Ideology in Policy and Practice in Early Childhood Education with Particular Reference to Scotland

Ideology in Policy and Practice in Early Childhood Education with Particular Reference to Scotland

"This paper maintains that educational reform since the middle of last century has been driven by ideological principles and that the State now plays a vital role in shaping the mind-set mainly of young people. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is no exception. After the introduction, the paper has three content sections and finishes with a discussion of issues relevant to Taiwan. The first section provides an overview of the three dominant ideologies that have shaped Education in the past 50 years in democratic countries. In the second section, examples are cited from the UK, the US and Sweden of how these ideologies have been drivers to policy and practice in a number of educational issues of which ECEC has, and continues to be, a major focus for reform. The different ideologies help to explain the divergence in ECEC services between different countries and the relative importance attached to children’s learning and care in the early years. The next section of the paper then addresses the new policy of the Scottish Government to expand and improve ECEC services in both the public and private sectors in Scotland. In the last section, the paper discusses the current situation of ECEC in Taiwan. It underlines the tentative steps taken by the State to improve the quality of children’s lives by helping them to learn how to manage their socio-emotional behavior. Finally, the paper speculates about the need for reform in Taiwan’s education system given its relatively recent emergence as a ‘liberal democratic country’ and draws attention to such matters as social justice and the need for greater transparency."