23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Paper
Home Based Care As an Opportunity For All Children - Evaluation of an Innovative Project
Jana Korábová1, Erik Vaněk2
1UVRV, PedF UK, Czech Republic; 2FF MUNI, Czech Republic
Presenting Author: Korábová, Jana
The institutional care for children starts at the age of 3 years old in the Czech republic and the lack of institutions providing early child care and education for children at the age above 3 years old is significantly missing (RILSA). Number of private institutions or children's groups insure places for about 15.000 children (at the age of 2 to 3 years old mostly), but these are not available for all children, mostly children from lower sociological backgrounds are excluded because of the financial situation of families. Though a number of findings conclude the benefits of institutional care for children from disadvantaged backgrounds mostly, there are also financial benefits of providing care and support to disadvantaged children (Korbel at Prokop, 2019 ). The care and education is administratively split between two sectors in the Czech republic with various qualification requests for caregivers or teachers for different ages or type of service. Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) ensure the care for children at the age 0 - 3 (mostly in Children s group) where caregivers declare their competencies for services supported by the Ministry, a considerable number of private services has no law or no control mechanism or exist as a part of an underground economy with no regulation. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports administrate Kindergartens (about 72 % children attends the Kindergarden from the age of 3, the compulsory education starts at the age of 5), where teachers have to be qualified according to the Act on Education Staff and the quality of Education is ensured by Czech School Inspectorate. The straddle situation described is not unique in Europe and various systems face the lack of numbers in the quality of institutional care in different ways.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs proposes an innovative project to start a Home based care for children at the age from 6 months till the beginning of compulsory school education. This project should ensure high quality service for every child (when not excluding children from disadvantaged families of children with special needs and ensuring qualified caregivers) and low threshold for caregivers and parents at the same time. The evaluation of the project looks for the model where caregivers could still have a lower degree of education (ICSED 3) and additional support of authorities and experts to ensure high quality care and education and provide sufficient monitoring of the development of every child individually. The system of monitoring and evaluation in the innovation project of the home based care is also consulted in the expert group of Technical Support Instrument: Developing a Comprehensive Framework for the Monitoring and Evaluation of Early Childhood Education and Care in the Czech Republic.
The research question are as following:
How to set the parameters of the service to deliver a service with high quality standards while maintaining a low entry barrier to make it accessible for the broadest spectrum of children possible.
What are the needs of caregivers and what kind of support do they need to ensure high quality of service for every child?
How can we set the evaluation of the service so it leads to the continuous learning and improving of the service?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe evaluation of this project is based on the qualitative approach: interviews, focus groups were conducted and the observation and used design will be used in the realization phase.
While the emphatic phase (September 2023 till January 2024) aimed to explore needs of participants (parents, caregivers, administration support office worker), the goal in the realization phase is to collect the feedback to the service. The piloting of the service will be realized from February 2024 till September 2024.
Caregivers were recruited by the snowball method till the theoretic saturation of the sample (11 caregivers in total). Interviews were also conducted with caregivers who firstly expressed their interest for the piloting but they find the piloting of the service more problematic, so the opposite opinion is also present. Caregivers in the sample represent various categories regarding education, economic situation, gender or experience with children. For the further research we plan to include caregivers with minorities (or Roma population or caregivers coming from Ukraine after the Russian invasion.)
Parents for the sample were found to match the criteria sampling to represent all children (parents with SEN, parents with health issues, single parents with lower income). In total 10 parents were interviewed, one child included.
Caregivers and parents were chosen from Vysočina region only, so we can possibly match the parents and caregivers for the piloting.
Experts were chosen for interviews to cover all various aspects of children care and development, including parents´s organization, NGO s and representatives of various ministries to complete the cross-sectoral approach.
Interviews with caregivers and parents were conducted online mostly, interviews with experts were conducted in person or online. All data were anonymised and analyzed in the MAXQDA programme using open coding and the system of the categories for caregivers, parents and experts.
As for the realization phase we plan to collect various feedback on the process, setting and quality of care in the home- based care. Standard of the quality of care (MoLSA) will allow self-assessed caregivers. The various criteria of standard of quality will be also observed and discussed or with parents (section of care and the child development) or by administrative office (section of personal development of the caregivers and section of material equipment of the household).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsPreliminary finding shows the expectation of caregivers and parents and also recommendation of the panel of experts.
The service proposed should insure the highest quality of care for children, respecting individual needs of every childs. According to parents, home based care should insure care for all children, including children without mandatory vaccination, children with SEN, children with health issues or children from families with lower socio economic background.
Parents do not require a specific degree of education or certificate (which is in contrast with the proposition in the act and expert panel's recommendation), they prefer longer adaptation time to make sure they child is comfortable with the caregivers (without naming the concrete criteria).
The caregivers are in their conclusions very aware of their own limits. Most of the caregivers would not refuse a child that would need a special approach, though they articulated the support needed (e.x. additional training so they can meet the needs of the individual child, supervision, self - helps groups to reflect the experience with children with difficulties or extra stuff, e.g. a teaching assistant).
The caregivers also reflected the individual setting of each home- based care group and accented the need of a variability in numbers of children and following financing.
The panel of experts accented the fair financing for caregivers so the setting of the nes service does not support the precare position of caregivers on the labor market, the condition should allow the caregivers at least the “dignified” salary. While there is not an agreement of a degree of education or qualification of caregivers, there is a clear stress on the continuous support including additional learning, supervisor program for caregivers, networking with experts and early identification in the case of a different development of a child in the home based care.
ReferencesBarnett, William. 2008. Preschool Education and Its Lasting Effects: Research and Policy Implications. Available at (PDF) Preschool Education and Its Lasting Effects: Research and Policy Implications (researchgate.net)
Burchinal, Margaret. 2010. Threshold analysis of association between child care quality and child outcomes for low-income children in pre-kindergarten programs. Available at Threshold analysis of association between child care quality and child outcomes for low-income children in pre-kindergarten programs | Request PDF (researchgate.net)
Early, Diane. 2010. How do pre-kindergarteners spend their time? Gender, ethnicity, and income as predictors of experiences in pre-kindergarten classrooms. Available at How do pre-kindergarteners spend their time? Gender, ethnicity, and income as predictors of experiences in pre-kindergarten classrooms | Request PDF (researchgate.net)
Early childhood education and care in Europe: Welcoming children with disabilities or with migrant backgrounds. Available at Early childhood education and care in Europe: Welcoming children with disabilities or with migrant backgrounds | European Education Area (europa.eu)
Epstein, Joyce. 2010. School/Family/Community Partnerships: Caring for the Children We Share. Available at School/Family/Community Partnerships: Caring for the Children We Share (researchgate.net)
Goldfeld, Sharon. 2015. Neighbourhood Effects Influencing Early Childhood Development: Conceptual Model and Trial Measurement Methodologies from the Kids in Communities Study. Available at (PDF) Neighbourhood Effects Influencing Early Childhood Development: Conceptual Model and Trial Measurement Methodologies from the Kids in Communities Study (researchgate.net)
Hattie, John. 2009. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (auf.org)
Charmaz, Kathy. 2014. Constructing grounded theory. SAGE Publications Ltd
Kuchařová, Věra. 2020. Zpráva o rodině. RILSA. Available at Zpráva o rodině - RILSA
MPSV. Průvodce pro naplňování standardů kvality péče. Available at ee1d34fa-74e1-9515-cab8-159213bfc9d6 (mpsv.cz)
Munich, Daniel. 2023. Ruce a mozky českých žen stále nevyužity. Available at xhttps://idea.cerge-ei.cz/zpravy/ruce-a-mozky-ceskych-zen-stale-nevyuzity
Prokop, Daniel. 2019. Slepé skvrny: o chudobě, vzdělávání, populismu a dalších výzvách české společnosti. Host, 2019
Sylva, Kathy. 2004. The Effective Provision of Pr vision of Pre-school E e-school Education (EPPE) Pr ducation (EPPE) Project: Findings oject: Findings from pre-school t e-school to end of k o end of key stage 1. Available at The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project: Findings from pre-school to end of key stage 1 (uow.edu.au)
23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Paper
A National Improvement Initiative in Swedish Local Preschool Practices
Maria Fredriksson1,2, Maria Olsson1
1Dalarna University, Sweden; 2University of Stavanger, Norway
Presenting Author: Fredriksson, Maria;
Olsson, Maria
The Swedish preschool, as part of the national educational system, is influenced by global discourses wherein education is defined as in need of constant improvement (Moss, 2013). These perceptions often stem from discussions of insufficient outcomes in international assessments, such as TIMMS and PISA. In response, governments, including the Swedish, regularly introduce new policies intended for implementation in local pedagogical practices (Adolfsson & Håkansson, 2019; Smith, 2016). Examples of such national initiatives include: “The Best School Possible” (CBS) (U2019/03786/S) in Sweden, “Every child matters: change for children in schools” (DfES/1089/2004) in Great Britain and “No child Left Behind” (20 USC 6301 note, 2002) in the United States.
This paper draws on an ongoing research project (2022–2024) investigating CBS policy (U2019/03786/S) in Swedish preschools. Decentralisation and recentralisation of educational systems, such as the Swedish, create unique settings for the realisation of policies like CBS (cf. Håkansson & Rönnström, 2021). While CBS can be understood as an example of the state’s increased control over preschools, it also includes intentions for local professional’s influence (U2019/03786/S).
CBS entails a three-year working process with a predetermined plan to identify and improve deficiencies in pedagogical practices (Skolverket, 2023). This initiative in local preschools, supported by university staff and led by head teachers and selected preschool teachers, aims to involve all preschool staff. Swedish preschool staff consist of various professions, mostly common preschool teachers with university degrees and professionals (referred to as assistants) with college degrees. Despite their different formal responsibilities, all are expected to provide high-quality pedagogical practice in line with the common national curriculum (Swedish National Agency of Education [SNAE], 2018).
Despite the rich array of international studies on national improvement initiatives (e.g., Cameron, 2010; Coborn & Spillane, 2016), research specifically on CBS, especially in the preschool context, remains sparse (Adolfsson & Håkansson, 2019).
In the current research project, we raise questions about how preschool professionals meet the demand for improvement in preschools with challenging conditions. Specifically, how is the CBS policy ‘made’ by professionals in local preschools? This paper aims to discuss how this policy is perceived and used in pedagogical practices by preschool professionals at the end of the three-year process.
The following research question is addressed:
- How do preschool teachers and assistants understand and experience the way CBS is transformed and carried out in preschools’ pedagogical practice?
This paper is grounded in Billig’s (1991) theoretical and methodological concept of ideological dilemmas. Billig argues that such dilemmas, which are overarching and recurring in society, may appear in different contexts, including scientific, political and everyday talk. These dilemmas encompass different logics regarding, for instance, regarding how education should be and can be controlled. Furthermore, they are seen as productive – if contrary rhetorical positions are articulated and discussed (cf. Billig 1991) – potentially deepening the understanding of a phenomenon such as CBS. In this paper, ideological dilemmas are useful for analysing both the opposing logics in professionals’ reasonings regarding CBS and the general dilemmas operating in the educational context (cf. Olsson et al., 2023).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedSo far, the research project has included 14 semi-structured interviews with 12 preschool teachers and two head teachers from four preschools. In spring 2024, further interviews are planned with both previously involved (and currently employed) preschool teachers (10) and assistants (10). These interviews (cf. Brinkmann & Kvale, 2015) aim to examine, in-depth, the participants’ understanding and experiences of CBS.
Participants were selected from a Swedish municipality where work with CBS began at the beginning of 2022. Information about the research project was communicated to all current preschools, and those where all involved staff agreed to participate were selected. In accordance with the Swedish Research Council’s (2017) ethical principles, informed and written consent were obtained. Ethical guidelines were adhered to regarding participants’ voluntariness, confidentiality and data handling.
The analysis is carried out in two steps. 1) An inductive analysis procedure is followed where patterns and themes are distinguished (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004) regarding how the preschool teachers and assistants understand and experience the transformation and implementation of the CBS initiative in their pedagogical practices; 2) Theoretical analysis tools are used to visualise tensions in the material and informants’ use of rhetorical resources.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn this paper, questions are raised about how preschool professionals in a local context understand and handle the CBS policy, whose intentions have been formulated at a national level. In an earlier paper about the initiation of this policy (Olsson & Fredriksson, submitted), the risks of an overly narrow view of the pedagogical practice in which local conditions are neglected were pointed out.
The expected findings of this paper may align with the former. If local conditions are neglected, professionals may overlook how current educational contexts, such as preschool environments, affect or create perceived shortcomings. However, through collaboration with university staff over time, preschool teachers might have discussed how local conditions are related to and can be handled within the pedagogical practice. Nevertheless, assistants have not been involved to a great extent in these discussions, despite their assigned responsibility for the current practice. Instead, preschool teachers have been given the responsibility of discussing with assistants how the policy can be implemented in pedagogical practice. It is probable that professionals position themselves in different ways in relation to CBS, and tensions might arise between different professionals’ understanding and experiences regarding how and for what purpose CBS should and can be transformed into local practice.
This paper not only contributes to early childhood education research but also enhances understanding of how national policies might be understood, transformed and implemented by practitioners in local pedagogical practices. Thus, this paper could lead to further discussions about why, for what and for whom an educational practice needs to be improved.
References20 USC 6301 note. (2002). No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 Education. Inter-governmental relations. United States of America in Congress assembled (USC).
Adolfsson, C.-H., & Håkansson, J. (2019). Evaluating teacher and school development by learning capital: A conceptual contribution to a fundamental problem. Improving Schools, 22(2), 130–143.
Billig, M. (1991). Ideology and opinions: Studies in rhetorical psychology. Sage Publications Inc.
Brinkmann, S., & Kvale, S. (2015). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (3 ed.). Sage Publications.
Cameron, K., & Boyles, D. (2022). Learning and teaching in a neoliberal era: The tensions of engaging in Froebelian-Informed pedagogy while encountering quality standards. Global Education Review, 9(2), 99–117.
Cameron, D. H. (2010). Implementing a large-scale reform in secondary schools: The role of the consultant within England’s Secondary National Strategy. Journal of Education Policy, 25(5), 605–624.
DfES. 2004. Every child matters: Change for children in schools. London: DfES. No. DfES/1089/2004.
Graneheim, U. H., & Lundman, B. (2004). Qualitative content analysis in nursing research: Concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. Nurse Education Today, 24(2), 105–12.
Håkansson, J., & Rönnström, N. (2021). Samverkan för bästa skola – skolförbättring som politiskt styrd nationell angelägenhet genom samverkan och forskarmedverkan. Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige, 26(1), /–14.
Moss, G. (2013). Research, policy and knowledge flows in education: What counts in knowledge mobilisation? Contemporary Social Science, 8(3), 237–248.
Olsson, M., Ericson, J., von Ahlefeld Nisser, D., & Randell, E. (2023). Between an educational task and an idea for treatment: multiprofessional collaboration for supporting children “at risk” – a coordinator role in pedagogical practice. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, prepublication online.
Rönnström, N. (2015). Educating competitive teachers for a competitive nation? Policy Futures in Education, 13(6), 732–750.
Skolverket (2023). Samverkan för bästa skola. https://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/leda-och-organisera-skolan/samverkan-for-basta-skola#h-Meromprocessen
Smith, W. C. (2016). An introduction to the global testing culture. In W.C., Smith (Ed.), The global testing culture: Shaping education policy, perceptions, and practice, (pp.7–23). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, Symposium.
Swedish National Agency of Education, SNAE (2018). Curriculum for the preschool, Lpfö 18. https://www.skolverket.se/publikationsserier/styrdokument/2019/curriculum-for-the-preschool-lpfo-18
Swedish Research Council (2017). Good Research Practice. https://www.vr.se/english/analysis/reports/our-reports/2017-08-31-good-research-practice.html
U2019/03786/S. Uppdrag till Statens skolverk om samverkan för bästa skola. Regeringsbeslut. https://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/0fc920eda8b546f18b05693c890218f7/uppdrag-till-statens-skolverk-om-samverkan-for-basta-skola-u201903786s/
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