Mathias Urban, newly-appointed professor of early childhood at the University of Roehampton, said he wanted to ‘make the case for a much more radical, democratic model in early education.’
He said, ‘We know that education systems in many countries in the world marginalise [disadvantaged children]. All those systems were set up by education experts.’
In his hour-long lecture on Monday, Prof Urban, who is currently studying early childhood provision for Roma children in central and eastern Europe, criticised traditional approaches to research for not questioning underlying assumptions.
He said, ‘We provide evidence for policy makers. But the [research] questions quite often imply the solutions. For example, there is an increasing move, particularly in early education, to raise literacy and numeracy levels. More education is offered as a solution. What if [education] isn’t as straightforward as it seems, and is tangled up with structural injustice, oppression and blind racism? How would it be possible to reform the accepted world view with other knowledge?’
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