Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Government Policies Relating to the Early Childhood Sector Across Ten Countries

Title
Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Government Policies Relating to the Early Childhood Sector Across Ten Countries
Publication Date
2022
Author(s)
Rothe, Antje
Moloney, Mary
Sims, Margaret
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4686-4245
Email: msims7@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:msims7
Calder, Pamela
Blyth, Doreen
Boyd, Wendy
Doan, Laura
Dovigo, Fabio
Girlich, Sarah
Georgiadou, Sofia
Kakana, Domna
Mellon, Conor
Opazo, María-José
O'Síoráin, Carol-Ann
Quinn, Marian
Rogers, Marg
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8407-7256
Email: marg.rogers@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:mbaber
Silberfeld, Carolyn
Tadeu, Bárbara
Editor
Editor(s): Jyotsna Pattnaik and Mary Renck Jalongo
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Springer
Place of publication
Cham, Switzerland
Edition
1
Series
Educating the Young Child
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-96977-6_4
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/54353
Abstract

The relationship between early childhood education and care (ECEC, birth to 8 years), children's lifelong learning trajectory and the economy is undisputed. This relationship was particularly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an auto-ethnographical study, this chapter discusses government responses across 10 countries: Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, England, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal reveal much about the perceptions of children and their early childhood professionals from a political, social and economic stance. The chapter interrogates how government responses situate children and early childhood professionals within the educational landscape in the countries studied and asks how it shapes early childhood education in particular. It illustrates that Governments overall, in the countries studied, did not recognise ECEC as fundamental to the educational continuum. In looking to the future, we question how early childhood education should develop to prepare children for the times we live in so that children are able to flourish and shape future societies with confidence and purpose. Finally, we ask whether the pandemic could possibly see the dawn of a new era in knowledge and understanding of the centrality of Early Childhood Education and Care.

Link
Citation
The Impact of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education and Care: International Perspectives, Challenges, and Responses, p. 67-88
ISBN
9783030969776
9783030969769
9783030969790
Start page
67
End page
88

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