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Accessibility and Inclusiveness of Early Childhood Education and Care across Europe: Policies and Experiences

Book - Dissertation

Summary of the PhD Dissertation "Accessibility and Inclusiveness of Early Childhood Education and Care across Europe: Policies and Experiences" The overarching objective of this dissertation is to shed light on the relationship between ECEC policy instruments and the experiences of families and children with ECEC across Europe in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness. This work is based on empirical research aiming to answer practical questions about ECEC policies and policy instruments that work and do not work as regards the accessibility and inclusiveness of these services. These issues are tackled within the overall theoretical context of welfare state, social investment, and social justice and human rights. In order to answer these practical research questions, two conceptual frameworks are adapted to ECEC. The first one is the institutional setting of ECEC that groups ECEC policies and policy instruments into the three pillars of provision, regulation and financing, which is particularly used in researching accessibility. The second is the equal opportunities, equal treatment, and equal outcomes scheme that has been helpful in researching inclusiveness. These two conceptual frameworks are the tools that provided the direction to conduct this research systematically. In countries where ECEC is more in the realm of public sector than private, both the realised access and perceived accessibility of ECEC are found to be higher. This is evident especially in the way ECEC is provided and financed. The earlier the legal entitlement starts, the higher is the accessibility of ECEC in the country. Similarly, in countries where private self-financing ECEC is not allowed, accessibility is higher. By the same token, more public spending is closely associated with higher accessibility. As the proportion of private funding increases, the realised access drops. Hence, universal access schemes are encouraged. However, higher public spending, lower private or parental contributions, and early start of free provision do not translate into higher access by disadvantaged children. In other words, this research confirms that there is a risk of Matthew effect in the way ECEC is financed in wealthier countries. For this reason, universal access and funding schemes should be supported by targeting and extra resources for disadvantaged children. Regarding the way ECEC is regulated, accessibility (both perceived and realised) is higher in countries with unitary systems compared to split ones. Moreover, realised access is higher in countries with high structural quality measures such as staff qualification for older children and curriculum for younger children. Financial, cultural and attitudinal barriers, lack of available places, and lack of awareness and information are identified as major causes of unequal opportunities for low-income immigrant families in ECEC, while the challenges with regard to school segregation, language acquisition, and cultural practices contribute to unequal treatment. These are also the barriers to the inclusiveness of ECEC systems especially for children with low-income and immigration background. The findings suggest that the inequality of opportunities is more problematic for younger children while the inequality of treatment concerns older children more. However, both younger and older children require the improvement in both areas. Moreover, both younger and older children need extra resources and strategies in order to achieve at the same level with their non-disadvantaged peers.
Publication year:2019
Accessibility:Open