Care and Social Sustainability in Early Childhood Education: Transnational Perspectives

Kassahun Weldemariam, Angel Chan, Ingrid Engdahl, Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, Timothy Chepkwesi Katiba, Tewodros Habte and Roland Muchanga
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Kassahun Weldemariam: Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Angel Chan: Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Ingrid Engdahl: Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson: Department of Education, Communication and Learning, Faculty of Education, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Timothy Chepkwesi Katiba: Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne Campus, East Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
Tewodros Habte: Center for International and Comparative Education, College of Education, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa P.O. Box 1176, Ethiopia
Roland Muchanga: Directorate of Early Childhood Education, Ministry of Education, Lusaka P.O. Box 50093, Zambia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: This article explores how the notion of care is conceptualised and described in early childhood education policies across countries in the majority (Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia) and minority (New Zealand and Sweden) world. A central focus is the relationship and balance between care and education. The authors examined whether there are trends and tendencies to strengthen or weaken the care/education component at the expense of the other. Grounded in local and national knowledge, the authors employed a cross-national collaborative inquiry approach and interrogated the notion of care while extrapolating its implications for the endeavour to design socially sustainable early childhood education. The results revealed that care has remained ingrained within policies in the minority world, while there is a tendency to view it as separate from education in the majority world. Although quantitative goals for early childhood education and care still dominate the majority world, the importance of care and sustainable development are present in all policy documents across the five nations. The authors concluded that strengthening these promising policy endeavours paves the way towards effective educare approaches, which lay the foundation for social sustainability in early childhood education.

Keywords: care; collaborative inquiry; early childhood education; educare; majority and minority world; policy; social sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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