Early Childhood Education and Care for Children from Birth to Three
Submitting Institution
Canterbury Christ Church UniversityUnit of Assessment
EducationSummary Impact Type
SocietalResearch Subject Area(s)
Medical and Health Sciences: Public Health and Health Services
Education: Curriculum and Pedagogy, Specialist Studies In Education
Summary of the impact
This case study describes the impact of research into early childhood
education and care (ECEC), highlighting significant findings, outputs,
pathways to change and impacts for early education and care services for
children under three. Impacts have been substantial, including increased
awareness of this `phase'; improved access to professional development;
democratic practitioner participation and improved practitioner knowledge.
Additionally, influence on policy debate about childcare, changes to
organisational policies and practices in the public sector, and commercial
development in the private sector, are described. The reach of the impact
ranges from individual to organisational levels and local to international
contexts.
Underpinning research
From the mid-1990s, Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) has been
developing an international profile for research concerned with early
childhood from birth to three years, and related education and care
provision. Research led by Tricia David (Professor of Early Childhood
Education, 1995-2003), Kathy Goouch (appointed 1992) and Sacha Powell
(appointed 2003) (both currently Readers at CCCU) have contributed to a
strong track record and portfolio of professional education and
international research for ECEC, evidenced in RAE 2001 and 2008. Studies
have resulted in publications intended to share and apply research
findings to positively influence early years' research, policy and
practice.
David, Goouch and Powell were commissioned in 2002 by the (then)
Government's Sure Start Unit to conduct a literature review, to inform the
development by Manchester Metropolitan University of a Framework to
Support Children in their Earliest Years: Birth to Three Matters.
Its originality was the focus on ECEC for children under three and the
multi-disciplinary review. Its significance stemmed from the creation of
positive and holistic conceptualisations of young children's development
which shaped the Framework's innovative design. This signalled a departure
from domain-specific, `age and stage' linear models, which had often
reflected deficit views of young children's development. Published as a
standalone text (David et al 2003), the Review was also integral to the
Framework.
The reconceptualisation of young children's interactions as skilful and
competent attracted attention from colleagues within Shanghai Education
Commission, which instigated a five-year project to develop integrated
care, health and education services for children under three. In 2003,
David and Powell were invited to work with the Shanghai team, beginning a
process of collaborative research and practitioner exchanges, examining
how holistic understandings of young children's development might apply in
Chinese contexts. A further collaboration with ECEC colleagues from
Beijing Education Commission ensued (Powell and Goouch, 2004, 2005),
focusing on play and learning. Analysis of questionnaires and discussion
groups involving 250 Chinese ECEC educators led to the theorising of play
in ECEC contexts as a continuum of socio-culturally accepted/rejected
behaviours and dispositions, published by David and Powell in 2005 and
2010, and Goouch in 2008. An ecological perspective shaped the findings of
the studies, drawing attention to the evolving political, historical,
social and cultural beliefs affecting provision for young children.
In 2004, David's lead editorship of BERA Early Childhood SIG's Review
of early years' pedagogy, curriculum and adult roles, drew attention to a
need for competent, skilful staff and conceptual and practical integration
of education and care. In 2006, Powell and Goouch observed and recorded
leadership case studies, incorporated as best practice exemplars in the Early
Years Professional Standards published by CWDC. The process revealed
the relative isolation of staff working with babies and, together with
another key finding from Birth to Three Matters Review concerning
the paucity of research in this `phase', prompted The Baby Room
Project (2009-12), funded by the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation. Goouch
and Powell's critical ecological study highlighted a `hidden situation' of
policy confusion (Powell 2010), political disadvantage and inadequacy
surrounding practitioners `caring' for babies and sparse talk practices
(Goouch and Powell 2012, 2013). This led Powell and Goouch to a study in
2013 of singing as a pedagogical tool to support intimacy and babies'
talk.
References to the research
David, T., Goouch, K., Powell, S. and Abbott, L. (2003) Birth to
Three Matters. A Review of the Literature Compiled to Inform the
Framework to Support Children in their Earliest Years. Nottingham:
DfES/Sure Start Publications (RR 444). ISBN: 1 84478 027 9
Goouch, K. (2008) Understanding playful pedagogies, play narratives and
play spaces. Early Years: International Journal of Research and
Development, 28 (1) 293-102.
Powell, S. (2010) Hide and seek: values in early childhood education and
care. British Journal of Educational Studies, 58 (2) 213-229.
REF2, CCCU.
Powell, S. and Goouch, K. (2012) Whose hand rocks the cradle? Parallel
discourses in the baby room. Early Years: An International Journal of
Research and Development, 32 (2) 113-127. REF2, CCCU.
Goouch, K. and Powell, S. (2013) Orchestrating professional development
for baby room practitioners: raising the stakes in new dialogic
encounters. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 11(1) 78-92.
REF2, CCCU.
Goouch, K and Powell, S. (2013) The Baby Room, Principles, Policy and
Practice, Maidenhead: Open University Press. REF2, CCCU.
Quality of the research
All cited outputs involved peer review. The body of work has resulted in
invitations for keynote addresses at international conferences and
seminars since 2008 and examination of related doctoral theses. Professor
David was awarded the prestigious Nursery World Lifetime
Achievement Award in 2011 for her significant and substantial contribution
to the ECEC field and sector and appointed honorary professor at Sheffield
University. The Baby Room Project has attracted interest within
different international contexts where colleagues wish to replicate its
design (for example, Scotland: Professor Aline Wendy-Dunlop, Strathclyde
University; Republic of Ireland: Rita Melia, Early Childhood Ireland). Dr
Powell was invited to join TACTYC's Executive Committee and Froebel
Trust's Research Committee to contribute specialist birth to three
research and policy knowledge; and Dr Goouch was invited as a specialist
early literacy advisor to contribute to the Government's Social Mobility
group in 2013 and to present at an ECEC World Congress in Mexico (2013).
In addition, all three are regular reviewers for international journals
including Early Years, JECR, and Children and Society.
Funding
The early years' research has been supported by a series of grants:
DfES (2002) Birth to Three, £30,000 (David),
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/RR444;
Shanghai Education Commission (2003, 2005), £22,000 (David and Powell);
Beijing Education Commission and British Council (2004, 2005), £25,000, Developing
Early Childhood Provision (Powell and Goouch);
CWDC (2006), Case Studies of Early Years Leadership, £6,000
(Goouch and Powell);
Templeton Foundation (2008-10), £250,000, Early years character and
values strand, led by Powell, part of the Learning for Life Project
(Director J Arthur, Birmingham University, CCCU until 2010) http://www.learningforlife.org.uk/research/research-projects/foundations-of-character-developing-character-and-values-in-the-early-years/;
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (2009-10), Baby Room Phase 1, £46,132;
and (2011-12) for Baby Room Phase 2, £74,490 (Goouch and Powell);
Universities' China Commission (2009), Collaborating with Baoshan Family
Centre, £650 (Powell);
Froebel Trust (2013) Mothers' Songs in Infant Daycare, £4,997
(Powell and Goouch); Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex LAs (2013-4), Improving
Provision for Two Year Olds through Research-Led Development,
£20,787 (Goouch and Powell).
Details of the impact
(Corroborating sources in numbered brackets)
Impact on policy (England): This ECEC research has created change
in political awareness, understanding and policy formulation. The
significant contribution of Birth to Three Matters Review resulted
in conceptual categories being integrated into the first national
`curriculum' for children from birth to five in England (EYFS, 2008).
Reported as `significant' in its own right (Brooker et al., 2010:5-6), the
Review was cited in the Report on the Evidence for the (Tickell) Review
of the Early Years Foundation Stage (2011:7) and described at the
2012 Froebel Conference by Professor Tina Bruce, as `the definitive
reference source on children from birth to three'. The Baby Room
Project has also informed policy and debate. As a consequence of her
involvement with the project, the President of Early Education in the
British Association for Early Childhood Education established a new Baby
Room Special Interest Group (1). The research has been cited in national
organisations' responses, such as the National Children's Bureau (2),
countering Government proposals to relax childcare ratios (More Great
Childcare (2013)) and shifted the focus from `young children' to
`babies and young children' in the (2012) Nutbrown Review of Childcare
and Early Education Qualifications. Goouch and Powell met with
officers for the then Children's Minister, Sarah Teather MP, in 2010 to
discuss baby room concerns. The research was cited during the Fabian
Society's debate on Childcare at the House of Commons (February 2013), and
an invitation was made to provide a summary of the work, which is included
in their report (2013), informing the Labour Party's Policy Review (3).
Impact on policy (overseas) is evidenced by Professor David's
report on ECEC in the Netherlands (www.oecd.org),
integral to the OECD publication, Starting Strong II (2006).
Professor David was an invited rapporteur for the OECD's study of ECEC in
member states, as part of the World Organisation for Early Childhood
Education.
Impact on professional practice (UK and beyond): Professor David
was commissioned to design and write the early childhood education
materials for the National College for School Leadership's course,
Learning Centred Leadership. Collaboration with the Shanghai Education
Ministry in 2003-5 informed the development of Baoshan Early Learning
Centre, its new birth to three programmes (2008) and materials for
practitioners and parents (4). Following a presentation by Goouch and
Powell at EECERA 2011, attendance at the Baby Room Conference in
2012 and ongoing discussions at the Global Gathering for Early Childhood
in Ireland (2013) delegates from Early Childhood Ireland undertook to
establish a baby room project in Eire (5). The principles and findings
from the project, following publication in the Baby Room book
(Spring 2013), are also influencing the design of a new approach to
training early years' professionals, amalgamating vocational and higher
education in Germany (6).
Locally, practitioner participants in the Baby Room Project from
two local authorities (LAs), directly involved in the care of more than
370 babies per annum, have been promoted, or have registered for
Foundation Degrees or other qualifications. The strong impact on
practitioners' self-confidence, ability to respond reflectively to the
challenges of their work and environments, and increased attunement to
babies in their care, can be evidenced by professionals in the field (7).
Articles in professional as well as academic journals have disseminated
findings, and development days for front-line practitioners, managers and
advisers have focused on the professional identities of baby room staff.
The annual Baby Room conference for practitioners has attracted
over 100 delegates each year. A bespoke online network, The Baby Room
NING, has provided baby room staff with direct access to policy and
research information, associated critique, dialogue, networking and
support, as well as a collective `voice' for responding to Government
consultations. The Project's reach and significance has been helped by
unsolicited publicity in Nursery World, the professional
publication with the highest circulation figures in the UK, where the NING
has been described as a `successful method' (2010) and the project a
`wonderful initiative' (2012) (8).
Impact on ECEC service delivery: Baby Room case study
enquiries at Medway Council in 2012, structured and supported by
professional development sessions, have had a direct impact on culture and
practice at local authority level, encouraging a shift in focus of the
advisory team's work towards different observational practices, and a
reassessment of respective roles and responsibilities (9). The positive
impact on the knowledge of advisors and culture of advisory work in Medway
led to a commission by three further LAs (West Sussex, Surrey and
Hampshire) for a bespoke research-led development programme for their
early years' advisors and leaders in 2013, focusing on provision for
two-year-olds. Kent LA also commissioned bespoke `birth to three'
programmes from CCCU for its early years' leaders in 2012 and 2013,
following dissemination of the project's early findings, involving
practitioners for the first time in a research-led programme of M Level
CPD, specifically focusing on birth to three provision and practice.
Impact on a commercial organisation with clients in the UK and beyond
In addition, the research has led to changes in one company's awareness of
the lack of attention to the professional knowledge of people who care for
babies. Following interviews with Goouch and Powell about research
findings from the Baby Room Project in 2012, Community Playthings
created a free training booklet and DVD for practitioners: `What Happens
in the Baby Room?' (10). 9,476 copies have been downloaded so far and
16,918 printed copies distributed (13.11.13).
Sources to corroborate the impact
- Early Education Baby Room Special Interest Group, http://www.early-education.org.uk/content/1360
(President, Early Education, the British Association for Early Childhood
Education). (Contact ID.1)
- National Children's Bureau (2013) NCB response to Government proposals
to relax staff to child ratios in early years' settings. London:
National Children's Bureau.
http://www.ncb.org.uk/media/884471/ncb_briefing_on_relaxation_of_ratios.pdf
- The Fabian Society (2013) Building the Case for Universal
Childcare, Fabian Women,
http://www.fabianwomen.co.uk/2013/07/fwn-childcare-booklet/
- Director of the Baoshan Early Learning Centre, Shanghai. (Contact
ID.2)
- Head of Practice, Early Childhood Ireland. (Contact ID.3)
- Programme documentation and associated correspondence, Darmstadt
University, Germany. (Contact ID.4)
- Headteacher, Hythe Bay Primary School and Children's Centre, Hythe,
Kent. (Contact ID.5)
-
Nursery World, articles July 2010 and March 2012 by L. Roberts,
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/article/1017223/social-network-baby-room-staff-expands
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/article/1120274/editors-view---needs-look-babies
- Medway Report on The Baby Room Project (2012), Early Years and
Childcare at Medway Council.
- Community Playthings (2012) What Happens in the Baby Room?
Free Booklet
http://cdn.communityplaythings.com/~/media/files/cpuk/library/training-resource/babyroom.pdf