Early childhood education and care in times of COVID-19

Sonja Blum and Ivana Dobrotić

Chapter 34 in Research Handbook on Social Care Policy, 2025, pp 543-559 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Early childhood education and care services (ECEC) as well as schools were closed in most countries worldwide to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting more than 90 per cent of school children. Despite the global recourse to this containment measure, there was significant cross-country variation in its design. In this chapter, we cover two aspects. First, we present our conceptual framework aimed to unpack the empirical variety of ECEC closures and their re-openings (first introduced in Blum and Dobrotić, 2021). We provide an overview of ECEC closures in the first pandemic year (March 2020–March 2021) focusing on the closures’ length, timing and modalities in Europe – also revealing different problem constructions and ideas behind the decisions. Second, we review existing literature on the consequences of the pandemic and containment measures, with a view on well-being and educational (and therein social inequality) implications for children due to ECEC closures, as well as work–care implications for mothers and fathers. The emerging research on outcomes indicates that the adverse effects on work–care balance and mother's employment prevail. Also, effects in the areas of children's well-being and education are concerning.

Keywords: Early-childhood education and care; Covid-19; Comparative; Work-care; Gender; Well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781839103681
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