The Development of Early Childhood Education in Europe and North America Historical and Comparative Perspectives

In recent decades policies aiming at work-family reconciliation, at social integration and at the development of children's human capital have strongly influenced the expansion of early childhood education and care throughout much of the Western world. There are, however, striking differences between national regimes regarding the extent of these services, their organisation and their position within the welfare state and educational system. Many of these differences cannot be satisfactorily explained by reference to recent policy decisions, but must be understood in the context of the historical background of provisions for children below school age. This book focuses on long-term developments in early childhood education and public child care, to the extent that it was institutionally intertwined with early childhood education, starting with the first initiatives in the early nineteenth century. Its comparative overview demonstrates that salient features of present-day national regimes have their roots in critical historical junctures, times at which societal conflicts were settled – at least temporarily – by new policy arrangements. These arrangements then directed development down a path which it could only leave given a new crisis.

Harry Willekens is Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Hildesheim, Germany and University of Hannover, Germany. He has published extensively on the sociology and history of family and succession law, law and gender relations, and early childhood education.
 
Kirsten Scheiwe is Professor of Law at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. She works mainly in the areas of family law, social law, legal comparison, law in context and gender studies. Her approach is historical, comparative and interdisciplinary. Her latest research focuses on the regulation of domestic work and on institutional change in early childhood education.
 
Kristen Nawrotzki teaches at the University of Education (Pädagogische Hochschule) in Heidelberg, Germany. She has authored numerous works on the history of early childhood education and related social policy in England and the USA. She is co-editor with Jack Dougherty of Writing History in the Digital Age.

1. Introduction: The Longue Durée: Early Childhood Institutions and Ideas in Flux; Harry Willekens, Kirsten Scheiwe and Kristen Nawrotzki

2. The Spread of Infant School Models in Europe during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century; Jean-Noël Luc

3. Religious Cleavages, the School Struggle and the Development of Early Childhood Education in Belgium, France and the Netherlands; Harry Willekens

4. Development and Diffusion of Early Childhood Education in Italy: Reflections on the Role of the Church from a Historical Perspective (1830-2010); Eva Maria Hohnerlein

5. The Roles of the State and the Church in the Development of Early Childhood Education in Spain (1874-1975); (5)Carmen Sanchidrián

6. From Poverty Relief to Universl Provision: The Changing Grounds for Child Care Policy Reforms in Norway; Arnlaug Leira

7. Split Paths: Early Childhood Education and Care in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990); Franz-Michael Konrad

8. Saving Money of Saving Children? Nursery Schools in England the USA; Kristen Nawrotzki

9. Towards Early Childhood Education as a Social Right: A Historical and Comparative Perspective; Kirsten Scheiwe

10. Professional Profiles in Early Childhood Education and Care: Continuity and Change in Europe; Pamela Oberhuemer

11. Modernising Early Childhood Education: The Role of German's Women's Movements After 1848 and 1968; Meike S. Baader

12. Women's Activism on Child Care in Italy and Denmark: The 1960s and 1970s; Chiara Bertone

13. Early Education and the Unloved Market of Commercial Child Care in Luxembourg; Michael-Sebastian Honig, Anett Schmitz and Martine Wiltzius

14. Preschool, Child Care and Welfare Reform in the United States; Sonya Michel

15. The History of Kindergarten as New Education: Examples from the United States and Canada, 1890 to 1920; Larry Prochner