Early means early: understanding popular understandings of early childhood development in South Africa

Linda M. Richter, Mark Tomlinson, Kathryn Watt, Xanthe Hunt*, Eric H. Lindland

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Scientific and policy advances are putting early childhooddevelopment (ECD) at the center of efforts to improve humandevelopment. This study was undertaken to understand whatknowledge and attitudinal barriers exist that 25 hinder the full-scaleroll-out of services for the youngest children and their families.We used anthropological methods honed by the FrameworksInstitute to plumb beliefs about early childhood development amongmembers of the public and implementation and policy stakeholders,and compare those with the findings from ECD research. Whilemembers of the public and stakeholders agree on the importance ofECD, as demonstrated in other country settings, a major barrier todirecting services to the youngest children is a perceptual tendencyto ‘age up’. That is, to consider learning and other important skillsas being acquired in the pre-school rather than infancy period.Communication strategies that incorporate debate are neededto give full effect to the ECD and related policies, especiallyaround the topics of prioritizing the youngest 40 children, physicalpunishment, child rights, and the pervasiveness Q5 of threats toECD arising from poverty and disadvantage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)295-309
Number of pages15
JournalEarly Years
Volume39
Issue number3
Early online date13 May 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 03 Jul 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
 The EuropeAid/134258/M/ACT/ZA PSPPD2/CfP/2013/64, through the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Development, South Africa  The DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand, OPP20160033  Institute for LifecourseHealth Research at Stellenbosch University provided support for travel and meetings  UNICEF supported the travel of participants to the stakeholder meetingsUNICEF, South Africa; DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand [OPP20160033]; Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid [134258/M/ ACT/ZA PSPPD2/CfP/2013/64]; The Institute for Child and Adolescent Health Research, Stellenbosch University.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 TACTYC.

Keywords

  • Conceptualizations of early childhood
  • cultural models
  • early childhood development
  • implementation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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