Explaining the Worldwide Expansion of Early Childhood Care and Education by Christine Min Wotipka
It is hard to imagine a time when the value of early childhood care and education would be questioned. But in 1979, a World Bank working paper argued that “preschool interventions could not be justified.” Policy makers at the time considered early childhood care and education to be too expensive and its benefits were thought to be unknown. Today, such programs are widely considered to be vital for enhancing brain developing and for preparing children for school. High quality programs also provide safe spaces for young children, thereby allowing parents, especially mothers, to work. Around the world, enrollments in early childhood care and education have been expanding, although unevenly. As a result, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals call for all children to have access to quality early childhood care and education by 2030.
In our recently published paper, “The Worldwide Expansion of Early Childhood Care and Education, 1985–2010,” my colleagues and I aim to shed light on trends in early childhood care and education and to understand differences across a set of 117 countries. To do so, we use data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the participation of children at least 3 years of age in various kinds of formal, organized care and education services provided by private and public agencies.
Our findings show steady growth in early childhood care and education over time for the world as a whole. In 1985, around 40 percent of preschool-age children attended one of these programs. By 2010, the figure exceeded 60 percent. While this figure seems impressive, it was quite a bit lower than the near universal enrollment of children in primary school in that year.
We also discover stark differences across groups of countries based on their economic and socio-political conditions. Countries considered by the International Monetary Fund to have advanced economies saw participation in early childhood care and education rise from around 70 percent to close to 97 percent. Those countries considered to have “emerging and developing economies” started with fewer than 1 in 4 children in such programs in 1985 but increased to over 54 percent by 2010. Finally, in former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, over half of children participated in early childhood care and education in 1985 but that figure dropped dramatically with the collapse of these regimes in the early 1990s. By 2010, however, the average for this region had rebounded to over 60 percent.
Those countries considered to have “emerging and developing economies” started with fewer than 1 in 4 children in such programs in 1985 but increased to over 54 percent by 2010.
Second, using the same data and quantitative methods, our paper explores characteristics of countries that could explain these trends over time. The results reported above signal to us that levels of national economic development matter but what else explains the growth in early childhood care and education over time? What about the rise of women’s status over this period? For example, between 1985 and 2010, women’s participation in higher education and the paid labor market increased dramatically as did the availability of contraceptives. We include these variables in our analysis.
We also consider the degree to which countries are connected to a global community in which early childhood care and education are valued and encouraged. The more countries are linked to this “world society,” say by having citizens who are members of international non-governmental organizations and by attending international conferences and ratifying global human rights treaties, could countries be more willing to promote early childhood care and education no matter the costs and challenges? These variables are also added to our analysis.
We find that, like the trend data, country wealth matters – richer countries have higher participation in early childhood care and education, but this matters less in more recent times. Also important is the availability of contraceptives – when fertility can be controlled, families and countries make greater and earlier investments in these fewer children. Our findings also suggest that growth in early childhood care and education may be related to having greater numbers of citizens who participate in civil society through international non-governmental organizations. Among these organizations are a growing number that focus on children’s issues.
Countries increasingly work together to expand and improve their educational systems “from womb to tomb.” In their efforts, they are joined by a range of governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as nonprofits, schools, and youth groups, that now take for granted the participation of young children in formal care and education. While our work show dramatic rates of change over time, future research is needed to examine the quality of that care and education.
Christine Min Wotipka is Associate Professor (Teaching) of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology at Stanford University.
AJE special issue on the practice of data use
AJE February 2021 Issue | From Fidelity to Integrity: Navigating Flexibility in Scaling Up a Statewide Initiative by Marisa Cannata, Mollie Rubin, & Michael Neel
Progress in studying socio-emotional learning underscores the importance of expanding access to formal programs for younger children. Strong socio-emotional skills are critical for success in life, and support the kind of life-long learning mentioned. This article highlights critical national conditions and policies that affect expansion of these opportunities.
This article was very interesting to me. As a preschool teacher, I find education starting at a young age extremely important. The idea is this article that early childhood education did not become known as vital till 1979 is not surprising. However, it astonishes me how the authors predicted it will take till 2030 for all children to have access to quality early childhood education and care. I believe that one of the key factors for it taking until 2030 would be funding. Policies take an enormous amount of time, especially when such a large impact, globally, is trying to be enforced. I am curious however, what age the authors of this research believe children need to start attending early childhood education programs. The research focuses on age 3 and higher, but from my experience, starting at even age 1 can make a large difference. It was no surprise that countries with advanced economies had higher percentages of children in early education programs. With the price of early education programs and centers being highly pricey, especially decent programs, those countries with lower levels of economic status do not have the funds to have their percentage of children to be higher. At the very end, the article states that the quality of care and education still needs to be researched. I believe that this is one of the most important ideas within expanding early education programs.
I think that the research presented in this article is very interesting, because even as a junior in college I have many friends who grew up with very similar middle class backgrounds to my own, but did not attend any sort of pre-school like I did, and like this article suggests other countries are now enforcing more strongly. Even following that, though I was in kindergarten in the early 2000’s in that same middle class economic setting, the school I attended didn’t offer full day kindergarten programs, so I only attended kindergarten in the mornings, and a different class of students would come in in the afternoons. It leads me to question where the United States lies in this data, and how their policies have changed over the years to accommodate this. I know that nowadays it is very unusual for students to not attend pre-school, and that pre-school and kindergarten programs can be very competitive in terms of who can get accepted and who cannot. I wonder what changed in the past ten or fifteen years to change this trend. I am also heartened to learn that other countries are catching up quickly as well, even in countries that have lower income or have had lots of other conflicts in the recent past.
Early childhood care is a topic discussed world-wide and as we see in this article as well as others, not every country is making the same strides or succeeding as well as the next. It is known that early education is vital for the success of children because the most important ages are when someone is young and can learn things quickly. Education also has the largest impact on young individuals. Countries realize this but it is not always feasible to educate young children, whether that be a national issue or more individualized. Research does show that countries where there is national economic growth tend to have higher percentages of children enrolled in young childhood care. Now of course there is a larger issue at hand here, that is that we have to find a way to get more countries in good economic standing if we want to continue increasing early childhood care. That is a difficult task but hopefully as more research is published people will understand the importance of having children attend school at a young age. One way to help increase the number of children being educated is to provide contraceptives, I agree that this could be helpful. If people can limit the amount of children they have they may be able to use more resources on those children rather than spreading resources thin.
Hi, I am a college student who is from China but study at Penn State for undergraduate. I find your post very interesting is because the number of the kids for each family can be a factor for pursuing early childhood education. I feel that as the generation of One-Child policy, there is very little of my Chinese classmates did not go to a kindergarten.(It could also because that I am from a big city.) When I go back to China I heard a lot of young parents complaining about how hard to get into a good kindergarten. They have to put their child’s name on the waiting list as soon as the child is born.
Another thing that I am super interested in early childhood education is question of what kinds of curriculum that teachers should teach for children in the preschool and kindergarten. I have volunteered at the preschool at Penn State. My class has a very diverse group of children. The class teacher planned a lot about learning different languages from different kinds of culture. Nature is also another every big part of the learning contend as well. Kids also learn sign language and letters. I think it would be great if you have any data of what kind of courses each country teach for early childhood education.
As a future education policy influencer, I firmly stand with the importance of high-quality early childhood education. Advanced economies experiencing a higher rate of children in early childhood education comes as no surprise. Our federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is in need of additional funding, particularly from a Pennsylvanian’s standing. The commonwealth’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) identified needs of increased subsidies across the board within the past five years. Data proved nearly thirty percent of low-income communities were enrolled in higher-quality education. This is incredibly low and a lack of human capital investment. What is often missed is the connection with incarceration rates. This is the true beginning of the school-to-prison pipeline. We either pay now or do so later. The skills adopted at an early age are transitional and transcend through adolescence. Criminalized behavior may be less likely to occur in developed, invested and educated children. Communities who are less affluent often experience a need for simple childcare, much less than high-quality education. Data collected from Kids Count highlight some families paying up to ten percent of their income for non-high-quality early childhood education. If the commonwealth can begin to properly invest in the communities with the greatest restrictions, we will see higher return in investment, through lowered crime rates, grade-retention rates and an increase in economic prosperity through properly educated or specialized community members.
The thing that stuck with me the hardest after reading this article is that their work only measured the amount of children in early childhood education programs, not the quality of those programs. Yes, their research is great with looking into 117 different countries and acknowledging that higher socioeconomic status countries have the most programs for early childhood education, and the progress is great all around. My issue is that if you want all these countries to have these early childhood programs, than the most important part of their study should have involved determining the quality of those programs.
I liked how this article discusses how not enough young children are able to attend a good preschool in the United States. I also found it interesting how the article discusses how the United States has less children attending preschools and good early childhood education programs and facilities when compared to other countries. That makes me think how the United States is really behind in education as a while. As an Education and Public Policy student at Penn State and previous Early Childhood major it amazes me how not enough people are aware at how just important a good education is even for a toddler or preschool aged child. Learning starts from the moment a child is born. From learning how to speak, sit up, hold silverware, crawl, walk, etc. Children are constantly learning and a good education is especially important during a child’s toddler and preschool years, approximately aged 2-5 typically. Preschool is an important step for all children to have the opportunity to experience prior to having to attend Kindergarten or first grade. In my opinion preschool teachers should be trained and have the same respect that an elementary teacher receives. Education at every level is equally as important. Sadly, the issue with that is the lack in funding. Preschools do not receive money and funding the ways that public schools receive funding and most of them are not considered to be accredited.