Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Who Benefits From Early Childcare Subsidy Design In Ireland?, Bernie O'Donoghue Hynes, Noirin Hayes

Articles

Best Newcomer Article

The design of policy tools reveals underlying biases that are not easily identified in policy documents. A review of two early childhood education and care subsidies in Ireland aimed at different target populations exposes differential treatment of children, parents and service providers. It also demonstrates how in a split system ‘early education’ is prioritised over ‘childcare’. The designs serve to reinforce stereotypes that enable the powerful and advantaged to accrue benefits while those perceived to be less deserving are burdened through the maldistribution of resources.

The Discursive Construction Of ‘Children’ And ‘Rights’ In Irish Early Childhood Policy, Rachel Kiersey, Nóirín Hayes

Conference Papers

This paper explores the construction of knowledge about ‗children‘, ‗rights‘ and ‗ECEC‘ in Irish early childhood policy discourses. This research forms part of a wider thematic research project exploring Irish early childhood policy design from a number of angles; this strand of the research is concerned with ―revealing meaning‖ from Irish ECEC policy texts through a critical discourse analysis study. The theoretical goal of a critical discourse analysis study aims to understand how specific realities have come into being in the policy area; how they are reproduced through policy literature, how language use is an integral facet of social processes, …

The Impact Of Policy Tool Selection On Early Childhood Education And Care (Ecec) In Ireland, Bernie O'Donoghue Hynes, Noirin Hayes

Conference Papers

This paper looks at the range of policy tools selected by the Irish State to fund and develop Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The choice is influenced by cultural norms and ideological predisposition with Ireland demonstrating a pro-market bias and relying on a range of interdependencies and third parties for delivery of services. The tools selected by the Irish State are typically those associated with States that promote a liberal agenda, sometimes referred to as the Anglo/American model (Salamon 2002). However, a closer review of the tools characteristics in Ireland reveal a tendency to adopt a conservative corporatist (Dean …

Exploring Early Childhood Education And Care Policy In Ireland: Critical Discourse Analysis As A Methodological Tool, Rachel Kiersey

Conference Papers

The Irish government have invested considerably in the broad early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector over the last decade. However, a distinction persists within Irish policy between childcare and early education, both structurally and conceptually. Early education frequently refers to intervention based pre-school services; conversely childcare frequently refers to the broad spectrum of care services for 0-12 year olds, from family based child care through to centre-based provision (Hayes & Bradley, 2006; NESF, 2005; OECD, 2004). As a result of this, ‘early childhood services in Ireland are fractured across the welfare (childcare) and educational (early education) domains and … …

Missed Opportunities For Children?:An Exploration Of The Impact Of New Funding Mechanisms For Early Childhood Education And Care (Ecec) In Ireland, Bernie O'Donoghue Hynes, Noirin Hayes, Siobhan Bradley

Articles

This presentation begins with a review of the overall funding structure for early childhood education and care in Ireland. It moves on to look in detail at the impact of the changes to the social inclusion funding measures. It concludes with a review of the reaction of various Irish stakeholders to these changes that have resulted in a 'missed opportunities for children'.