Parents Grow Old, Children Embody Our Hope (Pha gee ba ta bu so): How are Western theories and Bhutanese parenting philosophies harmonized in the Childcare Education programmes in Bhutan?

Abstract

Propelled by the will of the Bhutanese government to invest in the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) programme, the number of ECCD centres has risen from just 1 in 2005 to 94. However, in the perceived absence of local expertise, the Ministry of Education (MoE) depends fully on experts external to Bhutan who have very little knowledge of the Bhutanese cultural fabric and carry with them Western philosophies and theories of ECCD. Against this backdrop, this study will explore how contextualization of the ECCD programmes can be enhanced. This study adopts qualitative methodology and an interpretive paradigm informed by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 2004) and the key Bhutanese values of 'ley judray', law of cause and effect and 'tha damtshig', reciprocity and interdependence (Phuntsho, 2004; Ura, 1994, 1997; Wangyal, 2004; Whitecross, 2008) that stems from the fundamental Buddhist worldview of interconnectedness. These have been combined to create a Bhutanese indigenous methodology.