Revitalizing early childhood education

The paper explores how re-visiting historical text from the formation of the danish kindergarten tradition might help revitalize pedagogical values and knowledges about Children’s Agency and Participation. The study contributes to a growing litterature arguing there is a need for pedagogical languages that can critically inform and inspire questions of quality, purpose and good practices in ECEC (ex Biesta, 2009; Løvlie, 2007; Sæverot & Kristensen 2022).
The paper departs from the hermeneutic understanding that practice draws on and is shaped by cultural knowledges and values (Gadamer, 1999), includes a discussion of the tradition of the danish kindergarten pedagogy and argues for the relevance of such insights in pedagogical foundations for ECEC
Distinguishing between ECEC as an institutionalized practice subject to political and governmental regulation and Pedagogy as a term that designates the thoughtful and value-based practice of upbringing and education, supported by a distinctive disciplinary reflection, we organized and taped a total of 18 professional circles where ECEC practitioners discussed texts articulating the pedagogical, democratic and social foundations for the emerging Danish kindergarten (1890'es to 1960'es).
A main consideration of the research has been to give voice to knowledges, practices and values of ECEC as a pedagogical practice. All participant names are pseudonyms and none are recognizable by contextual details, complying to the EECERA Ethical Code.
Children’s Agency and Participation in communities of democratic citizens are central to the Danish kindergarten tradition, rendering it an ethical practice challenging current practices of learning, standardization and accountability.
The project seeks to spur pedagogical languages of Children’s Agency and Participation that might support practitioners in a critical practice characterized as what Foucault termed the care of the self (Foucault 1997).