Responding to multiple diversities in early childhood education: How far have we come?

Abstract

How Far Have We Come? A Look at Early Childhood Education over Time Since its inception in the United States, early childhood care and education has ostensibly been grounded in issues of social justice. With a focus on the welfare of young children, particularly those of the poor, two foundational assumptions have guided the fi eld from the start: (1) home as the primary setting for the care and education of young children, which is to be carried out by parents, siblings, relatives, and other family caregivers; and (2) positive early experiences and environments as essential in laying the foundation for young children to become good citizens and participants in school and society. However, given pervasive conceptions of the poor as not just economically but also socially and culturally impoverished, these foundational assumptions have been undergirded by societal norms and beliefs about who is capable of providing “quality” care and education. Th ese social assumptions led to the development of early childhood care and education outside of the home (Bloch, 1987). When families were perceived to have the inability or the inadequacy to care for their young, the responsibility for this care shift ed to the middle-class, typically white, community, which was presumed to know best what young children required in terms of moral and educational development. Indeed, an examination of the evolution of the fi eld in the United States reveals that “one of the original purposes of the nursery school was to serve as a forum for educating parents about the nature and nurture of young children,” rather than leaving parenting to “trial and error” (Powell, 1991, p. 93).