Education in Early Childhood: Positioning of Parents and Daycare Teachers with particular regard to Discourse (Re-)Production of Providers of Daycare Services and Directors of Daycare Centers

• Applicants: Dr. Margarete Menz; Professorin Dr. Christine Thon
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education ; Education Systems and Educational Institutions ; Educational Research on Socialization, Welfare and Professionalism
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250597328

Educational Politics are continuously focused on reducing the impact of family background on educational (in)equalities of children. The task of reducing this dependency is addressed to the field of ECEC. Discourses of ECEC assign particular responsibilities and competencies to daycare centers and families. Thereby discourses of education reproduce differentiations according to social background, natio-ethno-cultural belonging and gender. The project investigates how programs and practices of daycare centers deal with educational policies, the reproduction of categories of difference and their attribution toward parents and daycare teachers. The research design of the first project will be continued and extended by including providers of daycare services and directors of daycare centers into the analysis. These protagonists are of special significance, as they are responsible for the (re-)production of discourses on different levels. The project analyses how concepts of early childhood education and according responsibilities are negotiated between parents and daycare teachers. Furthermore it will be reconstructed in how far different social categories are reproduced in this context. The theoretical framework of this project combines perspectives of discourse- and hegemonial analysis (Laclau/Mouffe) with the concepts of subjectivation and positioning (Hall). The data collection of the first project phase included conceptions and educational plans of daycare centers, group discussions, audiotranscripts of parent-teacher-conferences and interviews with parents and daycare teachers. The follow-up study will extend this empirical sample by including programmatic documents (guiding principles, frameworks etc.) and expert interviews with representatives of seven providers of daycare service with different characteristics/profiles and directors of daycare centers. A multilevel analysis integrates the reconstructions of different kinds of discourse (re-)production.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants