Early Childhood Care and Development in Bhutan: Mind the Gap(s)

Abstract

Drawing upon recent research undertaken in early childhood in Bhutan, this chapter provides a discursive account of current practices. This more personal account will connect the reader with the everyday realities of those involved; the child, the family, the community, and the school. It will make explicit some key theoretical frameworks that underpin good early childhood practices and highlight worrying discontinuities between theory and practice, as well as between theory and some of the guiding standards documents and curriculum for early childhood care and development (ECCD) in Bhutan. This chapter will take a strong contemporary socio-cultural approach to the broader nature of early childhood and will consider the important, but mostly overlooked, relationships between home and the education system in the country. It will demonstrate how the philosophy of Educating for Gross National Happiness (EGNH) could relate to, and support, the contemporary early childhood philosophy, programming, and practices to create a strong ECCD foundation in Bhutan.