[DRAFT]CARE AND EDUCATION IN THE DANISH CRÈCHE.

By Associate professor, Ph.D. Stig Broström and Ph.D. fellow Ole Henrik Hansen

The Research Unit of Childhood, Learning and Curriculum Theory, Department of Curriculum Research, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Stig Broström, Ph.D., Associate Professor,The Research Unit of Childhood, Learning and Curriculum TheoryThe Danish School of Education, Aarhus UniversityDepartment of Curriculum ResearchTuborgvej 1642400 CopenhagenDenmarkT +45 8888 9546E stbr@dpu.dkW dpu.dk/about/stbr

Ole Henrik Hansen, Master of Arts (Education) General Pedagogy, PhD fellowThe Research Unit of Childhood, Learning and Curriculum TheoryThe Danish School of Education, Aarhus UniversityDepartment of Curriculum ResearchTuborgvej 1642400 CopenhagenDenmarkT +45 8888 9859E ohh@dpu.dkW dpu.dk/about/ohh

AbstractThis paper seeks to identify the relation between policy and lived life, for the small child in the Danish crèche. To accomplish this, the paper integrates demography, traditions, national curriculum and psychological, educational and recent developments in research.

It is an effort to reveal knowledge and consequences, conducting the academic legitimacy of diverse paradigms, recognizing the quality and distinctive character of the theories involved. The used methods involve systematic readings, organization and

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interpretation of textual material derived from legislation, relevant research articles. It is used in the exploration of meanings of political, social and cultural phenomena as experienced by the involved individuals themselves, in their natural context.

It is a presumption that the child’s development is a consequence of emotional and cognitive stimulation. To outline that, it is vital to emphasize the influence that policy causes on educational practice in the crèche, e.g. the conceptualization of education and care. The paper suggests that the empathic relation between pedagogue and child is an educational principle, which is highly appreciated by the pedagogues. But what is missing is the pedagogues’ ongoing support of the children’s striving towards mastering objects and also phenomena in the social world.

Keywords: Crèche, Policy, National curriculum, Research.

Cet article porte sur la relation entre politique et expérience vécue du tout-petit en crèche, au Danemark. Pour ce faire, il intègre démographie, traditions, curriculum national et recherche en psychologie et en éducation, y compris dans ses récents développements.Nous nous efforçons de dégager les connaissances et leurs conséquences, en montrant la légitimité académique des divers paradigmes, ainsi que la qualité et les caractéristiques des théories impliquées. La méthode employée comprend la revue systématique de textes organisés et interprétés, qu’il s’agisse de documents officiels ou d’articles pertinents, issus de la recherche. Elle est utilisée pour explorer les significations des phénomènes culturels, sociaux et politiques dans l’expérience propre des individus qui y sont impliqués, dans leurs contextes naturels. Nous faisons l’hypothèse que le développement de l’enfant résulte d’une stimulation cognitive et émotionnelle. Pour le montrer, il est vital de souligner l’influence de la politique sur la pratique éducative en crèche, c’est-à-dire la conception de l’éducation et des soins. L’article indique que la relation d’empathie entre le pédagogue et l’enfant constitue un principe pédagogique qui est très apprécié par les pédagogues. Mais ce qui manque est le soutien par les pédagogues de l’élan des enfants pour maîtriser les objets et les phénomènes du monde social.

Mots-clés : crèche, politique, curriculum national, recherche

Resumen

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Este trabajo tratará de identificar la relación entre la política y la vida vivida para el niño pequeño en la guardería danesa. Para lograr esto el trabajo integra demografía, tradiciones, programas nacionales y psicológicos, educativos y desarrollos recientes en la investigación.

Se hace un esfuerzo para revelar conocimiento y consecuencias, realizando la legitimidad académica de los paradigmas distintos, reconociendo la calidad y el carácter distintivo de las teorías incluidas. Los métodos incluyen estudios sistemáticos, organización e interpretación de material textual derivado de legislación e artículos de investigación relevantes. Son usadas en la exploración del significado en los fenómenos políticos, sociales y culturales por experiencia propia de las personas incluidas, en su contexto natural.

Es una presunción que el desarrollo del niño es una consecuencia de estimulo emocional y cognitiva. Para resumir esto, es importante destacar la influencia de la política en la práctica educativa en la guardería, por ejemplo en la conceptualización de la educación y la atención infantil. Este trabajo sugiere que la relación empática entre pedagogo y el niño es un principio educativo que es altamente apreciada por los pedagogos. Pero lo que falta es el apoyo regular de los pedagogos a los niños para poder dominar los objetos y también los fenómenos en el mundo social.

DemographyWith a population of 5,5 million citizens, Denmark is one of the smallest countries in the European Union. Between 1950 and the latest census in 2009, the population has increased by 30% and has become more culturally diverse. From 1980 to 2010, half a million immigrants of other ethnic origins have become Danish citizens. 25% of the work-force have no education above secondary school. 64% have a professional education or training and 7% have longer academic educations. In February 2010, 4% of the population was unemployed (Statistik, 2009).

The number of employed on the labour market is almost the same for women and men. And new families are now offered 52 weeks of paid maternity-leave, to be divided between the parents. After that period, the local municipalities offer day care.

Background The first public crèche was opened in the working class districts of Copenhagen, by the municipality of Copenhagen. And where the need seemed to be greatest, the state church opened asylums for small children. So crèches and kindergartens were only offered to the poorest families, single mothers and families where survival depended on the income of the mother (Kolstrup, 1996).

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I 1919 the government passed the first law on subsidizing childcare. This legislation allocated funding, which the state could distribute to municipalities, private organizations, or private persons that started asylums as preventive care. Even though the financing was limited, it was groundbreaking that the state involved itself in what had always been a private matter: caring for children. The aim was socio-political, not educational, but it showed that parliament recognized the public responsibility for the poorest children.

Institutions that received subsidies according to the 1919 legislation were subject to public inspection, overseeing the children’s welfare and sanitation.

In 1933 the social-democratic government reformed the social legislation. Female politicians fought for both women’s right to participate in the labor market, and the right to a public childcare system. Due to their efforts, daycare centers were part of the new legislation. One of the main objectives was to ensure that the children of workingwomen would receive care and proper upbringing (Caspersen, 1985; Kolstrup, 1996).

The kindergartens were pedagogically inspired and had educational aims. The crèches were structured to attend to the health of small children. Any concentration on the child’s psychological stimulation was not seen as relevant until the child reached kindergarten age. The keywords for the crèche were Hygiene, Regularity and Calm.

Actual training as a children’s nurse was approved in 1951 as a public education. The training included one year’s work in a crèche and 54 hours of theory. When the student had been approved with satisfactory result, she earned the possibility to continue her training with a three-year state-certified education.

In the Sixties, new political winds changed the focus from care to pedagogics, and the pedagogue-led crèches were developed with attention to: Extraversion, Viability, Discussion, Courses, Union activities, Decentralization of leadership and Cooperation with social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, parents etc. (Midtgaard, 2002). And the following six objectives were formulated (Michelsen, Edsberg, & Posborg, 1992):• To develop and promote independence and a sense of connectedness• To develop motoric skills and the mastering of bodily functions• To develop senses, abilities and skills• To develop language, ideas and thinking• To develop knowledge of nature and society• To develop emotions, the ability to interact and agency.

Danish child and family policy have always been based on the overall principle that the family is the foundation in a child's upbringing and the living conditions of children are mainly the responsibility of their parents. As described above, public authorities

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have an overall responsibility for providing a good social framework and for providing the best possible conditions for families with children. General issues relating to child and family policy are handled centrally by the Ministry of Social Affairs, which lays down an overall framework and general conditions. One result of social developments over the past thirty years is that the active participation of women - particularly the mothers of young children - in the labor market has now reached almost the same level as that of men (Socialministeriet, 2000).

Many aspects of social life affect the conditions of children and families across different legislative and professional boundaries. Denmark has chosen not to unite the responsibility for the conditions of children and families in a single ministry. Instead, these conditions are covered by several different ministries, which have expertise in the various areas for which they are responsible. The Ministry of Social Affairs has prime responsibility for ECEC daycare facilities for children, the Ministry of Education is responsible for schools and the Ministry of Justice is responsible for the legal status and position of children.

In 1999 the Social Assistance Act of 1976, was replaced by the Social Services Act of 1998 (Servicestyrelsen, 2009). The provisions of the Social Services Act concerning children and the Ministry of Social Affairs guidelines concerning daycare facilities for children in accordance with the Social Services Act have been formulated on the basis of the principles laid down in the UN Convention of The Rights of the Child:

To take care of the children and support the individual child in the acquisition and development of social and general skills with a view to stimulating the all-round development and confidence of each individual child, thereby contributing towards a good and safe childhood.

To facilitate experiences and activities likely to stimulate the imagination, creativity and linguistic skills of the child, and provide each child with space and opportunities for playing and learning, for physical exercise, for socializing and for investigating the surroundings.

To prepare children for shared participation and responsibility, thereby helping to develop their independence and sense of commitment.

To encourage children’s understanding of cultural values and interaction with nature.

The Danish system is structured after a decentralized model that needs the ability of the subsystems to act independently. The government defines the overall framework applying to day-care facilities in legislation. The local authorities operate the day-care facilities and are responsible for them, and each individual local authority adopts guidelines for the operation of its own daycare facilities within the framework of

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legislation in force. Parent boards are meant to take part in a) the formulation of the principles which are to govern the work carried out by the daycare facilities, b) the use of budgetary frameworks and c) the appointment of staff. Within this framework and in compliance with the objectives formulated, the staff in daycare facilities may decide the content of daily activities, working methods and materials used to further the learning process and development of children. In order to increase awareness of the framework and principles applying to the activities carried out in municipal daycare facilities, local authorities often issue written information about these subjects (Socialministeriet, 2000).

Children in crèchesIn 2007, 13,000 children, attended a crèche, 65,000 a municipality daycare home and 44,000 a mixed age institution. That is approximately 90% of all children aged between one and three years.

All childcare facilities are governed by the Day Care Centres Act (Retsinformation, 2007). The act gives overall rules and regulations, first of all an educational goal, a curriculum, rules for parental payment and democratic influence. A “guarantee for places” forces the municipalities to offer sufficient places.

Professional Development and TrainingThe educated personnel in the Danish crèche – pedagogues [pædagoger], have 3 1/2 years training, and are graduated as Bachelors. They possess 50% of the positions (2,002 in employment by October 2008). The remaining 50% (1.975 employed in Oct. 2008) are untrained personnel (Statistik, 2009).

Pedagogues can attend two-year, part-time Pedagogic Diploma Educations, as in-service training. But these courses have a fee, and substitute pedagogues in the crèche must replace those who attend. Therefore they are difficult to attend for a common pedagogue.

The private daycare pedagogues need no education, and can provide day care for up to five children, in the daycare pedagogue’s own home.

From educational guidelines to educational curriculumDanish pedagogues, loyal to their professional beliefs, have resisted a national or centralized curriculum. However, the recent decades have brought a movement towards slightly more formalized curriculum. With the 1998 Social Services Act, more specific educational objectives were made official policy.

The central concept in this legislative language is care. Care in Denmark, is traditionally seen as a mutual emphatic relation between the pedagogue and the child, characterized by a child’s perspective, and the fact that one person focuses on another

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person and acts in a way which serves the other person and supports her well-being, learning and development (Broström, 2006). And in the legislation, care has a dual meaning, both as the custodial safekeeping of children while their parents are working and as the reflection and decision-making based on professional understanding of children’s needs, well-being and development. The pedagogue’s role is to start with the child’s needs and perspectives, combined with her own empathic and positive attitude toward the child, to create environments and activities where the child’s needs are met. The second usage is consistent with usage by early educators in other countries, when they refer to the education of young children as something beyond mere custodial care. Danish pedagogues reject the word “teacher” to describe their roles and “education” to describe their interaction with children.

In fact, however, Danish pedagogues actually refer to the same level of professionalism when they use the word care, as do early educators in other parts of the world when they talk about education (Broström, 2006). The content of this highly professional level of care in Denmark might be considerably different from the content of education in other parts of the world. However in this paper education or pedagogy is defined “as practice, reflection, and theory on phenomena that concern teaching, upbringing, and care, plus their possible effects and impacts” (Broström, 2006, p. 395).

In another notable break from tradition, the 1998 Social Service Act introduced the terms learning and learning processes, instead of the usual term development, within the context of Danish kindergarten goals and outcomes. Until then, children “developed” in kindergarten and “learned” in school; but this document began, at least on a rhetorical level, to break down this distinction. Among other things the 1998 Social Service Act requires that the pedagogues facilitate experiences and activities likely to stimulate the imagination, creativity and linguistic skills of the child, and provide each child with space and opportunities for playing and learning, for physical exercise, for socializing and for investigating their surroundings.

Here the politicians do not ask for a learning process characterized by traditional sessions where for example the pedagogues arrange language learning with the use of special materials in order to support children’s social competences. On the contrary, there is an argument for the fact that children’s learning comes through all kinds of activities during the day: Children’s activities inherently involve learning processes. Therefore, daycare centers must be aware of possible learning elements that can be included in various activities. Adults must show a special awareness when a child asks to learn, to learn more, or to learn new things.

The language of the legislation does not provide strict formulations about what should be done in kindergarten. The absence of a narrow policy based on specified educational theories, goals and content allows pedagogues, parents and children to create

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their own kindergarten life, and to promote individual educational styles. Here, pedagogues, parents and, ideally, the children themselves, working together, are able to create the center, and with that, to pave the way for individually appropriate activity that will foster learning processes and development.

A national curriculumThe implementation of a learning dimension in the early years paved the way for a national curriculum, so in 2004 the Act on Educational Curricula was passed by parliament. The curriculum is a requirement for each single crèche to implement six dimensions of aims and content which are expressed as general themes: 1) Personal competences, 2) social competences, 3) language, 4) body and movement, 5) nature and nature phenomena, and 6) cultural forms of expression and values (Folketinget, 2004). The parents and pedagogues in the individual crèche must discuss and interpret these themes, and once a year devise their own curriculum based on their own specific needs and circumstances.

These six dimensions in the curriculum must be seen in the light of the overall aims mentioned in the act. First and foremost is the perspective of democracy and the child as an active part of society participating in democracy and contributing to the development of culture and society and through these processes obtaining an understanding of and insight into society. However, it is left to the discretion of the pedagogues themselves to interpret general phrases from the aims written in the overall political documents. Daginstitutionsloven § 7 (2007), for example, specifies the development of:

- A physical, psychological and aesthetic children’s environment to promote children’s wellbeing, health, development and learning- Care and support for the individual child’s comprehensive development, self-esteem… and a secure childhood.- Participation, co-responsibility and an understanding of democracy.- Children’s independence and ability to participate in binding communities. - The transition to school and support for basic competences and the desire to learn.

Taking a positive interpretation of the act and guidelines for children’s life in a crèche, we understand it as a democratic meeting place where they can achieve positive experiences by being together with other children and adults, and being active participants. Based on such a fundamental democratic everyday life, children will meet a practice, which consist of both caring and educational dimensions. However, descriptions of what happens in crèches express a number of problems, and first of all, because the pedagogues each year have to make up a curriculum focusing on the six

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dimension of goals and content – and also have to describe their use of methods – we see a tendency of narrowing down goals and objectives, which results in a mechanical practice with the teaching of basic skills - and not a vitally lived practice. At many crèches, care is still seen as the custodial safekeeping of children, and not as a mutual relation between the pedagogue and child characterized by a child’s perspective and empathy with the prospect of the child’s well-being, learning and development. In those crèches learning is considered a passive transmission of knowledge, and not as active processes through which the child may develop. However there is a sprouting tendency to see care in relation to teaching and upbringing and therefore using the phrase ‘educare’ (Broström, 2006).

ResearchIn Denmark there has been and still is very little research on crèches. However, in the 1980’s in Denmark two research and developmental projects were carried out. By use of interviews and observations Vagn Michelsen, Pia Edsberg and Rikke Posborg (1992) investigated educational and social practice in 10 crèches, and also via observations and interviews Jan Kampmann and Peter Ø. Andersen (1988) described daily life in one crèche. Besides these educational studies, more psychological research was done in the first half of the nineties, where Agnete Diderichsen, Sven Thyssen and Ann Jacobi (1991) from the Danish National Institute for Educational Research, via observations and interview, described how care was organized in three different crèches.

Research on educational practice in crècheDuring the 1970’s, the educational work in crèches was more or less characterized by an educational approach. In an official report by the Commission on young children (3/1980) the experts wrote: “The crèches have established or are in an early phase of development towards realizing a conscious and specific education”.

However, the research of Michelsen, Edsberg and Posborg (1992) concluded that, by the end of the 1980’s, the work in crèches was much more characterized by a purposeful care for the children. A change of course had been seen. The relations between pedagogues and children are the central issue. A social, emotional and mental community had priority over educational activities and educational planning. They also found relations characterized by warm and affectionate feelings, happiness and cheerfulness. They called for an educational approach where the pedagogues, besides the appreciative relationship, added an educational content.

Kampmann and Andersen (1988), also find an educational practice in crèches with a focus on the relations between children and adults; and they did not find and describe activities implemented by the adults. The pedagogues were reserved in suggesting

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specific activities to the children. The typical everyday life was a setting where children chose and realized activities themselves. The educational goal seemed to be self-reliance and independence, directed towards self-determination.

However, because of their own interest and understanding, they described the communication and relations between the children. They observed children mediating culture to each other; they described how children observed each other and learned from each other.

In opposition to Michelsen, Edsberg and Posborg (1992) they did not call for an education stressing an educational content. On the other hand they wanted pedagogues to support children’s own culture. They saw children as cultural agents.

Psychological research in crècheAccording to Thyssen (1995) care means an attentive and empathetic attitude towards the child as well as conscious efforts to understand the child's needs and what is important for the child in its daily life. Giving care to a child also means that the child feels loved, appreciated, understood, respected, and feels connected with the people around him/her, and it includes promoting healthy development.

MethodsObservations of 10 two-year-old children were carried out in three different crèches. Observations focused on a) the activity of the child and what he/she was engaged in, b) the communication and joint activity with other children. Special emphasis was placed on observing the communication with adults: how does a child express that he/she needs care from the adult, and how does the adult meet this need? What initiatives, if any, does the adult take? The observations consisted of a continuous writing down of what the child did, as well as of the interchange and communication between child and adult.

Results1. Care and Development: Babies need emotional communication with an adult. The needs of two-year-old children go in another direction. They are engaged in activities with objects, usually together with other children. And they want adults to take part in this interest. Most of the time in a crèche, the two year-old-child is engaged in play and similar activities with other children. The child turns to the world of objects and activities in a more active, interested and "alive" manner if it is met with attention, interest and initiative on the part of the adult.

The two-year-old child is taking the first steps towards role-play; attention and inspiration from the adult help him to see the baby in the doll, the real car in the toy car, etc.

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These activities are, however, still very fragmentary. When the adult, on the other hand, takes part in them, or perhaps takes initiatives, the attraction of the game is greatly increased for the child. At the same time the game is enriched, becomes more detailed and involves interchange. In this way the game also acquires a wider meaning. 2. Patterns of Care: The children were observed in three different crèches. It appeared that there were pronounced differences between the daycare centres with regards to the patterns of care given to the children. The main result is two different patterns of care: • The first pattern is characterized by a high degree of empathy with the needs,

thoughts and feelings of the child and attention towards and interest in the activities of the child. It is, furthermore, characterized by the endeavour to inspire the child, and by attaching importance to relations between the children and to their mutual understanding and joint activity.

• The second pattern is characterized by a relatively low degree of empathy, attention and interest towards the child, but no apparent importance is attached to the relations between the children or to the children’s joint activity in, for instance, roleplay or games.

3. Care and Children's Joint Activity: The third category of results is closely related to the pattern of care. The activity of the children seems to be related to the pattern of care. If the two-year-old children receive care characterized by a high degree of empathy, attention and interest they play in a more developed manner. Their games contain elements of pretending. An example is two boys, who first use a broom as a paintbrush and "paint" the walls in the room, and then suddenly their activity is transformed and they begin to sing using the broom as a guitar.

The two-year-old children receiving care characterized by a low degree of empathy, attention and interest play in a different manner. Very few traces of pretending are found here. They are mainly oriented towards the physical attributes of the toys and other objects: putting toy bricks in a bucket, rolling with a ball, etc.

Furthermore, the social relations between the children are more complex and the joint activities more prolonged in the case of the children who have received care with a high degree of empathy, attention, and interest. The structure of the joint activity seems, however, to be different under the two patterns of care. Under the care of a high degree of empathy, attention, and interest, the children listen to each other, are open to suggestions from the other children, show interest in their proposals, etc.

While the creative side of joint playing in the first case is a joint activity, in the second case it is in the hands of a single child and suggestions from other children are

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not always considered to be an inspiration, but rather an obstacle. Care of high quality contains democratic elements in that the pedagogue tries to understand the child and shows it respect. And similarly, care of low quality, is characterized by an attitude of indifference to the child and lack of interest in the thinking and feelings of the child. And even a "demanding" element is often found in the low quality care pattern.

Status and future possibilitiesThe three investigations above are about 15 years old, and educational practice has changed, amongst other reasons because of the implementation of a curriculum in 2004. However, some of the findings are still of relevance. In all three studies a warm and empathic relation between pedagogue and child was seen as a typical and characteristic element, which the researcher, with different arguments, valued positively. Another finding was the lack of an educational approach where the pedagogues challenged children with interesting activities, which were, more or less, valued very differently by the researchers. Michelsen, Edsberg and Posborg (1992), clearly call for an educational content, and Diderichsen, Thyssen and Jacobi argue that children aged two years express a need for being involved in object-related activities and a possibility to explore the world. Though Andersen and Kampmann (1988), do not want a leading pedagogue role, they argue that the pedagogue should support the children to explore and create their own culture.

Because of the lack of recent investigations on educational practice in crèches it is not possible with evidence to evaluate to what extent the above findings and suggestions have relevance to today’s crèche. However, based on observations and reading of curricula from a large number of crèches, one may assume that the empathic relation between pedagogue and child is an educational principle, which is highly appreciated by the pedagogues (although the principle is not seldom absent in practice). But what is missing on a large scale is the pedagogues’ ongoing support of the children’s striving towards mastering objects and also phenomena in the social world.

New and future researchIn Denmark we need new investigations to describe the occurrence of typical educational characteristics. Amongst other things, such research should describe a) the dynamic of the pedagogue-child relation (care, empathy, acknowledgement etc.), b) the pedagogue-content relation: how the pedagogue presents the content to the child, c) the child’s relations to other children and d) the pedagogue’s relation to a group of children. These research objects are illustrated in the model below:

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Content Other children

Pedagogue Child

Figure 1: The didactic rectangle (Broström, 2009) These six relations might be investigated by the use of mixed methods. First a quantitative study, a survey using a questionnaire in order to generalize and get a valid picture of the present education in crèches. Subsequently, a qualitative study in a number of selected crèches using observations and focus interviews in able to describe the dynamic and quality of the six relations.

This study would inform about important dimensions in the present care and education in crèches. However, we also need more ambitious studies reflecting children’s learning and general development affected by the educational setting of the crèche (Broström, 2009).

Postmodern influenceA global postmodern transformation towards child-centered views on education, lifelong learning and a general ability to communicate for modern citizens influence the background for research (Burman, 2008b). The child is to be imparted with potentials such as, the abilities to adapt, negotiate and co-operate. As a consequence the postmodern research emphasizes the child’s communicative and innovative competences, and investigates the crèche as a platform for the child as a constructor of knowledge, identity and culture, due to empathetic and challenging interactions with adults and other children, in interpersonal zones or joint attention frames, where the children can develop their ability to understand others’ communicative intentions, and thereby develop language, knowledge and the ability to think and reason (Tomasello, 2003a).

Recent developments in several fields of research including social and cultural psychology, critical sociology and neuropsychology suggest that the small child is biologically prepared and yet it is shaped by and completed through each person’s active participation in socio-cultural environments and activities (Bråten, 2009; Stern, 2004).

This provides postmodern research with the following ground rules:

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1. To conduct research in the daily life of children - to theorize, investigate and experiment - is to interact simultaneously as an element of the phenomenon that is being investigated.

2. The daily life of the child materializes ontologically through the making of contextualized meaning.

3. The daily life of the child cannot be separated from normative conditions. Therefore the research must imply all the ontological, epistemological and ethical elements that constitute the way a child ‘comes to matter’

(Barad, 2007; Hansen, 2010b).

On this background, a new research-project seeks to identify criteria for a multi-scientific concept, conceiving the 0-3 year child’s language-constructions as complexities between ontogenetic instincts, matter, culture and policy. Children’s agency and the neuronal components that constitute the self become important fields of research (Barad, 2007; Broström, 2009; Burman, 2008a, 2008b; Hansen, 2010b; Haan & Gunnar, 2009).

This research-project aims to respond to the inequality-problem in the Danish education-system by investigating whether the crèches are able to compensate inadequate language-abilities for children from less language-privileged homes, by trying to identify patterns of care, educational relations and joint attention (Hansen, 2010b; Stern, 2004; Tomasello, 2003a).

In order to become an active participant and a creative learner, the child must develop nuances in the language and learn the rules of language (Bateson, 2002; Tomasello, 2003b). This process however, can be problematic, if the child is not exposed to challenges by reflective pedagogues, who deliberately interact and create the proper circumstances for learning. As a consequence, children from less language-privileged homes will gradually experience the world as more and more incomprehensible; they cannot negotiate their social position; they cannot express desires and needs and they become mere spectators, as the others seize the moment. The difference between the children who are recognized for their abilities and those who are less stimulated becomes unceasingly greater.

Therefore this research-project will promote different trans-scientific investigations and explore an inclusive common pedagogy for all children in the Danish crèche (Hansen, 2010b).

Pedagogical implicationsIn preliminary data from research on the Danish crèche, Hansen (2010a) implies that the

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implementation of a national curriculum, national tests, and a strong political effort to promote Denmark as a country, with qualified lifelong education for all children, causes an unintended pedagogical practice in the Danish crèche. Thereby the pedagogues in some cases assign a lower priority to crucial care elements such as child perspective, empathy and the importance of inter-subjectivity and lived situations, but also mastering of objects and social phenomena. Instead the educational focus turns into an unintended asymmetric approach, where transfer of curricula and testable competences are in focus, and where the child in some extend are limited in his or hers ability to attachment and intersubjectivity.

Such a turn is a paradox, due to the pedagogues’ traditional reluctance towards teaching. And the turn is (probably) not the intention of the ministries or administrators, and is it poorly matched with the Nordic social-pedagogic tradition.

Rather then making too sharp a contrast, it seems advisable to combine the two focuses, one merging into the other, as part of the same continuum. At one end are the broad developmental goals such as motor- and socio-emotional development, and authentic lived approaches to culture and social skills. At the other end is the emphasis on activities, where the lived life tends to play a secondary role (OECD, 2006).

Discussion When trying to understand the relation between care and children’s activity, it is too simple to view the activity of the children as a direct consequence of the care they receive. It is rather a question of the culture in the daycare centre being developed, maintained and transmitted to new pedagogues and children by the present adults and children. In the crèche, a culture is developed, characterized by values, conventions and manners, social relations - an idea of what the individual should be like as a human being.

Of course, the pedagogues in the crèche have a special responsibility for the culture in the daycare centre. However, it should be remembered that in actual fact the culture is transmitted to new children not only by the adults, but also by the children who are already there.

Another factor to be borne in mind is the social and cultural environment, of which the crèche is a part, and from where attitudes and values concerning care and upbringing of children are transmitted to the daycare centre.

The present results make it possible to discuss some aspects of the relation between care and the general psychological development of the child. The results concerned the following three points: 1) A child needs care which relates to what is important to the child. 2) Emotional communication is not enough for children. 3) They need care, which is concerned with their way of exploring the world and with their specific activities and

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interests as children. Furthermore, different patterns of care were found: A pattern of high quality of care

and a pattern of low quality of care. These patterns point to the importance of such factors within care as empathy, inspiration and attempts to understand the child.

Finally, there seemed to be a relation between care and the joint activity of the children. The interchange between the children resembled the care given by the adult. It was suggested that a crèche should be looked upon as a culture characterized by its own values, conventions, manners and social relations which are developed, kept alive, and transmitted to new members of the small community by both pedagogues and children. But, of course, the adult pedagogue still has a special responsibility.

When you analyze what care means to the infant, it seems to be essential to the well-being as well as to the psychological development of the child.

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