Senior lecturer in education Penny Holland said in her paper, Where have all the children gone? Implications of institutionalisation and professionalism in the early years, that there was unease about the Government's vision for extended childcare.
'The strategy purports that extended care is good for children. This is something which must be questioned,' she said. 'Such assumptions are based on the idea that children only succeed when they achieve certain outcomes which are principally associated with the curriculum. This is far too narrow.'
Ms Holland also highlighted tensions in the Government's aim to get mothers back to work. She said, 'Key planks of the strategy are that extended care is good and that mothers must work. However, it also found that nearly two-thirds of mothers who were in employment wanted to work fewer hours, and just under half would prefer to give up work and stay at home with their children if they could afford it.'
Professor Peter Moss of the Thomas Coram Research Unit at London University's Institute of Education spoke about workforce models in other countries. 'The pedagogue sets out to address the whole child, the child with body, mind, emotions, creativity, history and social identity. The UK remains woefully ignorant of this concept,' he said.
* Further seminars are on 12 April and 21 June, with a September date to be confirmed. For details contact research fellow Jayne Osgood at j.osgood@londonmet.ac.uk
