Aspirations and actions : early childhood from policy to practice in Scotland

Dunlop, Aline-Wendy (2015) Aspirations and actions : early childhood from policy to practice in Scotland. International Journal of Early Years Education, 23 (3). pp. 258-273. ISSN 0966-9760

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    Abstract

    This paper explores early childhood experience in Scotland in terms of how readily the aspirations of policy convert to day-to-day practices. Ambitions to improve the lives of children and families have been high on the political agenda. Policy may be understood as a tool that aims to influence childhood experience in positive ways. If this is to be so, then the processes that effect change and their limitations need to be understood better, as do the underpinning values and assumptions. The workforce is at the heart of the endeavour to put policy aspirations into action: they are considered to be agents of change. In exploring such issues this paper draws on a policy-based functional analysis of the children's workforce [Dunlop, A.-W., L. Seagraves, S. Henderson, J. Henry, J. Martlew, and J. Fee. 2011. A Policy-Based Functional Analysis of the Children's Workforce. For Scottish Government: Children and Young People Social Care Directorate, Workforce and Capacity Issues Division] and on policy developments since. The paper therefore discusses Scottish policy aspirations for young children and their families, the contribution of the workforce to achieving those aspirations and asks if staff competence in itself is sufficient to ensure policy delivery for all in a climate where child poverty continues to contribute to unequal lives.

    ORCID iDs

    Dunlop, Aline-Wendy ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-0178;
    • Item type:Article
      ID code:60098
      Dates:
      Date
      Event
      30 September 2015
      Published
      20 August 2015
      Published Online
      20 April 2015
      Accepted
      Notes:The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in International Journal of Early Years Education 20th August 2015, http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09669760.2015.1074559..
      Keywords:aspirations, policy, early childhood, poverty, Scotland, Education, Social pathology. Social and public welfare, Education, Sociology and Political Science
      Subjects:Education
      Social Sciences > Social pathology. Social and public welfare
      Department:Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > School of Education > Education
      Depositing user: Pure Administrator
      Date deposited:07 Mar 2017 17:00
      Last modified:20 Nov 2021 01:44
      URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/60098
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