Any given society is founded upon the health and well-being of its children and youth. Children are the link between the present and the future. As they grow, children learn and acquire various skills that play a crucial role in the adults they turn out to be. Since growth and development are an inevitable part of human existence, preparations must be made in an effort to prepare the young generations for the roles and responsibilities that await them in adulthood. It is for this reason that matters regarding childhood remain vital across various sectors, as is evident from the diverse systems that exist in the service of children. Stakeholders in sectors such as public health, education, social welfare, security, and agriculture continually focus on addressing the needs of children as one way of guaranteeing their safety and well-being. With matters, education, however, special focus and attention are necessary for ensuring that children are accorded the appropriate skills and knowledge that allow them to have meaningful and productive lives.
Education plays a crucial role in informing a person’s perspective of the world, thereby affecting how they relate and interact with their environments. It is from this basis that the concept of human capital theory arose, with the primary goal of advancing the premise that education must be looked at as an investment where both the individual and state enjoy economic benefits. At the individual level, a person gets to enjoy income through various exploits, for the state, on the other hand, significant changes are noted in terms of employment opportunities and economic development. The fundamental assertion in this school of thought is that it with better and higher investments, similar returns come about at the macroeconomic level. This premonition has been the cause of a great debacle even as scholars and education stakeholders attempt to contextualize and understand its significance and implications for society.
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Understanding the dynamics of this discussion is, however, contingent upon reviewing existing empirical studies to help ascertain its impacts so far. For the purposes of this discussion, three articles do stand out and therefore, form the basis of the analysis and argument that is presented in this write up. In a policy brief titled: The Effects of Investing in Early Education on Economic Growth , Dickens and his team delve into the analysis of the economic outcomes of high-quality universal education at the early childhood level. For Dickens and colleagues, their primary goal is ascertaining how economic outcomes can be altered based on the nature and dynamics of education policy implemented among early childhood learners (Dickens, Sawhill and Tebbs, 2006). Their interest builds upon the assumption that increasing the amount of education received by each worker by 10% it is possible to realize as much as 4 to 5% increases in the national GDP.
The major variable in this exploration, therefore, include the amount of education investments relative to the subsequent economic outcomes. This requires analyzing early childhood education programs relative to the success and economic attainments of the participants. In the policy brief, therefore, the authors go on to present a simulation that builds upon the results of studies that has been conducted under the Perry Preschool Program. The Perry Preschool Program was designed to provide high-quality educational opportunities to a group of small children that had been specifically selected from disadvantaged backgrounds in Ypsilanti, Michigan back in the 1960s. The aim of the program was to determine the effect of high-quality pre-school education, as such participants were chosen on the basis of belonging to a low socio-economic class with a specific focus on diversity as much as possible.
Following this approach the researchers would go on to monitor the participants periodically; a process that is still ongoing with some of the participants having attained the age of forty. In choosing individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, however, it is possible to assume that multiple factors may have affected the outcome of the study, including the inherent desire to succeed that characterized most disadvantaged individuals. Once the study had been initiated, it was the duty of researchers to periodically monitor the progress of the children over their lifetimes. Specific focus went into the analysis of their educational attainments relative to non-participants, employability as well as overall economic success. While largely qualitative in nature, the data collection process also included quantitative data allowing for objective comparisons.
From this discussion, the researchers went on to conclude the fact that while the program was largely unproductive for the first 13 to 14 years as the students pursued their education, its impacts came about upon their graduation. In this case, therefore, they assert that, while longer-school years minimize the size of the labor force, the entry of graduate students has been found to tremendously increase their productivity and overall quality performance. More importantly, is the fact that with greater sustainability such a program results in increased economic growth. From this pretext, therefore, it is evident that increased investment in education served to enhance individual and societal economic outcomes.
In the second article: The changing roles of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand: A shifting policy landscape by Maggie Haggerty and Sophie Alcock, readers are introduced to an exploration of the major national shifts in early childhood care and education and their impacts on educational outcomes. This particular study has its sample population from Aotearoa New Zealand where the researchers set out to evaluate the nation’s efforts in early childhood education as presented by the national official Ministry of Education website. In particular, the researchers were interested in the Te Whāriki program of which is regarded as the first concrete intervention of government early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand. By leveraging critical discourse analysis premises, Haggerty and Alcock manage to conduct a systematic analysis of New Zealand’s, Ministry of Education website with the goal of discerning the impact of various social, economic and political forces are compromising the quality of the learning experience.
The researchers settled on the Te Whāriki program that was initiated by the Ministry of Education partly in 1993 and 1996. Their primary focus with this particular program is that it is regarded as the first major project by the government that addressed issues regarding education among children (Haggerty and Alcock, 2016). While it is possible to validate this choice, it is also possible to note a sense of bias arising from the fact that several other similar programs have since been initiated since the Te Whāriki. For the data gathering process, the authors considered key policy documents which were largely gathered from the official Ministry of Education website. A special focus went into the systematic analysis of the website content, with reflective interrogations and cross-checks helping the researchers gain deeper insights into the official texts. It is important to acknowledge the possible emergence of bias during the reflective interrogation process.
However, in leveraging critical discourse analysis, the researchers managed to streamline their study, thereby focusing on terminologies which hinted at underlying changes within the nation’s educational policy. A resounding challenge encountered by the researchers was that with constant information updates on websites, keeping track of all the important fragment proved significantly challenging. Following this particular study, it is possible to state that the fundamental assertion that arises from this discussion is that early childhood care and education programs are largely tools of intensifying compliance and control. In other words, besides a major preoccupation with the learning process, the education ministry has greatly narrowed the scope of education among early learners.
From this perspective, it is evident that early childhood care and education services have failed to acknowledge and appreciate the depth and complexity of the education process. By investing in projects and activities that focus on learning while eliminating notions of development, children are continually being limited from the interconnectedness of the learning and development process, an element that can have negative implications on future outcomes of the child. This conclusion challenges the predominant notion regarding the positive impacts of human capital theory. For proponents of the idea that increased investments in education automatically translate to better economic outcomes, it is clear that several factors come into play in influencing life outcomes based on the education metric. In this case, therefore, while it is important to increase investments in education, considerable forts and attention must also address various dynamics within the educational continuum if greater efficiency is to be attained.
The last article in this discussion is titled: Losing Sight of the Child? Human Capital Theory and its Role for Early Childhood Education and Care Policies in Finland and England since the Mid-1990s by Campbell-Barr and Nygård. It delves into early childhood education and care developments across Europe, with a specific focus on England and Finland. The study analyzes educational policy development in the two countries from as far back as the mid-1990s. For Campbell-Barr and Nygård, the primary goal is to compare and discuss the impact of the human capital theory on early childhood policy developments in Finland and England. The basis of a Finland-England comparison emerges from the fact that the countries are characterized by diverse and distinct family policy regimes. Based on this assumption, therefore, the researchers were interested in how these differences contribute to the process of integrating human capital principles within early childhood care and education programs.
This can better be understood by appreciating Finland’s Nordic-based family structure that is characterized by as dual-earner family policy, as compared to England’s neoliberal model that is largely market-based where women are subjected low employment rates as well as higher poverty incidences. In conducting this study, the researchers relied on information freely presented on the Ministry of Education website. In this regard, they focused on reports, briefings, official statements as well as existing and proposed laws. The focus on the online archive went as far back as 1990 (Campbell-Barr and Nygård, 2014). Based on this data they go on to offer a summary of their findings from the key documents. The analysis process was considered with respect to various extant literature. The bias that can be noted in this particular research is that by focusing on the element of human capital, the researchers miss out on other crucial influential factors.
From the forays of the researchers, they are able to conclude that Finland adheres to a path-dependent approach of early childhood care and education. In this case, it is possible to assert that Finland is relatively free of the human capital investment approaches in its early childhood care and education policies. In the case of England, however, its early childhood education policies hint at considerable influences of the human capital theory as is evident from the significant efforts that go into preparing for later life.
References
Campbell-Barr, V., & Nygård, M. (2014). Losing sight of the child? Human capital theory and its role for early childhood education and care policies in Finland and England since the Mid-1990s. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood , 15 (4), 346-359.
Dickens, W. T., Sawhill, I. V., & Tebbs, J. (2006). The effects of investing in early education on economic growth . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Haggerty, M., & Alcock, S. (2016). The changing roles of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand: A shifting policy landscape. Global Studies of Childhood , 6 (1), 136-146.
