Practice versus politics in Danish day-care centres: how to bridge the gap in early learning?

Abstract

It is essential that early educators in day-care services possess adequate pedagogical tools for supporting children’s communicative development. Early literacy programmes (ELPs) are potential tools. However, studies investigating the effects of ELPs seldom address implementation processes or the programme users’ perspectives. This study sheds light on the practices of Danish pedagogues when engaging in shared book reading with children with the aim of: (1) foreseeing the success of the implementation of the first Danish ELP; and (2) comparing day-care centres’ practices to Danish ‘New Nordic School’ (NNS) political statements on early learning. This study presents results from 18 pre-programme interviews with pedagogues and illustrates their daily practices prior to the ELP implementation. Results suggest that: (1) there is a potential gap between practice and politics concerning Danish practices for promoting early learning; and (2) certain aspects related to existing pedagogical practices may be foreseen as potential challenges for the implementation of structured ELPs.

Keywords:

• early literacy programmes (ELPs)
• implementation processes
• professional development
• Danish day-care centres
• BookFun
• shared book reading
• New Nordic School (NNS)

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the day-care centres and pedagogues who made time and efforts to offer us valuable insights into their practices. Furthermore, the authors acknowledge students from the Clinic for Developmental Communication Disorders for assistance in transcribing part of the interviews. We furthermore appreciate the helpful comments from anonymous reviewers. The study was supported by The Mary Foundation and by the Faculty of Humanities, Aalborg University through a research grant provided to the second author. Views expressed herein are those of the authors and have not been cleared by the grantors. Portions of the data reported in this study form the basis of a doctoral dissertation successfully defended at Aalborg University, Faculty of Humanities, Denmark by Line Engel Clasen.

Notes

1 The education is to provide professional qualifications for working with development and care assignments within a very broad occupational area including day-care centres and institutions for children and adults with reduced psychological or physical capacities. Day-care centres are required to present educational plans, which can include an array of themes such as social skills and language (Ulvseth 2012).

2 BookFun was developed by the Crown Princess Mary’s foundation with the assistance of Danish researchers in 2010–2011. The programme was launched at the national level in Denmark in the summer of 2012.