Clark, M. M., & Waller, T. Ed. (2007). Early childhood education and care: Policy and practice. Reviewed by Christopher Pierce Brown, University of Texas

Clark, M. M., & Waller, T. Ed. (2007). Early childhood education and care: Policy and practice. London: SAGE. Pp. xv +192         ISBN 978-1-4129-3572-2 Reviewed by Christopher Pierce Brown University of Texas at Austin July 27, 2008 The policy and practice of early childhood education continues to gain prominence on policymakers’ agendas across the globe (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (2006). A range of texts have emerged over the years that explore such as issues as the rise of early education in contexts such as the United States (National Institute for Early Education Research, 2007), the connection between particular policy issues and practice (Pianta, Cox, & Snow, 2007), or improving the quality of the early education teaching workforce (Kagan, Kauerz, & Tarrant, 2008). While the texts cited in the above primarily focus on early childhood education in the United States, this book by Clark and Waller (2007), Early childhood education and care: Policy and practice, provides insight into the policies that frame the practice of early education and care in the countries of the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the Republic of Ireland. The text is divided into seven chapters. Beginning with an introduction, and then followed by chapters that describe the policies and practices of early childhood education in England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The text ends with a summary of the variations in early education and care for young children across these countries and provides issues for the reader to contemplate in relation to the provision of early childhood education in these contexts. In the introduction, which is written by Clark and Waller, the editors set the stage for the text. They begin by making it clear that this book is written for early childhood students and practitioners so that they can understand the policies that shape the practice of early childhood education across the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. Similarly to the United States, the provision and care of young children in the U.K. has only recently risen on policymakers’ agendas, and thus, the policies start from a “very low base” (p.11). Using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports Starting Strong (2002) and Starting Strong II (2006) in this and the final chapter, the authors demonstrate how the care of young children in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland falls short in relation to other European Union nations, specifically the Nordic countries by highlighting such issues as these countries nearly universal right of access to preschool. Finally, the editors discuss how each chapter in this book is outlined in the same format, and they make clear that this is a teaching text in which each case is presented in an objective fashion so that the reader can understand the complexity of policies and practice as well as evaluate the effectiveness of each solution from his or her own conceptions of early education. For instance, in this chapter and throughout the text, the authors provide a series of discussion questions that offer opportunities for the reader or a class of students to consider how the issues the authors are describing impact the care and instruction of young children or how do they compare to other countries within the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. England is the first context of early education and care that is explored in this book. While the editors state that these cases are presented in alphabetical order rather than in any type of importance, presenting England first, which encompasses almost 84% of the population of the U.K., is quite useful in understanding the differences that exist across each of the countries. This and the other chapters that discuss each country begins with two case studies that describe the experiences of children born in that country in the year 2000 and follows them through their sixth birthday in 2006. In the introduction, the editors note that they want these case studies to help the reader see the complexity of a child’s upbringing for families as well as to understand the need for a set of intricate early education policies so that these children and their families’ needs could be met. Additionally, the editors hope that by having 5 different contexts to compare will help the readers see why one cannot make generalizations about the early childhood environments across these five countries. Compared to other documents that explore early childhood education policy and practice (e.g., National Institute for Early Education Research, 2007), these case studies are a useful heuristic devise that assists the reader in understanding what is needed for families so that their children could participate in a cohesive and consistent set of early education experiences. After the two case studies are presented, the authors in this chapter, as well as the remaining chapters that discuss each country, provide some background on England, summarize the policies and provisions for children up until they enter primary school, discuss the supports that exist for transitions from preschool to primary school, outline the policies that govern primary school, highlight special education services, summarize social safeguarding policies, mention quality assurance issues, talk about professional development, and give insight into the future of the field in England. Of all the countries examined in this book, England is the most regulated and detailed in terms of early childhood education policy. The author, Gill McGillivray, points out that most of these policy initiatives have been driven by economic rather than social needs, and within that, the services offered by local governing agencies are patchy at best. According to McGillivray, the care for young children that is publicly supported is part time, two to two and a half hours long, and these services typically do not meet working parents’ needs. Children in England can start primary school in August once they are at least 4 years-old and one month, which is termed their Reception Year, and as of 2004, 61% of qualified four-year old children attended primary school and then transitioned into what is termed Year 1 of schooling. There is a national curriculum in England that begins with the Foundation Stage for three and four year-olds. As of 2003, a Foundation Stage Profile is also mandated for each child. This profile provides insight into children’s acquisition of the skills that are outlined in the Foundation Stage curriculum, and these profiles are sent to the local school the child will attend. Once in primary school, students in England engage in this country’s National Curriculum, which requires an hour of literacy and numeracy instruction on a daily basis, and at the end of Year 2 (approximately age 7), which with Year 1 is termed Key Stage one, students are assessed by their teachers in English and Mathematics. It must be noted that unlike the United States all of these countries in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (go to http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm), and as such, childhood is framed differently throughout these discussions. In each chapter, considerable time is spent discussing how childhood, which is framed by each of these authors as a social and cultural construct, is safeguarded as well as what is being done by each country’s governing agencies to ensure children’s basic rights are being met, which is a conversation that is rarely discussed within the U.S. political context. As one reads through the text, the variations between context, early education policy, and teacher workforces become quite obvious. For instance, in Northern Ireland thirty-seven percent of the children live in poverty. In Wales, all children participate in bilingual education programs, and in the Republic of Ireland, primary schools are funded by the state, but for the most part, are managed by the local church organization, which tends to be Catholic. Within each analysis of these countries’ systems of early childhood education, the language of schooling and education policy these authors use is rooted in the terminology of the U.K. For instance, using terms such as Reception class, infant school, childminder, graduate level, etc can make it difficult to for the non-U.K. reader to understand how the education and care for children across each of these contexts varies. For instance, in the Republic of Ireland, it is unclear how a nursery centre varies from a drop-in crèche or a pre-school. Furthermore, all of the issues these authors explore, which include policies for early childhood education funding and practice, teacher training, and the various forms of care are discussed within the span of a page or two, and with such depth of detail provided in quite brief explanations, the differences as well as the parameters of policy within each country can be difficult to follow. Moreover, this text is written for an individual who is knowledgeable of the politics, cultural shifts, and policy debates that are occurring in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Thus, a non-U.K. reader who has a general understanding of the outlay of policy and practice in early childhood education will still struggle to engage fully with this text, particularly in answering the discussion questions that are to foster conversations about the changing culture of these countries, the impact of immigration, or how the various conceptions of being ready to learn affect policy and practice in each context. Nevertheless, Clark and Waller end their edited book by revisiting the OECD documents that they outlined in the introduction, and they provide a detailed set of summary tables that delineate the provisions of care and education in each country, their childcare costs, and their curriculum and assessment practices. As they do this, Clark and Waller make the case for increased services for children under 3 and for the need of increased services for the rural populations of each country. They then begin to close this chapter by using the work of Moss and Petrie (2002) to examine critically the framing of pedagogy and curriculum of the early years in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. Rather than define the underlying purpose of early childhood education as being the development of a specific set of care and education services, Moss and Petrie (2002) contend that it should be conceptualized as a field that creates spaces for children. Such spaces should allow children to be agents within their growth and development, and within these spaces, the early educator is framed as an individual who works with children rather than on them. Using this idea of children’s spaces, the authors conclude this chapter and the text by revisiting the issues and controversies they raised in the introduction. Thus, in the end, the authors of this text raise as many questions for the reader as they attempt to answer in defining the policy and practice of early childhood education in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. On the whole, the text achieves the editors’ goal and provides a consistent introductory analysis into each of these countries’ early childhood education environments, which is quite useful, and after completing the text, it becomes clearer how the similarities between these countries far outweighs their differences. While the editors use the Nordic countries as a benchmark for high-quality early childhood education, which in itself can be a controversial term, there are many positives that can be found within these countries that make up the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland when comparing these systems of care to those found in nations such as the United States. For instance, paid maternity leave for mothers, which typically lasts six months, universal access to healthcare, shifts towards a play-based curricula, and the questioning of the use of standardized assessment measures with young children (in the case of Wales, the total rejection of such policies), all provide useful examples for early education stakeholders in the U.S. and other countries to consider when developing policies that are to expand and improve the quality of care and education provided to young children. References Kagan, S. L., Kauerz, K., & Tarrant, K (2008). The early care and education teaching workforce at the fulcrum. New York: Teachers College Press. Moss, P., & Petrie, P. (2002). From children’s services to children’s spaces. London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer. National Institute for Early Education Research (2007). The State of Preschool 2007. New Brunswick, NJ: Author. Available at http://nieer.org/yearbook/pdf/yearbook.pdf Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2001). Starting strong: Early childhood education and care. Paris: Author. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2006). Starting strong II: Early childhood education and care. Paris: Author. Pianta R. C., Cox, M. J., & Snow, K. L. (eds.) (2007). School readiness and the transition to kindergarten in the era of accountability. Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes Publishing Co. About the Reviewer Christopher P. Brown, PhD, is an assistant professor of early childhood education at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His research interest is in how the intersection of education policy, curriculum, and assessment affect the early childhood/early elementary education process, and this includes teacher education.