Zum Funktionswandel ökonomischer Bildung. Vom „Homo oeconomicus“ zum „unternehmerischen Selbst“

Famulla G-E. Zum Funktionswandel ökonomischer Bildung. Vom „Homo oeconomicus“ zum „unternehmerischen Selbst“. Working Paper. Vol 5.; 2017

State by State: Monitoring Early Childhood Education Systems 2013. Creating Transparency – Strengthening Governance

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) ranks high on the political agenda in Germany, with particular priority given to expanding opportunities for children under three. One question frames the current debate: Will it be possible to provide access to a daycare center or daycare services for every child over the age of one, as required by law starting August 1, 2013? Creating these new placement options poses financial issues as well as a wide range of other challenges: Building child care centers and setting up the necessary administrative processes often takes much longer than anticipated, and the increased demand for qualified personnel looms as an additional barrier, though the situation differs across geographical regions. These urgent issues sometimes obscure the fact that ECEC services promote children's learning and development only when "done right." In other words: The quality of early childhood education services still ranks too low on the political agenda. Though expectations are high, such services will fall short unless they meet quality standards. This is especially true for institutional settings where children under age 3 receive care

Professionelles Handeln im System der frühkindlichen Bildung, Betreuung und Erziehung. Auswirkungen der Personalsituation in Kindertageseinrichtungen auf das professionelle Handeln, die pädagogischen Akteur:innen und die Kinder

Wie verändert die Personalsituation in KiTas das pädagogische Handeln und welche Folgen ergeben sich hieraus für die Kinder und die pädagogisch Tätigen? Zentrales Narrativ der pädagogischen Akteur:innen zur Personalsituation ist, dass sie ihr Handeln als Spagat wahrnehmen, den sie zwischen ihren eigenen professionellen Ansprüchen und den vorhandenen Ressourcen (Personal, Zeit und Raum) leisten müssen. Die Belastungsgrade sind heterogen – KiTas erleben unterschiedliche Ausmaße und Formen personellen Mangels. Deutlich wird, dass die angespannte Personalsituation in allen KiTas Professionalität gefährdet oder unterminiert; einige Einrichtungen geraten in eine Negativspirale. Auch Organisationsentwicklungsprozesse werden durch knappe Ressourcen eingeschränkt; dadurch wird die Bearbeitung des Spagats und die Mobilisierung unterstützender Ressourcen wie emotionaler Energie erschwert. Diskutiert wird, inwiefern vor diesem Hintergrund von einer prekären Professionalität zu sprechen ist. (DIPF/Orig.

What characteristics of funding, provision and regulation are associated with effective social investment in ECEC in England, France and Germany?

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is seen as a crucial element of the social investment state. Whilst the extent of social investment in ECEC depends on financial expenditure, its effectiveness depends on certain conditions being met, namely affordable, high quality provision being available. We explore policy development and the role played by government in the funding, provision and regulation of ECEC in England, France and Germany and then compare them in terms of availability, affordability and quality. We argue that for children aged three and over, social investment can be deemed to be broadly effective in France and Germany, but in England quality is compromised by low staff qualification levels in private childcare centres. For children under three, effective social investment is elusive in all countries although as a result of different conditions not being met. Our findings lead us to question the limitations of the concept of social investment in ECEC, particularly in marketised contexts

Information Asymmetries between Parents and Educators in German Childcare Institutions

Economic theory predicts market failure in the market for early childhood education and care (ECEC) due to information asymmetries. We empirically investigate information asymmetries between parents and ECEC professionals in Germany, making use of a unique extension of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). It allows us to compare quality perceptions by parents and pedagogic staff of 734 ECEC institutions which were attended by children in SOEP households. Parents and staff were asked to rate the same quality measures. We detect considerable information asymmetries between these groups which differ across quality measures but little by parental socio-economic background or center characteristics. Our findings imply that information is not readily available to parents, an issue that should be addressed by policy-makers

Local Day-Care Quality and Maternal Employment: Evidence from East and West Germany

By investigating how locally available early childhood education and care quality relates to maternal employment choices, this study extended the literature which has mostly focused on the importance of day-care availability or costs. We provided differentiated analyses by the youngest child's age and for West and East Germany to examine moderating influences of varying day-care supply and work-care cultures. The empirical analysis linked the Socio-Economic Panel and the 'Families in Germany'-Study for 2010 and 2011 (N=3,301 mothers) with regional structural quality data. We used regression models of employment status and work hours changes, respectively. In East Germany, mothers with a child aged under three years who lived in districts with smaller day-care groups were more likely to be employed and to extend their work hours. In West Germany, the negative association of child-teacher-ratios with maternal employment was marginally significant. For mothers with older children, day-care quality was unrelated to employment