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The Decommodification of Early Childhood Education and Care: Resisting Neoliberalism explores how processes of marketisation and privatisation of ECEC have impacted understandings of children, childcare, parents, and the workforce, providing concrete examples of resistance to commodification from diverse contexts.
Through processes of marketisation and privatisation, neoliberal discourses have turned ECEC into a commodity whereby economic principles of competition and choice have replaced the purpose of education. The Decommodification of Early Childhood Education and Care: Resisting Neoliberalism offers new and alternative understandings of policy and practice. Written with co-authors from diverse countries, case studies vividly portray resistance to children as human capital, to the "consumentality" of parents, and to the alienation of the early childhood workforce. Ending with messages of hope, the authors discuss the demise of neoliberalism and offer new ways forward.
As an international book with global messages contributing to theory, policy, and practice regarding alternatives to a neoliberal and commodified vision of ECEC, this book offers inspiration for policy makers and practitioners to develop local resistance solutions. It will also be of interest to post-graduate students, researchers, educators, and pre-service educators with an interest in critical pedagogy, ECEC policy, and ECEC practice.
List of contents
Biographies
Introduction: From the politically impossible to the politically inevitable
Chapter 1. On Commodification and Decommodification
Chapter 2. Resisting children as human capital
Chapter 3. Resisting the Consumentality of Parents
Chapter 4. Resisting the alienation of the workforce
Chapter 5. Conclusions
References
Summary
The Decommodification of Early Childhood Education and Care: Resisting Neoliberalism explores how processes of marketisation and privatisation of ECEC have impacted understandings of children, childcare, parents, and the workforce, providing concrete examples of resistance to commodification from diverse contexts.
Report
'This book's vignettes of grassroots initiatives... will inspire early childhood education activists and observers alike'
Eva Lloyd, Director of The International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare and visiting Professor at the University College London
'This book deftly reveals and challenges the encroachment of neoliberalism upon early childhood education.'
Frances Press, Professor of Early Childhood and Education Policy, Manchester Metropolitan University
