A comparative analysis of early years’ programme culture in the US and Poland – advancing humanism by placing love, freedom, care and consideration for others first

ABSTRACT

Building on the idea that the culture of an organisation has an extremely deep influence on the personalities, minds and identities of people who participate in it (Hofstede 2015) – we reflected on how the US and Polish cultures' specific values and beliefs were represented and symbolised in the early childhood settings. We focused our analysis on the prosocial disposition that influenced the early childhood programme’s philosophy; environment; parental involvement; celebrated holidays; classroom management; plays and games objects that children are playing with and the curriculum. The results of this research demonstrated that both preschools stressed dispositions like care and consideration for others, love and freedom. In Polish preschool culture, based on their very long history and tradition of wars and partitions, early on, children are exposed to the concepts of truth, forgiveness, second chances and ultimately peace. In the US preschool culture with multicultural traditions, importance is placed on self-confidence, positive self-image, belonging and respect.

KEYWORDS:

• Comparative analysis
• child development
• prosocial behaviour

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Dorota Klus-Stanska from the University of Gdansk and Ewa Slominska the director of Panienka z Okienka (Maiden from the Window) for facilitating this research project, discussions and suggestions, and Prof. Holly Hoffman from Central Michigan University for her support to conduct this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).