Early means early: understanding popular understandings of early childhood development in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Scientific and policy advances are putting early childhood development (ECD) at the center of efforts to improve human development. This study was undertaken to understand what knowledge and attitudinal barriers exist that hinder the full-scale roll-out of services for the youngest children and their families. We used anthropological methods honed by the Frame works Institute to plumb beliefs about early childhood development among members of the public and implementation and policy stakeholders,and compare those with the findings from ECD research. While members of the public and stake holders agree on the importance of ECD, as demonstrated in other country settings, a major barrier to directing services to the youngest children is a perceptual tendency to ‘age up’. That is, to consider learning and other important skills as being acquired in the pre-school rather than infancy period. Communication strategies that incorporate debate are needed to give full effect to the ECD and related policies, especially around the topics of prioritizing the youngest children, physical punishment, child rights, and the pervasiveness of threats to ECD arising from poverty and disadvantage.

KEYWORDS:

• Conceptualizations of early childhood
• implementation
• cultural models
• early childhood development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Stellenbosch University Humanities Research Ethics Committee: Human Research (HS1164/2015).

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. The full text of the ‘Cultural Models Guide’ used for these interviews can be found here.

2. https://www.dedoose.com/.

Additional information

Funding

• The EuropeAid/134258/M/ACT/ZA PSPPD2/CfP/2013/64, through the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Development, South Africa• The DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand, OPP20160033• Institute for LifecourseHealth Research at Stellenbosch University provided support for travel and meetings• UNICEF supported the travel of participants to the stakeholder meetingsUNICEF, South Africa; DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand [OPP20160033]; Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid [134258/M/ACT/ZA PSPPD2/CfP/2013/64]; The Institute for Child and Adolescent Health Research, Stellenbosch University.