Early Childhood in Ireland - Evidence and Perspectives

Edited by Jacqueline Fallon

Evidence and Perspectives

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACRONYMS

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 1

SECTION 2: HISTORIC AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES 4

2.1 Introduction 4

2.2 Childhood in retrospect 4

2.3 Families changing in changing times 5

2.4 Children’s rights 6

2.5 Care and education 7

2.6 Curricular context 8

2.7 Developments in provision 9

2.8 Diversity 11

2.9 Language 12

2.10 Play 13

2.11 Conclusion 14

2.12 Implications for the NQF/ECCE 14

SECTION 3: THEMATIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE LEARNING AND DEVELOPING CHILD 15

3.1 Introduction 15

3.2 Child-centred learning and development 16

3.3 Holistic learning and development 17

3.4 Environments for learning and development 19

3.5 Relationships in learning and development 21

3.6 Diversity in learning and development 23

3.7 Communication in learning and development 25

3.8 Play for learning and development 26

3.9 Conclusion 28

SECTION 4: CONCLUSION 29

REFERENCES 31

APPENDIX 1: SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 33

ACRONYMS

BCCN: Border Counties Childcare Network

CCC: City and County Childcare Committees

CECDE: Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education

DES: Department of Education and Science

DHC: Department of Health and Children

DIT: Dublin Institute of Technology

DoE: Department of Education

DSCFA: Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs

ECCE: Early Childhood Care and Education

ECEA: Early Childhood Education Agency

EEC: European Economic Community

EOCP: Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme

HSCL: Home School Community Liaison

NAPS: National Anti-Poverty Strategy

NCCA: National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

NCCC: National Coordinating Childcare Committee

NCO: National Children’s Office

NQF/ECCE: National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Care and Education

NVCC: National Voluntary Childcare Collaborative

NVCO: National Voluntary Childcare Organisation

OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

PCSP: Primary Curriculum Support Programme

SDPS: School Development Planning Service

UN: United Nations

UNCRC: United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

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The Centre for Early Childhood Developmentand Education (CECDE) is pleased to publishthis discussion paper, Early Childhood inIreland - Evidence and Perspectives. Thisdocument is the last of the four pillars ofresearch which the CECDE has put in placeto support the development of the NationalQuality Framework for Early Childhood Careand Education (NQF/ECCE). It encapsulatesthe perspective from which the child’sinterests are being incorporated into theNQF/ECCE. It is also hoped that it willprovide a useful resource for the ECCE sectorand a basis for fruitful debate and discussion.It articulates well with the NationalChildren’s Strategy, Our Children, TheirLives (Department of Health and Children[DHC], 2000) and Towards a Framework forEarly Learning (National Council forCurriculum and Assessment [NCCA], 2004).

The development of a strong consensusposition among key agencies withresponsibility for young children will benefitthe future co-ordination and cohesiveness ofECCE in Ireland.

1.1 The Centre for Early ChildhoodDevelopment and Education(CECDE)

The CECDE was established by the Ministerfor Education and Science in October 2002,with a brief to co-ordinate and develop ECCEin Ireland in pursuance of the objectives ofthe White Paper on Early ChildhoodEducation, Ready to Learn (DES, 1999a). It ismanaged jointly by St. Patrick’s College andthe Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). Theremit of the CECDE covers all settings for

Introduction

Section 1

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Section 1 Introduction

children between birth and six years, payingparticular attention to the needs of childrenexperiencing disadvantage and children withspecial needs. It bridges traditional dividesbetween care and education and childcaresettings and the formal school system. In thiscontext, the CECDE has three mainobjectives:

1. The development of the NQF/ECCE, whichwill define quality standards for earlychildhood settings, is the core project forthe CECDE. In addition to definingquality, the framework will proposeappropriate support mechanisms for thoseworking in ECCE in Ireland. A system ofassessment and evaluation will be devisedto ensure that the quality standards willbe realised and maintained. These threeelements, defining, assessing andsupporting quality, form the structure ofthe NQF/ECCE.

2. To develop and implement targetedinterventions in the areas of special needsand disadvantage with children in thebirth to six years age group. There arecurrently three such targeted interventionprojects in progress under the auspices ofthe CECDE.

3. Finally, the CECDE is charged withpreparing the groundwork for theestablishment of the Early ChildhoodEducation Agency (ECEA) as envisaged bythe White Paper on Early ChildhoodEducation, Ready to Learn (DES, 1999a).

1.2 Early Childhood in Ireland -Evidence and Perspectives

Increasing knowledge about childhood, andearly childhood development and learning,has much to contribute toward understandingthe nature of quality in ECCE. The primarypurpose of this document is to contribute tothe NQF/ECCE for Ireland. The CECDEProgramme of Work (CECDE, 2001) and theCECDE Research Strategy (CECDE, 2003)prioritise the preparation of a conceptualframework discussing how children from birthto six years learn and develop:

It is envisaged that the first actionrelating to the development of qualitystandards will involve setting out aconceptual framework describing how

children (from 0 to 6 years) develop andlearn. (CECDE, 2001:2)

1.2.1 Review Document

Initially, the CECDE commissioned aliterature review on the five developmentaldomains (physical, socio-emotional, cognitive,moral and spiritual)1 in the birth to six yearsage group. This resulted in a substantial andextensive review which will be of interest tostudents, researchers, practitioners andothers with a focus on the development of theyoung child. This initial paper wasaugmented by two further sections whichwere researched and written by CECDE staff.The first of these sections reviews thehistorical and cultural context of ECCE inIreland from the end of the nineteenthcentury to approximately 1990. The secondsection discusses current perspectives onECCE in Ireland from 1990 to the present.The resulting complete document, known asthe Review Document has formed the basis forthis discussion paper. The Review Documentwill not be published, but will be available onrequest from the CECDE.

Once the Review Document was finalised, theCECDE used it in a number of ways.Primarily, it informed the development of theNQF/ECCE and, secondly, it provided theevidence base for this CECDE discussionpaper on early childhood in Ireland. Theevidence has been condensed and distilled forthe purposes of this paper in order toillustrate the values which characterise theNQF/ECCE. In this context, references havenot been included throughout this document.However, a select bibliography of literaturepublished since 1990 is included in theBibliography. This does not reflect theentirety of the literature consulted in thepreparation of the Review Document.

1.2.2 Terminology

Because of the rapidly developing landscapein ECCE in Ireland, many issues to do withterminology have not yet been resolved. Thereare occasions within the text when terms areused as a summary of a very wide range ofterminology in current use. For example,

1 The CECDE would like to acknowledge the work ofSuzanne Clendenning and the Psychology Department,Queen’s University Belfast, for their work in preparingthe literature review.

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personnel who work with young children usea wide range of descriptive terms and titles.In order to be inclusive of the broad range ofpeople who work with young children and theequally broad range of people such as parents,grandparents, family and friends who are alsoinvolved, all of these people are referred to asadults or significant adults. The term has nosignificance other than to refer to the adultwho is supporting the child at any given timeand on any given occasion.

Likewise, there is ongoing debate on therelationship between the concepts of learningand development. For the purposes of thisdocument, both ‘learning and development’and ‘development and learning’ are usedinterchangeably. Because of the importance ofclearly understood language, the NQF/ECCEitself will have a glossary of terms and theirassociated meanings.

1.3 Structure of the document

Section 2 - Historical and CulturalPerspectives discusses specific issues whichare, to a greater or lesser degree, the subjectof debate currently within the ECCE sectorand beyond. It draws on both Section 1:Historical and Cultural Context of EarlyChildhood Care and Education in Ireland1890 – 1990 and Section 2: CurrentPerspectives on Early Childhood Care andEducation in Ireland from the ReviewDocument. The discussion is not exhaustiveand does not address every issue raised in theReview Document. Instead, it paints a broadpicture of the context in which constructionsof early childhood have evolved here inIreland over the past century or so.

Section 3 - Thematic Perspective on theLearning and Developing Child presentsthe substantive discussion on childdevelopment and learning. Again, thisdiscussion is firmly based on the evidence and

research in the Review Document. Thesections in the Review Document on childdevelopment and learning were analysed toidentify the key points relating to theaforementioned five developmental domains.According to our view that all learning anddevelopment is inter-related and inter-dependent, it was decided to present theinformation thematically. The themes wereidentified by close textual analysis and are asfollows:

l Child-centred learning and development;

l Holistic learning and development;

l Environments for learning anddevelopment;

l Relationships in learning anddevelopment;

l Diversity in learning and development;

l Communication in learning anddevelopment;

l Play in learning and development.

This order is not intended as a hierarchy andthe themes are inter-connected. They are notintended as stand alone elements but must beunderstood as a whole. Each theme concludeswith a number of implications for thedevelopment of the NQF/ECCE, in relation todefining, assessing and supporting quality.

Section 4 - Conclusion recaps on thedocument and its purpose, and outlines thenext steps in the development of theNQF/ECCE.

The CECDE recognizes that research anddebate on early childhood is constantlyevolving, and presents this document in thatspirit.

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2.1 Introduction

Childhood is constructed over time and in aparticular cultural context. An understandingof the ways in which early childhood has beenunderstood in Ireland in the past provides aframe of reference for our current analysis.The Review Document contains a wealth ofinformation on the context in which childhoodevolved over the past century or so. In light ofthis, some issues which are currently thesubject of debate are discussed in this section.These include, among others, the history ofnational curricula for young children inIreland, the changes in family life over timeand the impact of the growing diversity of oursociety. The discussion is not exhaustive, butattempts to illustrate the changing nature ofchildhood and the dynamics of interactionbetween childhood and larger socio-cultural

conditions over the past century in Ireland. Itreminds us that children have to negotiatethese dynamics without such hindsight. Italso reminds us of the responsibility wecollectively bear to provide solid footing forchildren when almost the only constant ischange.

2.2 Childhood in retrospect

The National Children’s Strategy(Department of Health and Children [DHC],2000:18) has, as one of its national goals,that:

Children’s lives will be betterunderstood; their lives will benefit fromevaluation, research and informationon their needs, rights and theeffectiveness of services.

Section 2

Historic and Cultural Perspectives

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Certainly very little is known about the livesof children historically in Ireland. In recentyears, a body of literature has emerged inwhich, sadly, the dominant image is ofchildren’s lives blighted by abuse. This imageappears to have been a constant themethroughout the past century. Undoubtedly,this was not the reality for many children andthere is some anecdotal information fromisolated anthropological studies and memoirsto this effect. In general, given the volumes ofIrish history which have been written, thepaucity of literature on the lives of children isregrettable.

One could take the view that conditionsexisted in which abuse could happen. One ofthose conditions, possibly, is that the childrenwere rendered invisible, whether within thefamily or institutions. The legislative andconstitutional framework applicable tochildren contributed to this situation and willbe outlined in the section on children’s rights.Children, by and large, cannot ensure theirown visibility within our society as can othercitizen groups. Therefore it is incumbent onsociety to recognise and honour the child’scitizenship.

The National Children’s Strategy (DHC,2000) includes several strands of researchinto children’s lives which will hopefullysharpen the focus on, and raise awareness of,children’s lives. Of course, with the gift ofhindsight, the absence of the child’s own pointof view over the past century is now obvious.This realisation has been growing here inrecent years, and it is now generally acceptedthat including the child’s opinions on issueswhich affect him2 will have to be a part ofdevelopments in the future.

2.3 Families changing in changingtimes

Family life is unique, depending on all thevariables which any given family experiences.That said, there is very little informationavailable on relationships within families overthe course of the last century. There is asmall number of anthropological studies,mainly conducted by international observersat extended sporadic intervals, and a numberof memoirs. While these provide valuable

insights, they do not give a comprehensivepicture and are drawn on judiciously.

2.3.1 Historical context

The environments in which our youngestchildren live, grow and play have changeddramatically over the past century. For thebest part of the twentieth century, youngchildren were cared for in the family homeand went to school sometime after the age ofthree. For much of that time, Irish societywas largely agrarian based and childrenworked on the farm; work which hadeconomic value to the family. Families werelarge, twice as large on average as those inthe rest of Europe for most of the century.Children lived in households which frequentlycomprised members of the extended family.Emigration was a way of life and manychildren must have grown up in theknowledge that they would leave and notreturn. The Catholic Church and the Stateoperated a symbiotic relationship in relationto many aspects of Irish life, includingeducation, following Independence. Inparticular, the Church appears to have hadconsiderable influence in terms of family life,a position consolidated by the 1937Constitution.Changes began to occur in the1950s when increasing industrialisation andurbanisation began to have an impact.Around this time, too, family size began toreduce. It was not until the 1970s, though,that substantial numbers of women began toenter – and stay in – the paid workforce. Thiswas partly due to the lifting of the marriagebar in the civil service and the beginnings ofmovement towards parity of pay and rightsfor women with their male colleaguesfollowing Ireland’s entry into the EuropeanEconomic Community (EEC). Out-of-homecare arrangements for children then became anecessity for some families.

2.3.2 Contemporary experience

With changes in family patterns, morechildren are now living in smaller families,one parent families or in disparate families.Young children in contemporary Irish familiesare experiencing substantially differentparenting trends, not least of which is thatmany now have the more active involvementof their fathers as well as their mothers.Traditionally, parents tended to concentrate

2 The male and female pronouns will be used in alternatesections.

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more on the physical well-being of theirchildren, whereas now they are increasinglyconcerned with their children’s holisticdevelopment, including their cognitive,emotional and social development.Widespread dissemination of research onchild development in popular and accessiblemedia formats, such as televisionprogrammes and self-help books on childdevelopment and parenting, indicate interestamong the population on such issues. Such amedia profile for child development alsosuggests an increased awareness amongparents of the importance of this stage of life,and of the importance of supporting children’soptimal development. However, there is alsothe possibility that such media will exertpressure on parents in suggesting thatparenting is a complicated and fraughtoccupation, with the margins for error beingfrighteningly wide, and the possibilities forsuccess intimidatingly narrow. In fact,parents get it right even in difficultcircumstances.

2.3.3 Impact of socio-economic change

While there is greater sensitivity to children’sneeds in the holistic sense, there are depletedresources, notably time, within families andcommunities to meet them. Many aspects ofthe socio-economic context, including theorganization of work and work/life balance,are not child friendly. House prices have risenenormously and consequently, the difficulty infinding affordable housing in central parts ofcities such as Dublin has meant that manypeople, particularly young couples, have hadto move out into the surrounding counties.The road and rail infrastructure is unable tomeet the new demand and many people havehad to succumb to lengthy hours ofcommuting. Stress and tiredness caused byparents’ commuting and work is likely to putpressure on children’s quality of life withintheir families.

There is an element of irony in the fact thatwhile children are experiencing moreenvironments in their day-to-day lives incomparison to children even thirty years ago,we now find it necessary to plan for children’saccess to, in particular, the outdoorenvironment. Parental and adult concern forthe child’s safety and security means that therange of places in which children can play hasshrunk, particularly in urban areas. Traffic

volumes, development of green spaces andfear for children being out and about withoutadult supervision contributes to a contractionof freedom for children. Additionally, it wouldappear that children are spending increasingtime in front of computers and televisionswith consequent health risks, includingdiminished outdoor play, physical inactivityand obesity. It is to be hoped that theimplementation of the National Play Policy(National Children’s Office [NCO], 2004) willexpand play opportunities in ways which arecompatible with parental and caregivingadults’ sense of security, and are alsoattractive to children.

2.3.4 Employment and childcare

While unemployment was endemic duringmost of the 1980s, Ireland has experiencedincreasingly high levels of employment overthe past ten years or so. Employment growthand a greater demand for labour, coupledwith the need for dual income households tomeet the cost of housing, impacted on femalework force participation rates. Mothers’employment participation rates in Ireland arecomparatively high. Because of relativelyshort leave entitlements after the birth of achild, more mothers of young children are inemployment in Ireland than in otherOrganisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) countries. The obviousconsequence of these circumstances is thatmore children are now being cared for outsidethe home than heretofore, despite continuingshortages of provision. Much of the increasein supply has occurred in the privatecommercial sector where costs to parents areamong the highest in Europe. Substantialpercentages of mothers working full-time andpart-time use no paid childcare at all,indicating a reliance on informal provisionprovided by family or friends. There is verylimited information on the nature and qualityof the many and varied forms of childcare andpre-school provision for children who attendout-of-home settings.

2.4 Children’s rights

A discourse which has gained momentumhere in Ireland in recent years concernschildren’s rights. In reviewing the issue, theCECDE has found no discernible debate onchildren’s rights prior to the 1970s.

Section 2: Historic and Cultural Perspectives

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2.4.1 Legislative context

However, the legislative context can be tracedback to the 1908 Children’s Act (Hayes,2002:39), which remained the dominant pieceof legislation concerning children in Irelandfor almost the entire century. In the 1908 Act,the child was deemed to have a right to careand protection, but not to liberty before thelaw. This particular view, in which childrencan call on the State for care and protectionbut not for vindication of their rights asindividual citizens, was further entrenched inArticles 41 and 42.5 of the Constitution of1937 (Government of Ireland, 1937). Thisremains the defining position of Stateinvolvement in children’s lives today,notwithstanding the ratification by theGovernment in 1992 of the United NationsConvention on the Rights of the Child(UNCRC) (UN, 1989). State involvement inprovision for children outside of the primaryschool system focuses, by and large, onchildren at risk from disadvantaged or othercircumstances, and on children with specialneeds arising from a disability. The growingmomentum and discourse around the child asan individual citizen, with rights associatedwith that citizenship, may well in timechange the nature of the child/Staterelationship.

2.4.2 Implications for ECCE provision

There are several implications emanatingfrom this position, but just one will beconsidered here; that of the young child’sright to educational provision. To bemeaningful, life-long learning must beconceptualised on a continuum which beginsat birth. There are good reasons, based on theknowledge we now have on the efficacy ofearly education and the magnitude of youngchildren’s potential for learning, for makingprovision for children from birth. However, amore fundamental argument relates to theyoung child’s right to education in the sameway that older children are entitled toeducational provision. This position isunderpinned by the UNCRC (UN, 1989).

2.5 Care and education

Provision for young children in Ireland hasbeen fragmented and many of the fault linescan be traced to the historical understanding

of care and education as being separate formsof provision. It is not difficult to see how thisfracture developed historically here inIreland.

2.5.1 Home and school

The national school system was established in1831 and there were enough infants (3-5 yearolds) in the system by 1872 to warrant aspecific infant programme. Figures from themid-1940s indicate that by then, over 48,000children between the ages of three and fivewere in the system. These figures representsubstantial numbers of young children inschool. It is possible that this indicates thatparents placed a high value on theirchildren’s education and may explain why thenational or primary school system here inIreland has, since its inception, been regardedas concerned exclusively with ‘education’.Throughout the period referred to above,children were ‘cared for’ at home up until thepoint at which they began to attend school.These two contexts of ‘care’ and ‘education’were quite different, and that differenceseems to have been translated to meanmutually exclusive.

While there is very little documented evidenceabout the care of young children at home, itappears that care was primarily theresponsibility of the mother. Families werelarge and older siblings were involved inlooking after younger children. While therewere differences in urban and rural contexts,the extended family, particularlygrandmothers, who often lived in the familyhome, were involved. Home and school werethe two contexts in which children spent timeso, even before the concepts were considered,it is possible to see the genesis of ourtraditional conceptualisation of care as whathappens up to the age of three or so, andeducation as what happens after that.

2.5.2 Policy and implementation

At programme level, the view that childcareand early education are two separate butrelated issues still prevails. Key policydocuments from the three main governmentdepartments involved in supporting provisionof ECCE display consensus on the inseparablenature of care and education (DES, 1999a;Department of Justice, Equality and Law


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Reform [DJELR], 1999; DHC, 2000), butprogramme implementation has so far notreflected this position. State action is beingdriven by different agendas – childcare policyby the need to expand provision to meet thechildcare needs of working parents and earlyeducation policy by recognition of theimportance of positive early yearsexperiences, especially for childrenexperiencing disadvantage and those withspecial needs. However, the beginnings of asignificant shift in this pattern are evidentand the emergence of a distinct ECCE sectoris becoming apparent.

2.5.3 Co-ordination and integration

The instigation of coherent co-ordinatingstructures, including the National Co-ordinating Childcare Committee (NCCC), theCounty Childcare Committees (CCCs), theCECDE and the NCO, represent importantmilestones. To a greater or lesser degree, eachhas a remit for both childcare and earlyeducation. For example, in the case of theCECDE, this remit includes the developmentof an overarching NQF/ECCE. Furthermore,policy initiatives in specific areas arebeginning to take effect; greaterstandardisation in staff training andqualifications is emerging, and curriculardevelopments are leading to greaterintegration of childcare and early education.

Under the provisions of the EqualOpportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP),funding was provided to the NationalVoluntary Childcare Organisations (NVCOs)3to form an umbrella group to enhancecommunication and co-ordination between thegroups involved. Networks of providers havebeen established, such as the Border CountiesChildcare Network (BCCN) and morelocalised networks under the auspices ofCCCs. A High Level Working Group has beenconvened by the NCO, and the CECDE has aConsultative Committee which isrepresentative of stakeholders in earlychildhood provision.

Increasing the level of integration and co-ordination of policy, legislation and provisionfor young children is now widely accepted asnecessary to progress. However, the

consolidation of a discrete ECCE sector isunlikely to be realised until there is better co-ordination at inter-departmental level, to thepoint where the DJELR, DHC and the DESimplement a common programmatic approachto the care and education of young children.The White Paper on Early ChildhoodEducation (DES, 1999a) has alreadysuggested the way forward in this regard inproposing the establishment of the ECEA as astructural expression of such a commonapproach.

2.6 Curricular context

Early years’ curricula are currently the focusof much attention with the publication of theconsultation document, Towards aFramework for Early Learning (NationalCouncil for Curriculum and Assessment[NCCA], 2004). While this is the first timethat Ireland is to have a national curricularframework for the birth to six age group, thehistory of State curricular provision for youngchildren – specifically those in the infantclasses (3-6) in primary schools – stretchesback over a century.

2.6.1 Revised Programme, 1900

One of the most remarkable stages in thathistory was the Revised Programme of 1900(Commissioners of National Education inIreland, 1901), though this is a somewhatarbitrary starting point. Even before thistime, the philosophies of Rousseau, Froebel,Pestalozzi and Dewey had influencedindividuals who put such theories intopractice here. In fact, one might locate theprovenance of the concept of child-centredpractice with these theorists.

The Revised Programme is strikingly familiarto the modern reader. It was influenced byFrobelian principles and incorporatedheuristic approaches to teaching andlearning. It advocated development fromwithin rather than moulding from without,promoted the integration of subject areas andemphasised the environment as a context forthe child’s learning. The Revised Programmeadvocated teaching content in an integratedmanner, breaking with the tradition at thattime of compartmentalising knowledge.Unfortunately, however, the necessaryfinances for equipment, training and

3 This group has been reconstituted as the NationalVoluntary Childcare Collaborative (NVCC).

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implementation were never put in place.While the Revised Programme led toimprovements in the dire state of infanteducation, the Dale Report (Dale, 1904) stillfound that this was one of the weakestelements of the system. Then, as now, nomatter how good the curriculum, it isdependent for effectiveness on resourcing,training and investment.

2.6.2 1922 and 1948 curricular change

A very different approach was taken in thecurriculum introduced in 1922 following thefoundation of the Irish Free State (NationalProgramme Conference, 1922). This approachmoved the focus off the young child ontocurriculum content, specifically the Irishlanguage, which was to be re-established aspart of the socio-political transformation ofIreland following independence. Thecurricular changes introduced meant that therestoration of the Irish language became theprimary aim of infant education. Followingsome years of implementation of thisprogramme, teachers expressed deepreservations about its effect, stating that itinhibited the child intellectually, repressedthe natural urge for self-expression and led tosome children being mentally and physicallydamaged. This programme was replaced bythe Revised Programme for Infants(Department of Education [DoE], 1948) in1948, which returned to the values anddirection espoused by the 1900 RevisedProgramme. However, due to continuingrequirements regarding the teaching of Irish,it proved difficult to implement thephilosophy of this programme.

2.6.3 New Curriculum, 1971

Major curricular change occurred in 1971with the introduction of the New Curriculum(DoE, 1971). Play was an integral part of thiscurriculum which was designed to cater forthe full and harmonious development of eachchild, with an inherent flexibility to adapt tothe needs of children of varying abilities andcultural backgrounds. However, the economicrecession of the 1970s meant that thecomprehensive network of supports forteachers which was envisaged did notmaterialise. Class size remained very largeduring the period following the introduction ofthe New Curriculum. Spending on education

increased over the following decades, andwhile class size remained an issue at thistime, the number of teaching posts in thesystem increased substantially. This relatesto the introduction of schemes such asHome/School/Community Liaison (HSCL) andthe expansion of Special Needs provision.

2.6.4 Revised Curriculum, 1999

The most recent curricular change occurred in1999 with the introduction of a RevisedCurriculum for Primary Schools. The 1999Revised Curriculum (DES, 1999b) is designedto nurture children in all dimensions of theirlives. In-service training is ongoing forteachers and structures (e.g. the PrimaryCurriculum Support Programme [PCSP] andthe School Development Planning Service[SDPS]) have been put in place to support itsroll-out into schools. A close study of theseconsecutive curricula illustrates the evolvingunderstandings of concepts such as child-centred and holistic education in Ireland.

2.7 Developments in provision

One of the consequences of the relativeeconomic prosperity of the 1960s was toincrease interest and focus on education.From around this period, education became anew catalyst for social mobility, possibly onaccount of the introduction of free secondaryeducation. Parents became increasinglyanxious that their children’s futureopportunities would be enhanced througheducation. Ireland’s increased involvementwith international organisations such as theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific andCultural Office (UNESCO), the OECD andthe UN, allied with the aspiration to become amember of the EEC, contributed to alessening of the insularity which had been afeature of the previous period. There was ashift in focus from social expenditure inrelation to education and children to one ofinvestment in the individual, the economyand society.

2.7.1 Special Education

The first remedial teachers were introducedinto schools during this period, the 1960s, andthe Commission of Inquiry on MentalHandicap (Commission of Inquiry on Mental

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Handicap, 1965) raised awareness of the issueof special education. This led to thebeginnings of integration of children withspecial needs into mainstream schools in thefollowing decade. Most of the special schoolsin existence today were established in the1960s and the 1970s. The roots of thisdevelopment lay in the setting up ofcommunity and parent advocacy groups in thepreceding decade. The Voluntary Agenciesinvolved in service delivery for children withspecial needs grew out of those early advocacygroups. In the nineteenth century, in theabsence of any State provision, religiousorders had established schools for childrenwho were deaf and blind. These schools werethe very first to be designated as specialschools and were the basis for thedevelopment of the system.

2.7.2 Pre-school provision

The early enrolment of children in primaryschools in the first half of the twentiethcentury and the low number of mothers in theworkforce resulted in a low priority for pre-school education. While there were someexamples of pre-school provision and servicesprior to the 1960s, social change andindividual effort brought about acceleratedchanges from that time. Additionally, fromthe late 1960s, the ‘social risk’ model ofprovision for young children – whichunderpinned the practice of placing childrenin institutional care – was replaced by a moredevelopmental view.

This period coincided with the arrival ofBarnardos in Ireland, the founding of theIrish Pre-school Playgroups Association(IPPA), the establishment of the firstNaíonraí and an expansion in Montessoritraining opportunities. As with provision forchildren with special needs, the currentlandscape of early childhood pre-schoolprovision began to take shape at that time, inthe absence of State involvement. TheRutland St. Pre-school Project (Holland, 1979)was established in 1969 as an earlyintervention programme for children in adisadvantaged area of inner city Dublin. Thisremained the State’s only pre-school projectuntil the Early Start pre-schools wereestablished in the mid 1990s in somedesignated disadvantaged schools.

2.7.3 Childcare policy development

A number of child advocacy groups wereestablished in the 1970s and, followingpressure from such groups, a number ofCommittees were convened over the first halfof the next decade to examine the role andneed for childcare facilities outside the home4.Unfortunately, there was very little tangibleresponse to this wave of reports. It may wellbe that attitudes among the population as awhole did not support movement on thisissue. As recently as 1972, the Report on theStatus of Women (Commission on the Statusof Women, 1972) urged mothers to stay athome with their child until the age of three,and only return to work if they had strongreasons to do so. That said, the report alsocalled for a national infrastructure forchildcare to facilitate working women, butthat recommendation had little effect either.Nonetheless, these decades witnessed achange in attitude, indicated by the numberof calls for State provided childcare thatwould have been unthinkable in the earlierhalf of the century. The perception thatmothers were no longer the only carers oftheir child, and that out-of-home childcarewas needed, now entered the zeitgeist.

2.7.4 Parental involvement

In schools, the attitude to parentalinvolvement has changed enormously, evensince the introduction of the New Curriculumin 1971. One of the problems identified withthe implementation of the curricular changesthen was that lack of information andcommunication with parents led to confusionabout the new principles and ideologiesunderpinning the curriculum. However, theHSCL scheme, established in 1990 indesignated disadvantaged schools, reflected agrowing emphasis and recognition of theimportance of parental involvement to thesuccess of children in school. Other examplesof the growth of awareness of the importanceof including parents in their children’seducation was the inclusion of parents onBoards of Management since 1975, and theestablishment of schools to cater for various


4 The Task Force on Child Care Services (Department ofHealth, 1980)The Working Party on Childcare Facilities for WorkingParents (Department of Labour, 1983)The Committee on Minimum Legal Requirements andStandards for Day Care Services (Department of Health,1985)

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interests, such as Gaelscoileanna (Irish-medium schools) and non-, inter-, and multi-denominational schools under the auspices ofparent groups.

While there is little historical documentaryevidence available on the development ofparental involvement in services outside theschool system, it appears that CommunityPlaygroups, in certain instances, grew fromthe work of local parent groups. Thecontemporary situation is much clearer. Arecent national review of policy, practice andresearch pertaining to quality in ECCE foundconsensus across all groups on the issue ofparental involvement. Parental involvementis considered a key and essential indicator ofa quality service by all provider groupsengaged in the promotion of quality in ECCE(CECDE, 2004a).

2.8 Diversity

The rate of change between the 1960s and theend of the 1980s accelerated dramatically inthe 1990s with the advent of the economicboom, a phenomenon quite new to Ireland.The environment in which children born since1990 are growing up appears very different toanything we have experienced before. Much ofthe material available on the lives of childrenwithin the family in Ireland in the pastconsists of polarised descriptions and, as such,are typical of the range of perspectives foundon the family from this period. It is clear thatthere was no unified, consistent or uniformexperience of childhood in Ireland in the pastcentury. Such evidence as is availableindicates that, for example, the children ofthe Travelling community, children withdisabilities, children from different socio-economic backgrounds or children fromdifferently configured families had verydifferent experiences of life here. This is not ajudgement on whether those childhoods werehappy or not, but rather to reflect thatchildhood was never without itscomplications. There was, and is, no singleIrish childhood.

2.8.1 Responses to difference

While the experience of childhood during thepast century in Ireland was not the same forall children, there was no discourse evident

around the concept of diversity as we nowengage in it. Looking back, indeed, theimpression is of a society which thought ofitself as homogenous, or at least acquiesced inthe Church/State consensus which projected asociety based on the sanctity of the nuclearfamily united in faith. Those who did notmeet the criteria and who deviated from theacceptable model of the family as a marriedcouple with children were often treatedharshly.

Reference has already been made to the manychildren who ended up in institutional care,predominantly children from disadvantagedbackgrounds or from families indisadvantaged circumstances. Recent yearshave exposed the scandal of young womenconfined in the Magdalene laundries becauseof giving birth outside marriage or forbehaviour deemed to be at odds with theprevailing orthodox morality. Further to thiswas the trafficking and export of babies ofunmarried mothers to the United Statesduring the 1950s and 1960s. The Travellingcommunity, for the most part, seem to havebeen shunned. It seems obvious from even acursory examination that Irish society wasnot as homogenous as Church and Statewould have wanted and sanctions were inplace to control those who did not conform.

2.8.2 Socio-cultural change

Ireland gradually moved away from theisolationism which characterised the periodup to the 1950s, but it has only been since thebeginning of the 1990s that the growingdiversity of the socio-cultural landscape inIreland has impacted on our consciousness asa nation. We now have a multiplicity of familymodels: two parents, both working; single-parent headed families; remarriedcouples/parents; adoptive and other families.Indeed, the family, based on a division inparental roles with the father as breadwinnerand the mother as a full time housewifecaring for the children, is no longer thedominant model in Irish society. Evolvingexpectations of fathers’ involvement withtheir children, along with increasing numbersof mothers in the workforce and more single-parent families, have changed the profile offamily life in Ireland; there has been anincrease in smaller families and in thediversity of family structures.

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2.8.3 Disadvantage and special needs

Despite the growth in the economy, manyIrish families experience poverty. Theinequality in circumstances that existsbetween Irish families is marked with anaccelerating inequality of incomes betweenthe lowest income groups and the highest.Those most affected include children, earlyschool leavers, lone parents, unemployedpeople, Travellers, ethnic minorities, refugeesand asylum-seekers, older people living alonein areas of urban and rural disadvantage,people with disabilities and small farmers.Despite improvements in recent years,Ireland still has one of the highest rates ofchild poverty in the European Union. In asociety which is proud of its educationalsystem, it is still an uncomfortable fact thatchildren from working class backgrounds areat higher risk of educational disadvantage.Consequently, they are much more likely toleave school without qualifications and muchless likely to obtain third level qualifications.

Children from the Traveller communityexperience extreme poverty and educationaldisadvantage. Infant mortality is twice thenational average and although large numbersof Traveller children attend primary school atany given time, very few transfer tosecondary schools, fewer still complete theLeaving Certificate and a tiny number attendthird-level college. The revised National AntiPoverty Strategy (NAPS), Building anInclusive Society (Department of Social,Community and Family Affairs [DSCFA],2002) gives specific consideration to theaforementioned vulnerable groups andincludes a number of commitments tocombating educational disadvantage. Therehave been numerous initiatives by the DES inschools to combat educational disadvantageand a major review of these is in train. TheEOCP, while not focused primarily on thechildren, is a very substantial Stateinvestment in the infrastructure of ECCEprovision in disadvantaged areas. Otherinitiatives originating from variousgovernment departments also target socio-economic disadvantage.

However, in terms of provision for childrenwith special needs, there is a lack of acomprehensive, State funded system forchildren with special needs and their families.The current system of provision is dependenton the contribution of the Voluntary Agencies,

but there is no nationally articulatedframework for the relationship between theVoluntary Agencies and State provision.Negotiating the system is currently difficultand challenging for parents seeking to accessservices for their young children.

2.8.4 Cultural diversity

Ireland has experienced growing racial andethnic heterogeneity over the last decade. Thenumber of applications for asylum in Irelandrose substantially in the years from 1992 to2001, but this appears to have fallendramatically in recent years. It is estimatedthat in the year 2000, in excess of 5,000asylum-seeking children arrived in Ireland,and we must be concerned as to how theirneeds are being met. In January 2003, theSupreme Court ruled that the non-nationalparents of an Irish citizen child could bedeported, but the judgment alsoacknowledged that the rights of the Irishcitizen child under the Constitution must begiven consideration, and the rights of thechild’s parents and siblings must berespected. It is not yet clear what impact thedecision will have on the future of this groupof Irish children.

Another recent phenomenon has been theadoption into Irish families of children born incountries such as Romania, Russia andChina. This increasing cultural diversity hasseverely tested the capacity of Irish societyand its services to accept or integrateminority groups, as society’s relationship withTravellers has demonstrated over previousdecades. Nonetheless there have been manyexamples of efforts to combat racism andpromote anti-bias education for children. Thebest known example is probably the Éistproject (Murray and O’Doherty, 2001). Anti-bias programmes address not only racism, butall forms of discrimination. They should be inplace in all settings, and not just in settingswhich include children from diversebackgrounds and circumstances.

2.9 Language

Our history of bilingualism adds anotherdimension to the consideration of diversityhere, given the special position of the Irishlanguage in Irish law. Language is generallythe primary means of communication within


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any culture, and in the light of the growingcultural diversity of our society, meritsattention.

2.9.1 Irish language

The effort made in the early days after thefoundation of the State to use young childrenas the conduit through which Irish would bere-established as the primary language of thepeople has already been described. While theapproach was unsuccessful, the originators ofthe scheme were correct in identifying thechild’s early years as an optimal time forintroducing second language learning. In thelate 1960s, a number of Naíonraí groups wereestablished with the support of ComhdháilNáisiúnta na Gaeilge and Conradh naGaeilge. Naíonra groups are similar to otherplaygroups but, in addition, the adults speakIrish exclusively. Children are free toconverse in either English or Irish. In 1973,the organisers formed a voluntaryorganisation – Na Naíonraí Gaelacha underthe auspices of Conradh na Gaeilge. AnComhchoiste Réamhscolaíochta Teo (nowrenamed Forbairt Naíonraí Teo.) was then setup and is a joint committee of Na NaíonraíGaelacha and Bord na Gaeilge in support ofpreschooling through Irish. Over the pastthirty years or so, the number ofGaelscoileanna outside the Gaeltacht hasgrown steadily, with increasing numbers ofchildren receiving their education throughIrish.

2.9.2 Second language provision

Increasingly, schools and ECCE servicesinclude children whose first language isneither English nor Irish. Indeed, the DESmakes some provision for language supportfor foreign national children in schools. Thereis evidence that children learning a secondlanguage need support for their firstlanguage. The child’s facility with his firstlanguage impacts on his development of thesecond language and on all aspects of hisdevelopment. This has implications for theprovision of services for young children whoare at a crucial stage in languagedevelopment. It is possible that this willrequire the presence of adults in settings foryoung children who are competent in thechild’s first language. This has not beenaddressed to any great degree in serviceprovision here in Ireland.

Equally, it must be recognised thatSign/Lámh is, in many cases, the firstlanguage of children who are deaf. We mustbe concerned, also, that the child with seriouslanguage impairment is enabled to developaugmentative alternative forms ofcommunication.

Not only is language an important part of ourability to function in society, it is also anexpression of identity. The history of supportfor the Irish language here is evidence of ourappreciation of the power of language in thisregard. It behoves us, given the lengths towhich Ireland has gone to preserve andpromote our own language, to offer support tothose who wish to preserve their languageeven as they learn English.

2.10 Play

Play is an activity very closely associated withchildhood, and it is inconceivable to reviewconstructions of childhood in Ireland withoutattending to children’s play. However, whilein recent years there has been substantialattention paid to the place of play in thechild’s learning and development, there isvery little information on how children haveplayed in the past, at least here in Ireland. Anumber of collections of street rhymes andgames capture the vivacity and carefreenature of children in Dublin in the middlepart of the century and they indicate the timeafforded to children for play and recreation.Other studies in rural areas indicated thatyoung children were often given make-believetasks in preparation for future work either inthe house or on the farm. Observers of familychildcare practices during the period whenfamilies became smaller and the presence ofextended family became rarer, tend toindicate that children spent long periodsalone (Arensberg and Kimball, 1940; Scheper-Hughes, 1979). These are isolatedobservations and must be treated withcaution, but as play is an important socialactivity for children, one wonders whatimpact such conditions would have had? Onthe other hand, several memoirs makemention of playful exchanges between parentsand children (Walsh, 1995; Kerrigan, 1998).

The largest body of information on play frommost of the past century relates to its place incurricula. However, while this tells us howplay was envisaged as supporting the child’s

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development and the types of contexts andequipment to be provided, it tells very little ofthe child’s actual experience. So there is verylittle that can be said of the changingexperiences of the child at play in Irelandover the time period being considered here.

Currently, there is no argument here as tothe place of play in children’s lives. Manypolicy documents throughout the 1990s andbefore have made the case for play as one ofthe most important contexts in which thechild will learn and develop.

2.11 Conclusion

This has been a brief overview of some of thestrands of change which have impacted on theway in which children live their lives inIreland. We have no reason to suppose thatchildren’s lives will be any less subject tochanging circumstances in the future, anymore than we can suppose that society atlarge will become static. We have choices tomake on the basis of the certainty of change,choices about how we can value childhood andsupport children. While we can certainly lookback and recognize that society failed childrenin many cases, it would be a mistake to takeno more than that from the lessons ofexperience. Rather, it should strengthen theresolve of everyone involved in ECCE or inadvocacy for children to secure their fullcitizenship and rights.

2.12 Implications for the NQF/ECCE

This discussion has suggested implications forthe CECDE in our development of theNQF/ECCE. l The availability of resources, training and

investment has always been crucial to thesuccessful implementation of curricularchange in Ireland, and will remain so.

2 Maintaining a high profile for the rightsand needs of children and ensuring theirvisibility in the wider society is necessaryfor their well-being and for the quality ofprovision.

3 Supporting parents towards work/lifebalance and in parenting practicesenhances the child’s life.

4 Developing and maintaining structureswhich enhance communication and co-ordination within the ECCE sector, bothat service and policy level, will benefitprovision.

5 Enhancing relationships between serviceproviders and parents benefits the child.

6 Children and the wider society needsupport in order to promote thedevelopment of positive attitudes todiversity and equality.

7 The child’s first language must besupported while additional languages arebeing learned.

8 There is a need for research to documenthow children play in their everyday livesin order to record the presence of childrenin our society.


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3.1 Introduction

As outlined in the Introduction, seven themesemerged from the analysis of the child-development sections of the ReviewDocument. The enormous amount ofinformation contained in the extensiveliterature review has been considered veryclosely. Following intensive analysis, thematerial has been condensed into the seventhematic areas presented in this Section.These themes are not intended as stand aloneelements, but must be considered together.Each theme interacts with and complementsthe others and the order in which they arepresented is not intended as a hierarchy.

Certain specific points of research from theReview Document are used to illustratevarious points throughout the chapter. Theseare examples only and are not necessarily the

most important points to emerge from theresearch; they are included because of theirappropriateness for the particular themeunder discussion. The discussion revolvesaround children from birth to six years of age,but recognises that there are differences inapproach for specific age groups in that range.While it was not possible to go into detailabout each age sub-group, some mention ismade of the particular approaches necessaryfor very young children. Because the themescentre on fundamental principles for practice,they are intended as inclusive of all settingsand age groups. The discussion which followsconsiders the CECDE perspective on thecontext for quality practice with youngchildren. Following the discussion of eachtheme, the implications for the NQF/ECCEare included under the headings of Defining,Assessing and Supporting Quality.

Thematic Perspective on the Learning andDeveloping Child

Section 3

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3.2 Child-centred learning anddevelopment

Taking a child-centred approach to a child’sdevelopment and learning requires that theadults supporting the child focus on thechild’s unique individuality as the startingpoint for learning. This ensures that the childis at the centre of the endeavour rather thana body of knowledge that she must absorb.The child is an active agent in her ownlearning and development. She has, amongother things, her own interests, strengths,needs, learning dispositions and potential.These co-exist with her cultural identity,gender, relationships, competencies andabilities. This complexity, of course, is muchmore than the sum of its parts. Childhood is adistinct and valuable time during which thisunique individuality must be acknowledgedand appreciated, supported, treasured andnurtured towards fulfilment and joy throughrelationships with the significant adults inher life. A recognition of the child’s rightsprovides a context for this dynamic processwhich could be supported by rights-basedlegislation and policy.

The child will benefit from reciprocalcommunication with significant adults whogain knowledge and understanding of her lifethrough that communication. Recognisingthat the child has a distinct voice in oursociety, allied with the recognition of thechild’s active agency in life, brings anacknowledgement of the child’s right to asense of control over outcomes in her life atan age appropriate level. For young childrenespecially, it is the significant adults in theenvironment who will ensure she becomesaware of her own sense of self-reliance,independence and control. This emphasisesthe importance of high quality, dynamic andreciprocal interactions between the child andthe adult. The activities and opportunities forplay and discovery made available to the childthrough quality services and supports mustfoster the child’s sense of purpose and givemeaning to her engagement with the world.Crucially, the child must be allowed toexercise choice as a requisite part of activeparticipation.

A child-centred approach based on knowledgeand understanding of the child’s life mustrecognise also that the circumstances inwhich a child lives her life are not alwaysoptimally conducive to her harmonious

development. A child living in circumstancesof disadvantage, experiencing marginalisationon racial, ethnic or cultural grounds, orbecause of having special needs arising from adisability, has the same rights to qualityexperiences as her peers. It is the child whomust benefit directly from interventions, andall interventions involving children mustprimarily focus on child outcomes whichfollow from the child’s needs. Too often, it isthe child’s life which is used as a site ofintervention in fulfilling other obligations,such as releasing parents from childcarecommitments to participate in the labourforce. The child’s well-being must be theprimary concern, and the child’s life must berespected. Perhaps that is the essence of achild-centred approach, that the child andchildhood are afforded respect and dignity byparents, significant adults, the State andsociety.

Current research knowledge provides usefulinsights in the implementation of a child-centred approach. For example, from aphysical point of view, the child needsbalanced and healthy nutrition, but childrenliving in poverty are most at risk of deficientdiets. This finding is of particular concern inIreland, which has one of the highest rates ofchild poverty in the EU. In terms ofpreventative health care, the child’s healthand well-being is supported in the crucialdevelopmental years by consistent, seamless,multi-disciplinary service provision in thecontext of knowledge of the child’s individualneeds and circumstances. Physical activity isa key and necessary element in a child’sdevelopment and is strongly associated withparental modeling, and facilities andattitudes in childcare centres, pre-schools,schools and other out-of-home settings.Although developmental pathways have beenmapped, and provide a useful paradigm, itmust be recognised that children haveindividual developmental trajectories andabilities influenced, but not determined, by,for example, gender and abilities.

As the young child grows and developssocially and emotionally, caregivers will needto recognise the web of elements which makeup her individual profile. Emotionalregulation, i.e. the ability to exercise controlover one’s emotions, internally and externally,in accomplishing one’s goals, and the abilityto recognise and label emotions in oneself andin others, is a facet of the child’s development.

Section 3: Thematic Perspective on the Learning and Developing Child

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Other aspects which require knowledgegleaned from research include the child’scoping skills, sense of autonomy, attachmentrelationships (particularly with parents), self-esteem, self-confidence, self-identity and pro-social behaviours. Currently, three majormodels of children’s learning and cognitivedevelopment provide a theoretical basis forpractice – Piagetian constructivist theory,Vygotskian sociocultural interactive theoryand information processing theory. Withinthis theoretical framework, research providesinsights on the building blocks of activelearning including curiosity, exploration andnovelty seeking, mastery motivation and goalpersistence, metacognition, problem solvingand the inter-relationship between languageand thinking.

Theory on the moral development of the childis an emerging area and one in which there isnoteworthy research interest here in Ireland.The existing body of knowledge can furtherour understanding of the child’s growth anddevelopment through explorations of moralityas emotion, as conformity to rule andauthority, as conforming to one’s own beliefsystem and sense of self, and the ways inwhich the child’s developing moral sensefunctions in overall development. In the sameway that theories of moral development are inan early stage of development, so too is thecase with research on the child’s emergingspiritual life. Nonetheless, there are insightsavailable into spirituality as a humancapacity and an integral element of overalldevelopment.

3.2.1 Implications for the NQF/ECCE

Defining quality:

l Quality service provision is based on thechild’s individual profile of strengths andneeds.

l The child is an active agent in her learningand development and is given theopportunity to exercise choice andautonomy.

l Caregivers and significant adults have anunderstanding and knowledge of currentresearch and theory of child development.

l Caregivers and significant adultsunderstand the circumstances of the

child’s life and have the expertise tounderstand and address the impact ofthese circumstances.

l The child has the right to quality serviceprovision which prioritises her interestsand well-being.

Assessing quality:

l The child’s opinion must be sought andincluded, in an age and contextappropriate way in the course ofevaluation and assessment.

Supporting quality:

l The qualifications and training ofpractitioners to ensure high levels ofunderstanding of child development andhigh levels of professional expertise, isfundamental to providing quality child-centred services.

3.3 Holistic learning and development

The child’s developmental domains arefundamentally inter-related, and exertreciprocal influences, each upon the others,towards holistic development. This is the casewithin the child’s current developmentalstage, and as she is supported by non-directive, responsive adults to progress to thenext developmental stage on the basis of herprevious experience. In order to reflect theinter-relatedness of all areas of the child’slearning, the child must be respected as anactive and equal participant in the learningprocess. This is a prerequisite for the child torealise her own potential through thedeployment of her existing knowledge.Higher-order thinking skills are developedthrough reciprocal interaction with the adult,who is challenging the child appropriately.Development of the higher-order thinkingskills is highly dependent on the quality ofthe interaction with the adult. These higher-order thinking skills, in which the childintegrates existing knowledge and begins tocreate new meanings and connections, are anexpression of the holistic nature of learning.

Curriculum and learning contexts, inresponding to the holistic and complexpersonality of the child, must be child-centred

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and reflect the child’s interests. They mustprovide meaningful activities andopportunities for the child to engage activelywith the learning process. Learningprogrammes, curriculum content andpedagogy must reflect and support the child’sholistic development in which the childherself is an active participant andconstructor of meaning.

This has implications for service provision interms of continuity of care and transitionfrom home to out-of-home settings and frompre-school to school settings. Equallyimportant is communication between parentsand other caregivers and significant adults inthe child’s life in order to ensure themaximum understanding and knowledge tounderpin the child’s full and harmoniousdevelopment. The environments (relational,physical and cultural) in which the childmoves and acts must be in harmony inreflecting that understanding and knowledgeof the child.

The State has a key role in promoting,supporting and ensuring the holisticdevelopment of the child through co-ordinatedprovision and policies. Responses toindividual needs, particularly in situations inwhich a child has additional needs related todisadvantage, disability and othercircumstances, should be addressed in thecontext of multi-disciplinary teams. Suchteams should operate, not on the basis ofindividuals to whom the child is brought inturn, but as a flexible whole which bringssupport to the child in the context of thefamily.

Care and education are not sustainable asseparate experiences in a child’s life. Just asthe child’s developmental domains are inter-related, inter-connected and inter-influential,and as the child’s higher-order thinking skillsform connections within her knowledge base,so is the child’s experience of the world inter-connected and holistic. To artificially dividethat experience in the structures and contextsdesigned for nurturing the child is nothelpful. A holistic perspective on qualityprovision requires all perspectives to be takeninto account with an acknowledgement thatthese perspectives – children’s, parents’,professionals’, state bodies’ – are inter-relatedand must form an integrated whole.

There is ample research evidence supporting

the premise of intricate inter-connectedness ofthe child’s overall experience of learning anddevelopment. Physical activity in a child’searly years of development enhances overallsocio-emotional, cognitive and physicaldevelopment, and forms the basis for futureactivity patterns. Attachment relationships,based on trust and security, promote positivedevelopment in young children. Evidencesuggests that secure attachments promotesocial competence and cognitive development,and lay down the foundations of trust for theyoung child. Also, the impact of masterymotivation and goal persistence on cognitivedevelopment and competence is significant.The two major factors - genetic andsocialisation influences - which impact onmastery motivation, reflect the inter-relatedness of nature and nurture. Spiritualdevelopment in childhood has the potential tosignificantly enrich and strengthen ourunderstanding of core processes anddimensions of child development. Currentresearch proposes that spiritual developmentis just as important to personal and socialwell-being as are physical, cognitive andemotional elements of development.


Defining quality:

l The child’s learning and developmentoccurs and progresses holistically and anarray of supports is required to reflect andsupport this phenomenon.

l Care and education are indivisibleelements of a child’s life.

l Quality provision requires continuitybetween the various contexts in which thechild spends time.

l Parents and all significant adults involvedin supporting the child’s developmentcommunicate and share their knowledgeand experiences of the child.

l Where children have additional needsarising from disadvantaged circumstancesor a disability, interventions must be onthe basis of the child’s holisticdevelopment.

l Policy developments must promotecohesiveness and co-ordination in provisionfor young children.


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Assessing quality:

l The child’s progress must be assessedcontinuously by a variety of means, andthe knowledge gained made availableappropriately to the relevant adultsworking with the child.

l Process quality, that is the quality of theinteractions between the child and thesignificant adults, and the child and otherchildren, must be included in assessmentand evaluation procedures.

l The systems used to assess the child’sprogress must be included in overallevaluation and assessment.

Supporting quality:

l Ongoing professional development,training and mentoring will be necessaryto maintain the high levels of skill andexpertise required to respond fully to thechild.

l Funding will be required to ensure thatthe outdoor and indoor environment isresponsive to the interests of the child.

3.4 Environments for learning anddevelopment

The child experiences her environment inseveral inter-related and ecological wayspredicated on her own individualcircumstances – the physical environment(e.g. indoor and outdoor, home and out-of-home), the relational environment (e.g.parents, family, friends, caregivers,community, neighbourhood, significantothers) and the cultural environment (e.g.diversity, discrimination, self-identity,disadvantage, social class, race, ethnicity).This section will consider primarily thephysical environment as the relational andcultural environments will be dealt with inlater sections

In discussing the physical environment, itshould be noted that this is conceptualised asa continuum to reflect the totality of thechild’s life experience. This continuumencompasses home and out-of-homeenvironments, indoor and outdoor, thenatural and built environments, large and

small spaces, public and private spaces, andall other spaces and places in which the childmoves. The child should have access to bothstructured (e.g. playgrounds) and non-structured (e.g. parkland, woodland, backgardens) environments.

Central to the concept of child-centredness isthe recognition of the child as an active agentin her own learning and development, whichshe constructs holistically. The physicalcontexts in which this child-initiatedmeaning-making happens should reflect theprinciples of child-centredness and holisticdevelopment. The child’s activity can becharacterised in a dynamic way, andengagement, discovery, autonomy,opportunity, experimentation, exploration,enthusiasm and wonder are some of thehallmarks of that activity. Ultimately, theinteraction between the child and herenvironment should provide her withfulfilment and joy.

Environments structured to meet the child’sneeds should facilitate the child’s activeapproach to learning in safety and security,yet with provision for appropriate level ofrisk. A level of risk can be challenging for thechild and offer scope for the exercise of self-reliance, independence and autonomy, forproblem-solving using individual strengths toovercome difficulties and give a beneficialsense of control over outcomes. Theenvironment should also foster co-operationbetween the child and her peers within smallgroups, and overall group size and adult/childratio must be low enough to encourage this.

The environment should stimulate curiosity,choice, interests, and be varied and dynamicwithout overwhelming the child. Care-giversand significant adults can, for example, usethe natural world as a stimulus to the child’ssenses, as an inspiration to creativity, as acontext for activities and play, and as a sourceof continuity between home and out-of-homesettings. Again, planning for suchengagement with any environment requiresthat the starting point be the child, her needs,interests, learning dispositions and so on.This is particularly the case in planning theindoor and outdoor environment in out-of-home settings, and the child should haveaccess to outdoor play and activity daily. Inplanning a structured environment, careshould be taken to reflect the holistic natureof learning and development. Equipment and

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materials should not prescribe the activity,and the child must have the opportunity tomanipulate the objects in the environment asa vehicle towards meaning-making.

Each child has individual needs, and theenvironment should be flexible and adaptableto welcome children with special needs. Thephysical environment, whichever aspect of itis in question, must be well-resourced, anddemonstrate flexibility and inclusivity. Itmust meet the requirements of relevantregulations and contain adaptive equipmentso as to ensure consistent ease of access andfrequent use by the child with special needsarising from a disability. For all children, pro-active health promotion in the environment,such as healthy eating policy, promotion ofhealthy physical activity and personal care(e.g. personal hygiene, tooth care) is animportant input into the child’s life.

The literature on child development givesimportant direction on the environmentalsupports which will benefit young children’sholistic development. One very focusedexample is the importance of breakfast (in thecontext of good overall nutrition) for a child’soverall well-being. Breakfast clubs, and theprovision of breakfast to all childrenattending out-of-home settings are just twoexamples of an environmental support.Facilities and attitudes in childcare centres,pre-schools, schools and other out-of-homesettings are strongly associated with physicalactivity in young children, with particularsignificance in the organisation of indoor andoutdoor environments.

There is considerable evidence that theprovision of public play spaces in thecommunity impacts on children’sopportunities for physical activity amongtheir peers, and that the absence of suchfacilities is a feature of the lives of children inIreland. Such environmental supports arevery important, as indicated by currenttheories on emotional development. Thefunctional approach to emotional developmentviews emotions as emerging from ongoinginteractions between the individual and herenvironment. Supportive relationships andenvironments in the community, particularlyfor children with special needs and thoseexperiencing challenging situations, promoteeffective coping abilities. Stimulatingenvironments, the provision of meaningfulchoices for young children and task repetition

leading to independent action promoteautonomy and mastery motivation in youngchildren. Pre-school and school environmentsand adults’ interactive styles are also relatedto perceptions of autonomy.

The literature on curiosity, exploration andnovelty seeking indicates that learningenvironments should be varied, dynamic andstructured enough to stimulate curiosity andsupport exploration without overwhelmingthe child’s attempts to process it. Masterymotivation in the developing child has itsroots in the intrinsic desire to master one’senvironment, particularly the physicalenvironment. Theories of moral developmenttell us that in learning to value theenvironment, the child can learn to respectthe natural world as a source of wonder andawe.


Defining quality:

l The child requires access to a range ofenvironments across the continuum fromindoor to outdoor, built and natural and soon.

l The physical environment in out-of-homesettings must be carefully designed andthoughtfully arranged for flexibility,stimulation and dynamic engagement bythe child.

l The environment must allow the child adegree of risk.

Assessing quality:

l While the physical environment in out-of-home settings must meet relevant healthand safety standards, the role of theenvironment in supporting the child’slearning must also be part of theevaluation and assessment processes.

Supporting quality:

l Resources to adapt the environment to beflexible to the needs of all children will berequired.

l Resources to develop the outdoorenvironment, and ensure that the child


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has easy access between indoor andoutdoor spaces in out-of-home settings, willbe required.

l Advice and training on planning thelearning environment will be necessary onan ongoing basis as part of overallprofessional development.

3.5 Relationships in learning anddevelopment

The relationships in which a child engages,from birth onwards, form a central pillar ofthe environment within which the childdevelops and learns. A child’s relationalenvironment comprises parents, siblings,family, friends, peers, caregivers and othersin the community with whom the child hassocial interaction.

A child’s holistic development and learning isbest supported in the context of secure,supportive, stimulating and nurturingrelationships. These are characterised byrespect, kindness, generosity, sensitivity,emotional responsiveness, empathy,sympathy and warmth. Reciprocalrelationships should indicate to the child thatshe is valued, her contribution is importantand that she is listened to and heard in thedialogue. It is generally acknowledged thatparents, both mother and father, are the mostimportant people in a child’s life.

Parents are also the most influential peoplein the child’s life, and it is, in general, achild’s parents who primarily support andnurture her full and harmoniousdevelopment. Moreover, it is they who providethe love and security which most enriches thechild’s life, and who hold most dear the child’shappiness and well-being. It must beacknowledged that there are situations inwhich parents who employ positive parentingstyles encounter difficulties because theirchild is unable to respond in kind. Forexample, this might occur in the case of achild with special needs arising from adisability or because of the child’s individualtemperament. It must also be acknowledgedthat there are instances when parents requiresupport in being parents, perhaps becausethey are under stress in other aspects of theirlives and are unable to provide positiveparenting. In these circumstances, and othersimilar circumstances, parents need support

within the context of the family and thecommunity. These supports must be family-based, and the interests of the child must becentral to the outcomes.

Reciprocal relationships with siblings andpeers can be an important source offriendship and support for young children.These relationships can promote moralreasoning, conflict resolution skills and socialunderstanding in very young children. Playactivities with siblings and peers can fosterthe development of pro-social behaviours,such as sharing and co-operating. Siblingrelationships in particular can be a source oflifelong support and protection from adverselife circumstances and events. Toddlers canbegin to show interest in their peers evenbefore the age of two, and young childrenhave an important need for playmates andfriends, as these relationships act to enhancethe child’s self-esteem and self-worth. Adultsshould not underestimate the importance tothe young child of her friends and friendships.Significant adults need to facilitate the child’sfriendships, and, in particular in out-of-homesettings, foster relationships between thechildren in their care.

For the significant adults who interact withthe child in out-of-home settings to supportlearning and development, it is within theadult/child relationship that much of thelearning takes place. Adult interactive styles,as an element of the environment, arecrucially important. The adult is required tostart from the point of the child’s interests inher activities and learning situations, toemphasise the child’s strengths andcompetencies, while helping the child to copewith mistakes and frustration through to theexperience of success, resiliency and problemsolving. In relating to the child, the adultmust be appropriately non-directive, mustdiscuss, question and consider (rather thandictate) outcomes, and partner the child inconstructing meaning. It is through theadult/child relationship and interaction thatthe adult has the opportunity to demonstratecultural awareness, to practice inclusivity andto promote positive models of diversity.

As in the case of the physical environment,the relational environment is conceptualisedas a continuum, not as a set of compartmentswhich the child visits in turn. This then hasimplications for the caregivers, serviceproviders, teachers and other significant

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adults who inhabit the child’s relationalenvironment. Communication andpartnership between the adults is essential ifthe child is to experience the continuitynecessary to a holistic experience of life. Itmust be reiterated that care and educationcan not be fractured, but must be anintegrated experience for the child in herrelationships.

A child’s infancy and very early years are atime of unique dependency, during whichparents and caregivers have a particular rolein learning and development. It is theirresponsibility to provide a stimulatingenvironment in which caregiving routines areappreciated as opportunities to develop therelationship with the child. These dailyroutines are also opportunities to fosterlanguage and cognitive development.

During this period the child’s experience is, toa large degree, mediated by the significantadults in her life, in particular her parents.This has practical implications in that, forexample, the child’s access to preventativehealth care is largely determined by parentalawareness and attitude towards health careservices. It is through dynamic and reciprocalrelationships that the child developsemotional regulation and understanding.Additionally, positive and secure attachmentrelationships promote the development ofpositive coping skills. For moral development,the young child needs a warm and consistentframework within which to formrelationships, and spiritual development isinfluenced by, among other things, dynamicinteractions with significant others. There aremany other examples of the ways in whichthe child’s relationships with others impact onher holistic development, and the importanceof positive, nurturing, reciprocal relationshipscannot be overstated.


Defining quality:

l The child’s learning and development isbest supported in the context of the familyand community.

l The adults in out-of-home settings relateto the child in reciprocal interactions basedon partnership.

l Communication and partnership betweenparents and significant adults in out-of-home settings is imperative.

l Provision of services and facilities forfamilies and children should take intoaccount the child’s need for opportunitiesand places to be with other children.

l Quality provision requiresacknowledgement of difficulties inrelationships which may impact negativelyon the child.

Assessing quality:

l Systems, routines and protocols forsupporting relationships between homeand out-of-home settings should beincluded in evaluation and assessmentprocedures.

l Evaluation and assessment must includethe interactions which take place betweenthe child and the adult, the child and otherchildren, and among adults.

l Protocols for dealing with instances inwhich a child is experiencing negativerelationships, for example bullying orabuse, should be included in evaluationand assessment.

l The process of evaluation and assessmentshould in itself be a collaborative exercise,reflective of the relational environment inwhich it takes place.

Supporting quality:

l The promotion of good workingrelationships among the team in out-of-home settings should be part of pre-serviceand in-service training for managers andother professionals in the ECCE sector.

l Sharing of good practice, effectivestrategies and practical methods forinvolving parents and promoting goodcommunication and partnership betweenhome and out-of-home settings should befacilitated through practitioner networksand/or professional mentoring.


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3.6 Diversity in learning anddevelopment

The child’s individuality is the basic buildingblock of diversity among children.Individuality and diversity are companionconcepts in the child’s life experience. Theconcern of the significant adults in the child’slife must be to make both individuality anddiversity a celebration of the uniquecomplexity of each child. An appreciation ofthis individuality contributes to theapplication of the principles of child-centredness and holism in reciprocalrelationships with the child.

As an individual, the child has rights whichmust be upheld, and adults have a role inprotecting those rights. Each child is a uniqueindividual with many dimensions to her life;for example, interests, learning dispositions,temperament, family, race, ethnicity,capabilities, needs, socio-economiccircumstances, gender, language. All of theseelements, and others, interact and combine informing the person who develops in wayswhich reflect her unique and complex profile.It is important that this individuality havevisibility in all considerations of how best tomake provision for the child, either at homeor in out-of-home settings. The environment –relational, physical and cultural – must beflexible and responsive enough to be inclusiveof the individual child. The child, in turn, isactive in those environments and haspersonal agency. She must be able to exercisechoice and experience a sense of control overoutcomes in her own life, and to that endmust be listened to, and heard, by those whomake decisions on behalf of children.

Acknowledging that the child has rights alsoplaces an onus on significant adults to beadvocates for the right of children to qualityexperiences and quality services. This willrequire, possibly, legislative action andsystemic change. Knowledge andunderstanding of the individual child’s lifeexperiences is a prerequisite for taking actionon her behalf. The child’s right to qualitysupports precludes using her life as a site ofintervention in pursuit of goals which are notrelated to child outcomes. Quality serviceprovision, be it a targeted intervention orother element of provision in any setting,should start with the child. It should focus onchild outcomes and the processes which occurthrough the different elements of the

environment to support and nurture the childtowards overall well-being.

Accompanying this principle of individualprofile is the awareness of diversity amongchildren. Diversity is not about placing a childin a category in which the child is identifiedonly by, for example, special needs arisingfrom a disability, by ethnic origin or by thelevel of disadvantage she experiences. Any ofthese conditions can exist together in a child’slife, along with – as described above – manyother attributes and experiences. Acceptingthat diversity is a given and a constant canenable significant adults to work from aposition of cultural awareness, to provideadaptive environments, to acknowledgeabilities, to be positive role models forinclusive practices, and to pro-actively modelanti-bias behaviours and curricula. Suchbehaviours should be the norm even insettings where there may be the appearanceof homogeneity. This might mean, forexample, in single-sex schools or settings inwhich the children come from similar culturalbackgrounds. The child must be supported inrelationships with other children towardsempathy, understanding and co-operation.The child must know herself to be valued, herfirst language respected and supported whilesecond-language learning is proceeding. Shemust find that her culture is visible, anecessary part of supporting self-identity. Herneeds must be identified and met in thecontext of holistic development.

As outlined in Section 2, the diversity of oursociety is an acknowledged feature of ourlives, and the life of the individual child.Knowledge of the child’s life will lead tospecific responses to individual children. Forexample, special attention may be required tomeet the needs of a child whose health suffersbecause of socio-economic and/or culturaldisadvantage. In Ireland, a child who ishomeless or is a member of the Travellercommunity is at risk of poor health, andIreland has one of the highest rates of childpoverty in Europe.

Autonomy is central to the empowerment ofall children, and perhaps more so tomarginalised children, those experiencingcultural and socio-economic disadvantage andthose with special needs. In this light,adaptive equipment and environments, whichare suited to their age, level of need andethnic background are essential to enable all

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children to manipulate, explore andexperiment in their world. There is a verylarge body of research on issues of ethnicidentity; here in Ireland, for example, a bodyof literature on Traveller cultural identity hasemerged. Training and support forpractitioners and significant adults will needto equip them with knowledge and expertise,based on such materials, to address thediverse profiles of the children and to identifystrategies to respond appropriately. But, ofcourse, the child can also be resilient, andsuch resiliency must be fostered. The child isnot a passive recipient of intervention, but anactive participant in any such programme.

One of the aspects of diversity which is mostvisible is that of language. Ireland has ahistory of bilingualism and a substantial bodyof experience of second-language learning.Increasingly, the language needs of childrenin Ireland expand the range of languages inuse as first and second languages. It appearsthat supporting the child’s first language isvery important to the development of thesecond language. This has implications for theprovision of supports in the form of childcareworkers and classroom assistants who canspeak the child’s first language in situationswhere the service is conducted in a second oradditional language for the child. There arealso implications for services incommunicating and building relationshipswith parents and families for whom thelanguage of the service is not their firstlanguage.

Through play, self-expression and guidedexploration, children gain a sense of history,identity and cultural tradition as well as thedevelopment of their skill in playing anddeveloping creatively. In an holistic approachto development and learning in educationalsettings, it is vital that young children areengaged in activities which allow them torecognise and appreciate the beauty anddiversity of their natural environmentthrough activities which are at the heart ofcultural activities, e.g. story-telling, drama,music and dance.


Defining quality:

l Each child has an individual configurationof strengths, capabilities and needs which

must be identified by the significant adultswho will then develop strategies to respondappropriately. This applies at all levels,from policy and legislative development, todaily service provision.

l Practitioners and significant adults mustfoster inclusive and anti-bias practice, andpromote awareness of diversity, regardlessof the presence or absence of cultural orother forms of diversity in their immediateenvironment.

l Cultural sensitivity must be part ofrelationships in ECCE settings, and thissensitivity will include making the child’sculture visible in the environment.

Assessing quality:

l Practitioner reflective practice will includeconsideration of how interactions andrelationships promote empathy, sympathyand understanding among the children.

l Systems, routines and protocols to respondto the impact of diverse culturalbackgrounds among parents oncommunication and partnership should beincluded in evaluation and assessment.

l Assessment and evaluation of theenvironment should include the images,equipment and materials provided and thelevel to which they reflect and respond todiverse needs and identities.

l Assessment should include an evaluationof the steps taken by practitioners tobecome familiar with cultural ideas andpractices that might be different orcontrary to the prevailing ideas andpractices of the setting.

Supporting quality:

l Resources should be made available whichreflect a range of cultural identities,gender, ability levels and so on for usewith all children.

l Practitioners and significant adults mayrequire support in developing their ownpositive attitudes towards diversity in thecommunity and in their setting.


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l Peer support and sharing of good practice,strategies and methods, as well as thesharing of information, of accessingsuitable materials, resources and supports,will be facilitated through localprofessional networks.

3.7 Communication in learning anddevelopment

Communication is understood here as being areciprocal and mutual exchange betweenpeople across the range of human experience.Each child needs to share in thisphenomenon. Communication is about morethan language – a parent can communicatelove, comfort and reassurance through a hugas, or more effectively, than with words. Achild who does not acquire language, forexample, because of a disability, needs to besupported in developing a recognisable –alternative or augmentative – means ofcommunicating. Communication isconceptualised, as are the other themesoutlined here, as woven through all thedevelopmental domains and interconnectedwith the other themes.

While communication is most often associatedwith spoken language, there are many otherforms of communication available; technologyprovides alternatives to speech, as does signlanguage, reciprocal communication throughthe senses – touch, sight, smell, hearing andtaste – self-expression through the arts andso on. Each child must be supported incommunicating with her environmentsthrough the most appropriate means. In mostcases, this will mean supporting the child’slanguage learning, be it first language, secondlanguage, or bilingualism, and this requiresdifferent levels of support in differentcontexts. For example, the effects ofdisadvantaged circumstances can impact on achild’s language development and specificinterventions may be required to offset thoseeffects. Hearing problems can also impact onthe child’s ability to communicate. Hearingdifficulty is a relatively common childhoodoccurrence making screening essential duringa child’s early years. Children who areacquiring English as a second language alsorequire specific interventions. The coreprinciple remains that each child must beable to engage in reciprocal communicationwithin her environments.

Communication is, as with the otheridentified themes, inextricably inter-connected with the child’s environment(physical, relational and cultural). It reflectsthe child’s individuality and the diversity ofher experiences, and allows the child toexpress her world view, provided the child islistened to in the communicative context.Communication is embedded in the child’ssocial development and is the basis for herrelationships with parents, siblings, peers,significant adults, extended family and all theother social relationships she will experience.It is the means through which, in turn, thesignificant adults can come to understand andknow the child’s life and personality. Bycommunicating with each other, the child’ssecure trusting relationships with parents,significant adults and other children, whichare so essential to healthy development andwell-being, are developed and maintained.

The interactive styles of the adults who aresupporting the child’s learning are mostimportant in affirming the child as an activeco-constructor of meaning. It is fundamentalto the effectiveness of the adult interactivestyle that the relationship with the child beconceptualised as a dialogue and a discussion.Adults need to communicate with the child inways which show empathy, sympathy,kindness, sensitivity and responsiveness.Communication characterised in this waycontributes to the child’s moral development,and, in particular, impacts on how diversity isapproached. But the communicative processshould also challenge the child, in an age anddevelopmentally appropriate way, to movetowards new learning, understanding andmeaning-making. The literature on spiritualdevelopment talks of the child as a naturalphilosopher. Philosophy is characterised bymutuality and openness, encouraging thechild to question, analyse, investigate, thinkcritically and problem solve in collaborationwith others.

Ongoing communication between parents andother significant adults is a further necessaryelement in promoting the child’s well-being.Such communication is essential to a fullunderstanding of, for example, the child’scircumstances, personality, culture, interestsand dispositions; in other words, to theoverall integration and continuity of thechild’s life. It is also fundamental todeveloping a partnership between home andout-of-home settings, and an important

26

prerequisite of parental involvement. Equally,in settings and circumstances which involvemore than one person working with the child– for example in centre-based day care andtherapeutic teams – communication betweenthe members of the team is crucial. Sharingknowledge of the child, maintainingconsistency in meeting the child’s needs andensuring that all relevant information isavailable to the team and to those keepingrecords is important. To this end, systems,routines and protocols to facilitatecommunication and information sharing willneed to be established in most out-of-homesettings. In addition, management skills incommunication will be significantcontributors to quality provision.


Defining quality:

l Each child’s communicative ability isfostered in the context of reciprocalinteractions within nurturing, securerelationships.

l Environmental supports, materials,adaptive equipment and other necessaryresources are available to the child tosupport her communicative abilities.

l The child’s first language must besupported and developed, including insettings where the daily language is anadditional language for the child.

l Out-of-home settings have systems,routines and protocols to facilitatecommunication among the team within thesetting, with other professionals involvedwith the child and with the parents.

Assessing quality:

l Where external evaluation and assessmentof a service takes place, there must beclear communication of the parameters ofthe process, and the process itself must becharacterised by close communicationbetween and among all involved.

Supporting quality:

l Management training should includecommunication skills.

l Communication among the practitionercommunity must have a range of supports,for example, networks, cluster groups andprofessional publications.

3.8 Play for learning and development

Play is the process and state of being in whichthe child will predominantly engage with herown holistic development. There is no singledefinition of what play is, but the child is notin need of a definition – play is what she does.Perhaps the difficulty which adults have indefining play is a reflection of the ownershipwhich children have over the process. It maywell also be a reflection of the immediacy andspontaneity of play, and the open ended,flexible nature of what happens whenchildren are playing. What is not contested isthat play is a source of fulfilment and joy forthe child, a source of wonder to adults and amajor contributor to the well-being ofchildren.

Each child has the right to play and thisrequires supportive adults, environments andcommunities, in what could be characterisedas an ecological model of support. Support forplay is an essential part of valuing childhood,one which requires action if such values arenot to become mere rhetoric. This applies inparticular to the provision of public playspaces and facilities in the community.

Play is a very important context in which theinter-related domains of development –physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, moral andspiritual – are activated through discovery,exploration, experimentation, enthusiasm,creativity and curiosity. During play, thechild can be solitary or social. She can deployprevious experience and knowledge andexercise meta-cognitive skills. She can exploreher own developmental stage and incorporatenew learning. She can engage with concreteobjects and/or ideas. She can explore emotionand culture, and experience autonomy andpurpose, and much, much more.

Activities characterised in this way require anelement of risk if they are to be trulyexperimental and exploratory – difficulty andchallenge are needed too. Coping withmistakes and frustration is part of learningand development. Provision for play – inwhatever context or for whatever age – mustprovide opportunities for risk taking in whatis ultimately a safe and secure environment.


27


The child experiences her own active agencyin the play process, leading to experiences ofsuccess, independence and self-reliance. It isthe responsibility of significant adults in thelearning environment to ensure the child’ssense of control, especially in situations ofstructured play towards specific learningobjectives. Those adults will need expertise inrecognising the appropriate adult input intoplay, as well as in planning for learningthrough play. Skilful observation of the childat play is another essential element of thetraining and expertise of the practitioner as aguide to future planning. One important areaof observation is the child’s masterymotivation and goal persistence in pursuing aplay activity.

There is a large body of evidence whichsuggests that persistence (a primary measureof motivation) on a particular task is likely tolead to competence on that task.Furthermore, young children who are moreengrossed in their free play (therebydemonstrating higher levels of motivation)have been found to demonstrate morecognitively sophisticated play than youngchildren who are less engrossed. Exchangescharacterised by positive responses andwarmth have been associated with higherlevels of task-directedness, to better organisedand more sustained play activity and to morepride in personal achievement in youngchildren. Play is a particularly motivatingmedium through which young children candevelop and learn, and it has been shown toimprove planning and problem solving.Furthermore, it can enable children tointegrate new ideas and practice new skills. Itcan also be used to promote language use,creativity and flexibility of thought. Inparticular, the literature emphasises that‘structured’ play should provide intellectualchallenge and security, two factors which arelargely determined by the developmentalappropriateness of the activities.

Play is an expression of each child’s complexindividuality and of the collective diversity ofany given group of children. From a veryearly age, the child’s perceptual skills giveher the potential to observe, show awarenessand actively engage in her world. In thisrespect, the young child needs to beencouraged to enter play together with peersand significant adults and, by doing so, sharea wonder and enthusiasm in their mutualexplorations and expressions of their world.

This will require opportunities to touch, tofeel, to taste, to smell and see the beauty anddetail in the immediate environment. Shemust also be facilitated to develop ageappropriate awareness of the widercommunity and world.

The play environment (physical, relational,cultural) must be flexible and adaptable toindividuality and diversity, particularly in thecase of children with special needs arisingfrom disability, disadvantage or culturalmarginalisation. Resiliency in childrengrowing up in disadvantaged circumstanceswas found to be associated with a range ofparental actions. Parents were found toprotect their children from the adverse effectsof poverty by, for example, providing a varietyof stimulating learning materials and accessto safe play areas, and being responsive andsensitive to their child’s needs.


Defining quality:

l All provision for children, whether at homeor in out-of-home settings must, as apriority, provide play facilities, materials,opportunities, supports, resources and anyother requirements identified as helpful inpromoting play

l The child must be encouraged to engage inplay alone, with other children and withadults.

l The child should have access to playopportunities across all environmentsdescribed in Section 3.4.

Assessing quality:

l Health and safety aspects of evaluationand assessment should, within reason, notmilitate against the child’s ability toengage with the environment.

Supporting quality:

l Theories and approaches to play andplayful interactions must be central to pre-and in-service training for ECCEpractitioners.

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l Dedicated support for the development ofplay activities should be available topractitioners, possibly from a play advisorworking with a group of services.

3.9 Conclusion

Each child is a unique, complex andwonderful human being. Considerable workhas gone into researching and documenting

the myriad elements of child development andall the processes which occur in the course ofthat development. Yet it is doubtful if anywriter, commentator or researcher hascaptured the quintessence of a single child.Perhaps this is part of the continuingfascination of childhood for adults. It is veryimportant that, in deconstructing theelements of child development theory in orderto further our own understandings, we do notlose sight of the child.


29

This document has laid out the CECDEperspective on the changing constructions ofearly childhood in Ireland over the lastcentury. It has addressed some issues ofcurrent interest and debate in ECCE inIreland. Through the thematic interpretationof child development and learning, it hasillustrated the CECDE’s perspective on theinter-related nature of that learning anddevelopment. Primarily, though, it hasdemonstrated the perspective on the child andchildhood which has been incorporated intothe development of the NQF/ECCE.

The development of the NQF/ECCE will be amajor result of the CECDE’s work. It will bethe first time that the ECCE sector in Irelandwill have an agreed set of national qualitystandards. It is vital that such an importantinitiative is firmly rooted in the best available

evidence and progressed through co-operationand consultation with stakeholders. TheCECDE identified four elements of researchwhich would be required to underpin theNQF/ECCE. Three of these elements ofresearch have been completed and published,as follows:

(a) Insights on Quality - A National Review ofPolicy, Practice and Research Relating toQuality in Early Childhood Care andEducation in Ireland 1990-2004 (CECDE,2004a)

(b) Talking About Quality - Report of aConsultation Process on Quality in EarlyChildhood Care and Education: ExecutiveSummary (CECDE, 2004b)

(c) Making Connections - A Review ofInternational Policies, Practices and

Conclusion

Section 4

30

Research Relating to Quality in EarlyChildhood Care and Education (CECDE,2004c)

The publication of Early Childhood in Ireland- Evidence and Perspectives completes thefour pillars. These four documents provideconsiderable evidence on the constituentelements of quality provision from a broadrange of complementary perspectives.

The CECDE has consistently taken the viewthat a concordant and co-ordinated nationalpolicy context is fundamental to the objectiveof a co-ordinated and cohesive ECCE sector.Over the past decade or so, against thebackground of a rapidly changing socio-economic and demographic landscape, therehave been significant modernisingdevelopments in relation to policy towardsyoung children. These developments arereflected in such seminal documents as the

National Childcare Strategy (DJELR, 1999),the White Paper on Early ChildhoodEducation, Ready to Learn (DES, 1999a) andthe National Children’s Strategy, OurChildren, Their Lives (DHC, 2000). Inaddition, as referred to earlier, theconsultation document on early learning,Towards a Framework for Early Learning(NCCA, 2004) has added to the matrix ofpolicy on young children. The CECDEperspective, as explicated in this document,articulates well within this policy framework.

This perspective on child development andlearning, as articulated by the CECDE, isnow open to scrutiny and debate, a debateopen to everybody with interest in ECCE inIreland. Ongoing debate on child learning anddevelopment invigorates all involved, andhopefully enriches children’s experiences.Enriching young children’s experiences is alsoat the heart of our ultimate goal, a well-established and agreed NQF/ECCE.

Section 4: Conclusion

31

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Appendix 1

Documents

Early Childhood in Ireland - Evidence and Perspectives