Barbara Thiessen, Bielefeld University

Doreen Gutewort, Bielefeld University

From the 1990s onwards, early childhood education has become increasingly institutionalized in most OECD-countries based on conservative welfare regimes (OECD 2023). This change has been accompanied by a paradigm shift from hands-on-care to education in early childhood education (Honig & Liegle, 2013; Cloos, 2018). The young child is now viewed as an object to educate (Honig, 2019) and a prospective market participant (Olk, 2005; Neumann, 2014). Particularly in early childhood, the essential aspect of “hands-on-care” is often not yet understood as part of the educational process, but is merely perceived as care. All these facets highlight a semantic dominance in favor of educational aspects on the one hand while marginalizing the high level of care needs on the other and emphasizes moreover the development of autonomy over dealing with dependency. 

The panel addresses the importance of care interactions in early childhood education, particularly from a participatory action perspective. Participatory care action postulates that actively involving the child creates a relational space supporting the child‘s autonomy on physical, cognitive and psychological levels, while also fostering professional reflection. This ‘transfer space’ will be explored in this panel, questioning how it can be viewed as a foundation for responsive and participatory professional action, and how democratic basic actions can be explicitly determined. Furthermore, it will be investigated which theoretical foundations for democratic education can be derived from responsive professional behavior (Gutknecht, 2010). Special attention will be paid to implications of care behavior on children’s rights. How can participatory action be situated within the context of children’s rights, and what significance does this have for democratic participation in the sense of a caring democracy (Tronto, 2000; 2013)? The panel will examine the impact of responsive, participatory professional behavior within the care discourse and discuss strategies for embedding democratic educational principles in everyday early childhood education. Additionally, the current issue of skilled labor shortage in many countries and the importance of recruiting skilled workers will be addressed.