Showing papers by "Helen Penn published in 2019"
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The authors explores the wider global context of debates about early childhood education and care and concludes that many of the claims, especially the social investment claims for early childhood, are grossly exaggerated and patronizing, and in turn many of development aid programs are ill-conceived, ineffective and collusive, and rely on privatized tendering arrangements for their delivery and evaluation.
Abstract: This chapter explores the wider global context of debates about early childhood education and care. It briefly summarizes some of the debates about global inequality. It concludes that, in the light of such acute global inequality, many of the claims, especially the social investment claims for early childhood, are grossly exaggerated and patronizing, and in turn many of the development aid programs are ill-conceived, ineffective and collusive, and rely on privatized tendering arrangements for their delivery and evaluation. It argues for a much closer attention to local contexts and priorities, and for a much greater concern with children’s and women’s rights.
5 citations
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TL;DR: The Growing into Music (Growing into Music films: http://www.growingintomusic.co.uk/) project as discussed by the authors is a series of films that document how children from specialist musical families of great oral traditions acquire musical skills and knowledge.
Abstract: This chapter is in the form of an interview between Lucy Duran and Helen Penn. Lucy Duran is a well-known ethnomusicologist who has made a series of films, sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Council in the UK—Beyond Text, in the project called Growing into Music (Growing into Music films: http://www.growingintomusic.co.uk/), for which she was the principal investigator. The films document how children from specialist musical families of great oral traditions acquire musical skills and knowledge, with films made by a team of four ethnomusicologists working in five countries: India, Azerbaijan, Mali, Cuba and Venezuela. In addition to the documentaries directed and filmed in Mali, which is Duran’s regional expertise, she also provides a commentary to the comparative film that covers footage from all five countries, making some interesting and important connections, with wider implications for music education.
1 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The authors summarizes the contributions to global inequalities, children's rights, women's rights and the importance of local contexts, local knowledge and local priorities made in this book and argues instead for a much more reciprocal and carefully thought-out intergenerational approach to development work which recognizes the cultural, economic and political complexities of working with young children and their families and communities.
Abstract: This chapter summarizes the contributions to global inequalities, children’s rights, women’s rights, and the importance of local contexts, local knowledge and local priorities made in this book. It critiques the way that so many international organizations rely on simplistic social investment rationales to promote early childhood education and care interventions, and the standardized and narrow frameworks of measurement that are used to evaluate them. It argues instead for a much more reciprocal and carefully thought-out inter-generational approach to development work which recognizes the cultural, economic and political complexities of working with young children and their families and communities.
1 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the opportunities for early childhood education and care reform in Uzbekistan, and the extent to which reforms can build on "local knowledge" and the inherent contradictions and repression under the Soviet system continued in a different form under the current Uzbek government.
Abstract: This chapter explores the opportunities for early childhood education and care (ECEC) reform in Uzbekistan, and the extent to which reforms can build on ‘local knowledge’. Uzbekistan was part of the Soviet Union and inherited a rigid Soviet style kindergarten system, which nevertheless promoted care and education, and attempted, in principle, to offer access to all children. These kindergartens fell into disrepair and disuse, but are now being revived with the help of the World Bank funds. At the same time, the Uzbek government has promoted a partly concocted patriarchal traditionalism, especially in rural areas, as a means of social control. The inherent contradictions and repression under the Soviet system continued in a different form under the current Uzbek government have led to confusion about what is local knowledge or what people might want or expect from an ECEC system.