Childcare and Preschool Development in Europe: Institutional Perspectives »

KIRSTEN SCHEIWE is Professor of Law at the Faculty of Social and Pedagogical Sciences, University of Hildesheim, Germany. Her research focuses upon law and social policy in the areas of family law and social law from the perspectives of interdisciplinary and comparative legal analysis and gender studies.

HARRY WILLEKENS is Professor at the Faculty of Social and Pedagogical Sciences, University of Hildesheim, Germany. He has previously taught at the universities of Maastricht, Tilburg and Antwerp. He is a specialist in family law, legal sociology and social policy.

This book explains the differences between European countries in the supply and forms of public child care and preschool provisions by reference to the historical context in which these forms originated and to the institutional constraints underlying their development.

List of Illustrations vii

Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction: Path-dependencies and Change in Child-care and Preschool Institutions in Europe-Historical and Institutional Perspectives Kirsten Scheiwe Harry Willekens 1

1 Public Child Care in Europe: Historical Trajectories and New Directions Thomas Bahle 23

2 How and Why Belgium Became a Pioneer of Preschool Development Harry Willekens 43

3 Public Child Care and Preschools in France: New Policy Paradigm and Path-dependency Claude Martin Blanche Le Bihan 57

4 Child Care in Spain after 1975: the Educational Rationale, the Catholic Church, and Women in Civil Society Celia Valiente 72

5 The Paradox of Public Preschools in a Familist Welfare Regime: the Italian Case Eva Maria Hohnerlein 88

6 Public and Private: the History of Early Education and Care Institutions in the United Kingdom Helen Penn 105

7 Danish Child-Care Policies within Path - Timing, Sequence, Actors and Opportunity Structures Anette Borchorst 126

8 Child Care as an Issue of Equality and Equity: The Example of the Nordic Countries Pirkko-Liisa Rauhala 142

9 The Politics of (De)centralisation: Early Care and Education in France and Sweden Michelle J. Neuman 157

10 Slow Motion - Institutional Factors as Obstacles to the Expansion of Early Childhood Education in the FRG Kirsten Scheiwe 180

11 Private Family and Institutionalised Public Care for Young Children in Germany and the United States, 1857-1933: An Analysis of Pedagogical Discourses Meike Sophia Baader 196

12 Maternalism and Truncated Professionalism - Historical Perspectives on Kindergarten Teachers Ursula Rabe-Kleberg 210

13 Money Matters - Experimentsin Financing Public Child Care Margarete Schuler-Harms 222

14 Basic Legal Principles of Public Responsibility for Children Ingo Richter 234

Index 247