individualised self-interest and advancement threaten understandings of belonging based on social solidarity and interdependence.