Pauline Schreuder

Pedagogical professionalism and gender in daycare

In the Netherlands, moral panic about boys’ education and behavioural problems has led to public concern about the almost exclusively female environment in which young boys in daycare find themselves. Female daycare workers are attacked for creating a feminized culture in daycare centres. In this article we explore the extent to which these media stereotypes about female workers in daycare coincide with their own ideas and experiences of their work. In 2004 we conducted a (preliminary) study involving more than 80 childcare students in an intermediate vocational training programme in Social Pedagogic Work to qualify them to work in daycare centres in the Netherlands. The results of the study do not support the binary stereotypical representation of women’s professional and personal characteristics as an adequate picture of these trainees’ opinions of their work in early childhood care.

Interventions aimed at preventing and reducing overweight/obesity among children and adolescents: a meta-synthesis

The prevalence of child and adolescent obesity has been a major worldwide problem for decades. To stop the number of youth with overweight/obesity from increasing, numerous interventions focusing on improving childrens weight status have been implemented. The growing body of research on weight‐related interventions for youth has been summarized by several meta‐analyses aiming to provide an overview of the effectiveness of interventions. Yet, the number of meta‐analyses is expanding so quickly and overall results differ, making a comprehensive synopsis of the literature difficult. To tackle this problem, a meta‐synthesis was conducted to draw informed conclusions about the state of the effectiveness of interventions targeting child and adolescent overweight. The results of the quantitative synthesis of 26 meta‐analyses resulted in a standardized mean difference (SMD) of −0.12 (95%CI: −0.16, −0.08). Several moderator analyses showed that participant and intervention characteristics had little impact on the overall effect size. However, a moderator analysis distinguishing between obesity treatment and obesity prevention studies showed that obesity treatment interventions (SMD: −0.048, 95%CI: −0.60, −0.36) were significantly more effective in reducing body mass index than obesity prevention interventions (SMD: −0.08, 95%CI: −0.11, −0.06). Overall, the results of this meta‐synthesis suggest that interventions result in statistically significant effects albeit of relatively little clinical relevance.

Het woord is aan de groepsleiding

De huidige professionalisering van het werk in de kinderopvang komt vooral tot uitdrukking in het toegenomen belang van de educatieve functie. In zijn oratie Van opvang naar opvoeding (2002) wijst hoogleraar kinderopvang Tavecchio op deze verschuiving in orientatie van het beroep van groepsleid(st)er. Het gaat hier om een verschuiving van een zorgorientatie – waarin het oppassen en verzorgen van kinderen centraal staat – naar een pedagogische orientatie, gericht op het ondersteunen en stimuleren van kinderen. De pedagogische functie van de kinderopvang is zo belangrijk geworden dat de kwaliteit van de kinderopvang er mede aan wordt afgemeten (Riksen-Walraven, 2004).

Hanging Out in the Past: Looking for Trouble or Romance? An Exploration of the Practice and Meaning of Hanging Out for Young Dutch People in 1930–60

Young people’s ‘hanging out’ has had different meanings in the recent and distant past in various countries and cultures, including delinquency or a common social phenomenon. Although there is evidence for hanging out as social behaviour in various countries, Dutch research on hanging out as a common social phenomenon is scarce. This article retrospectively explores the practice and meaning of hanging out for young people in the Netherlands between 1930 and 1960. Semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 60) were analysed using the Constant Comparative Method, resulting in three key themes: familiarity, features and the meanings assigned to hanging out. Results indicate that hanging out was practised and known by most respondents, and included particular features (time, location, gender and routines). Meet, flirt with and date other young people was the most frequently mentioned meaning associated with hanging out. Accordingly, hanging out can indeed be considered to have been a common social phenomenon.

The Emergence of Institutional Educational Spaces for Young Children.: In Pursuit of more controllability of education and development as part of the long-term growth of educational space in history.

Pauline Schreuder and Jeroen Dekker deal with ‘The Emergence of Institutional Educational Spaces for Young Children: In Pursuit of More Controllability of Education and Development as Part of the Long-Term Growth of Educational Space in History’ (Chap. 5). They address both long-term developments and current manifestations of the continuous reshaping and growth of educational spaces, particularly in the Netherlands. From the nineteenth century onwards, those spaces developed together with the growth of educational ambitions as the notion of ‘the child’s best interest’ became ever more prominent in policy, in laws and in childrearing theories. But there was no fixed understanding of what constitutes ‘the best interest of the child’. Theories can be said to define mental space, that is, allowing for the dominance of certain understandings of the best interest of the child, resulting in the shaping of educational practices within the space that is allocated by laws. During this process, the boundaries between the private and the public, between the autonomy of the family and the jurisdiction of the state, fluctuate. Over time, the state has gained dominance over a larger educational space, while the autonomy of the family has decreased when it comes to deciding how to raise and educate children and how to decide on their best interest. The case of the Electronic Child Dossier is discussed as an example. New educational spaces in the Netherlands, developing within this long-term and gradual process of increasing influence of the public on the private educational space, became dominated by the notion of controllability. That notion can be found in the emphasis on procedures and systematic educational methods and on asking parents to monitor their children’s development. It is concluded that thus the parents’ mental space to understand and shape the upbringing of their children is narrowed and has become an object for public scrutiny by professionals. As a result, public educational ambitions shape the everyday life of young children and their parents.

Leren en pedagogische kwaliteit in het studiehuis

In dit hoofdstuk wordt gereflecteerd op de pedagogische kwaliteit in het onderwijs, in het bijzonder in het zogeheten studiehuis in de bovenbouw van havo en vwo. Kenmerkend voor het studiehuis is dat het onderwijs op een andere dan de traditionele manier georganiseerd wordt. Men spreekt in dit verband ook wel over het nieuwe leren. Het nieuwe leren is een containerbegrip dat gebruikt wordt om onderwijsideeen en -praktijken te beschrijven die vooral opvallen door de grote mate van zelfstandigheid en zelfsturing van de leerling.