The Development of Early Childhood Education in Europe and North America

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction: The Longue Durée — Early Childhood Institutions and Ideas in Flux

   1. Introduction: The Longue Durée — Early Childhood Institutions and Ideas in Flux

      • Harry Willekens, Kirsten Scheiwe, Kristen Nawrotzki

      Pages 1-28

3. ECE(C) Developments in the Long Term

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

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   2. The Spread of Infant School Models in Europe during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

      • Jean-Noël Luc

      Pages 31-50

   3. Religious Cleavages, the School Struggle and the Development of Early Childhood Education in Belgium, France and the Netherlands

      • Harry Willekens

      Pages 51-70

   4. Development and Diffusion of Early Childhood Education in Italy: Reflections on the Role of the Church from a Historical Perspective (1830–2010)

      • Eva Maria Hohnerlein

      Pages 71-91

   5. The Role of the State and the Church in the Development of Early Childhood Education in Spain (1874–1975)

      • Carmen Sanchidrián

      Pages 92-111

   6. From Poverty Relief to Universal Provision: The Changing Grounds for Childcare Policy Reforms in Norway

      • Arnlaug Leira

      Pages 112-131

   7. Common Traditions, Split Paths: Early Childhood Education and Care in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990)

      • Franz-Michael Konrad

      Pages 132-149

   8. Saving Money or Saving Children? Nursery Schools in England and the United States

      • Kristen Nawrotzki

      Pages 150-172

   9. Towards Early Childhood Education as a Social Right: A Historical and Comparative Perspective

      • Kirsten Scheiwe

      Pages 173-194

   10. Professional Profiles in Early Childhood Education and Care: Continuity and Change in Europe

       • Pamela Oberhuemer

       Pages 195-214

4. Actors and Critical Junctures in the Development of ECE(C)

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

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   2. Modernizing Early Childhood Education: The Role of German Women’s Movements after 1848 and 1968

      • Meike Sophia Baader

      Pages 217-234

   3. Women’s Activism on Childcare in Italy and Denmark: The 1960s and 1970s

      • Chiara Bertone

      Pages 235-253

   4. Early Education and the Unloved Market of Commercial Childcare in Luxembourg

      • Michael-Sebastian Honig, Anett Schmitz, Martine Wiltzius

      Pages 254-274

   5. Preschool, Childcare and Welfare Reform in the United States

      • Sonya Michel

      Pages 275-288

   6. The History of Kindergarten as New Education: Examples from the United States and Canada, 1890–1920

      • Larry Prochner

      Pages 289-308

5. Back Matter

   Pages 309-312

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The public provision of early childhood education has developed at different rates across individual countries over the past two centuries. This book provides the historical background to explain how these national differences occurred, with particular reference to welfare and educational systems, to highlight how particular influences grew.

• Early childhood education
• comparative history of early childhood education
• preschools
• nursery school
• day care centers
• kindergarten
• public child care
• infant schools
• institutional change
• State-Church conflicts over education
• Catholicism and early childhood education
• women's movement and early childhood education
• legal regulation of early childhood education
• professional training of early childhood educators
• early childhood education and welfare policies
• Europe
• European Union
• USA
• Canada
• England
• childhood
• childhood education
• children
• education
• educational system
• France
• history
• poverty
• school
• Spain

“The volume offers a panoramic view of a complex process, showing a variety of economic, social, pedagogical and sanitary goals, revealing the political tensions and struggles that took part in the reconfiguration of public and private spaces and jurisdictions towards the construction of national states.” (Beatriz Alcubierre Moya, Paedagogica Historica, April 30, 2019)

“Each chapter stands out as a helpful introduction to a particular topic in ECE and public child care, and an introductory chapter creates links between most of them. … It makes a major contribution both to the history of ECE and to the public understanding of social projects as integral instruments of social change. Moreover, it is a rich compendium of ideas that bring us a valuable synthesis of questions that have long required attention but remained untouched … .” (Yordanka Valkanova, History of Education, Vol. 46 (3), 2017)

• University of Hildesheim, Germany

  Harry Willekens, Kirsten Scheiwe

• University of Heidelberg, Germany

  Kristen Nawrotzki

Meike Sophia Baader, University of Hildesheim, Germany Chiara Bertone, University of East Piedmont, Italy Eva-Maria Hohnerlein, Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Germany Michael-Sebastian Honig, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Franz-Michael Konrad, University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany Arnlaug Leira, University of Oslo, Norway Jean-Noël Luc, University of Paris, France Sonya Michel, University of Maryland, USA Kristen Nawrotzki, University of Education, Germany Pamela Oberhuemer, State Institute of Early Childhood Research, Germany Larry Prochner, University of Alberta, Canada Carmen Sanchidrián, University of Málaga, Spain Kirsten Scheiwe, University of Hildesheim, Germany Anett Schmitz, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg Harry Willekens, University of Hildesheim, Germany Martine Wiltzius, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Policies and ethics