7.3.1. Systems and governance of early childhood education and care
The structuring of early childhood education and care and its sub-systems has an impact on the relationship between early childhood and primary education in France and Sweden. As mentioned earlier, France has a split early childhood system in which the école maternelle has a strong school identity and link to the entire school system, while Sweden has an integrated system of early childhood education that belonged to the social welfare sector for over 50 years prior to the integration within education in 1996. In terms of sub-systems, France has a more unified system of teacher education and qualification and inspection – compared to Sweden, where teacher education and qualification and inspection are separate. Sweden places emphasis on nurturing a specialised teaching workforce while France places importance on the polyvalence of the teaching workforce across the école maternelle and élémentaire founded on a unified teacher status, working conditions, qualifications and training.
The governance of the French école maternelle and élémentaire are centralised, structured around a hierarchical national education system with the presence of a very small private sector. The école maternelle and élémentaire teachers are national civil servants whose salary and working conditions are determined according to a fixed scale. Meanwhile, Sweden has a decentralised system in which municipalities are responsible for the management and provision of preschools and schools, with their teachers as municipal employees. The Swedish government has actively promoted private provision in compulsory schools and preschools. The teachers’ salaries are decided locally through individual-level negotiations, unlike in France where they are centrally fixed. While some interviewees stated that there would be a range of views and experiences regarding the relationship due to the decentralised nature of governance in Sweden, the evidence from the empirical study was not
sufficient to confirm the statement. In France, some interviewees observed that there was relatively little difference between the organisation and practice of the école maternelle and the élémentaire among different parts of the country because of the centralised governance.
7.3.2. Politics
Politics was recognized as influencing government positions and policies on early childhood and primary education, which in turn affected the relationship between them; but there were no clear-cut tendencies. The 1989 education law, which introduced the Cycles d’apprentissages – which triggered accelerated schoolification tendencies – was introduced by a left-wing government. Between 1995 and 2012, when the Right was in power, there was heightened concern for efficiency of the école maternelle and élémentaire, readying children for school as the central function of the école maternelle was emphasised, and the 2008 curriculum for the école maternelle with its designation of a curricular objective ‘becoming a student’ - of which quite a few interviewees were critical – was adopted. Then, the 2013 education law, adopted after the left-wing government came into power, supported education policies that stressed the importance of well-being and that put a halt on schoolification.
In Sweden, the 1996 reform founded on the vision of preschool influencing the first years of school was undertaken when the left-wing government was in power. The interviews suggested that after the right-wing government came to power in Sweden in 2006, the government started adopting a school readiness discourse vis-à-vis the preschool, emphasising literacy and mathematics in ECE. One interviewee observed that left-wing political parties clearly opposed testing in preschool whereas right-wing political parties supported it. However, another interviewee pointed out that the neoliberal policy of promoting private schools began when the left-wing government was in power in the 1980s and not by the Rright-wing government. Therefore, while the French and Swedish cases suggested similar party orientation concerning schoolification across the countries, i.e. the Right promoting it and the Left opposing it, there was no consistent overall party orientation in relation to neoliberal policies, such as the policies of increasing efficiency and promoting private schools.
7.3.3 Growing social pressure on children
Parental and societal pressure on children was most often mentioned as a force that encouraged a schoolifying relationship in the French interviews; this claim was absent from
the Swedish interviews. Swedish interviewees mostly took the view that people do not like to think of preschool as a preparation for school, but rather as preparation for life, centred on what is good for children. It could also be understood that the Swedish tradition of viewing childhood and preschool as a ‘golden age’ of free play and development (Lenz Taguchi and Munkhammar, 2003: 26-7) is still alive in Swedish society today, shielding young children from the kind of educational pressure that exists in the French école maternelle. However, fear was voiced by some of the Swedish interviewees of the future possibility of preschool being subject to increased expectations to produce results due to the growing pressure on children coming from, for example, the results of PISA studies.
7.3.4. Social inequality and school failure
Unlike in Sweden, concern for social inequality and school failure constitute a major influence on the relationship in the French context. Its prominence was visible in both the policy documents consulted and the interviews. In France, this concern has been translated into the drive toward reinforcing the mission of the école maternelle as preparation for primary school, emphasising the acquisition of the 3Rs (i.e. reading, writing, arithmetic), and strengthening the school identity of the école maternelle. Problems of inequality and failure are particularly pronounced among poor, immigrant children in France. However, there is a possibility that this concern might become more important for the Swedish preschool. Given their influential role in the Swedish education policy discussions, the findings of the PISA studies pointing to the growing educational inequality as a key national trend may contribute to a heightened attention to the relationship between preschool and its effects on reducing educational inequalities. Also, as Swedish society expands its share of immigrant populations, this could possibly drive a tendency toward the emphasis on 3Rs and a stronger school identity for the preschool.
7.3.5. Efficiency
Concern for efficiency of the école maternelle was a driving force in the schoolification tendency in France, as stated in policy documents and commented on in interviews. This may partly have to do with the fact that the government is facing a budget crisis and that the école maternelle has also become a target of demonstrating its efficiency over cost, given that it is provided free of charge for all children from the age of three. Sweden in contrast has a decentralized education system, which already responds to efficiency requirements to some extent. The fact that the French école maternelle responded to the efficiency requirement by trying to maximize ‘time for (academic) learning’ (e.g. minimizing the time spent with parents
in the morning) reflects a particular conception of learning more familiar to the école élémentaire, and therefore the strong school-like character of the école maternelle.
7.3.6. Knowledge nation and competitiveness
The goal to build a knowledge nation and to make Sweden competitive in the global market was one major influence on the relationship, identified through the analysis of policy documents as well as in interviewees. It was the underlying motive of the reform to integrate preschool within education, the separation of initial teacher education that aimed to increase the specialization of different teachers, and even the revision of the preschool curriculum which clarified school subject related goals. The Swedish Ministry of Education – as well as other stakeholders including the media – reacted strongly to the country’s declining PISA results, as it was understood as a sign of losing competitiveness in the global economy, which is measured by the performance of the country’s human resources.
The concern for becoming a knowledge nation was hardly referred to in the French policy documents or by the interviewees, although the parental and societal pressure for being successful learners and future adults, described above, could be interpreted to embody the drive for being competitive in the global economy. The effects of PISA – which has ranked France constantly as a middle-level performing country, and has constantly highlighted the failure to address social and educational inequalities through education – have been relatively marginal. With regard to ECE, the French école maternelle received a critical review from an OECD team, mainly for its strong academic approach centred on teachers, but there was no particular reaction on the part of the French government. The extent to which the countries are influenced by external advice may be cultural: France has an inward-looking tendency and is resistant to outside influence; while Sweden is more open to external influence and keen on taking on new things from outside.
7.3.7. Tradition of early childhood education
The strong tradition of the Swedish preschool, backed by a dynamic research community, emerged as yet another major influence on the relationship in Sweden. Its roots in social welfare, and its strong adherence to holistic pedagogy combining care, upbringing and learning remain important today, keeping the relationship in balance between preschool and school. These are reinforced by the presence of a strong pool of expertise and a research
community in preschool education, benefiting from government support to nurture highly qualified preschool teachers.
This situation is different with France, which does not have a comparable pool of expertise nor a research community in the field. The French interviews revealed that research on the école maternelle was not encouraged, because it was not considered an important area, and that there was little interaction or cross-fertilisation between the world of practice and research on the école maternelle. The status of the école maternelle as a ‘poor cousin’ or an ‘adjunct’ to the école élémentaire can be detected also in the sphere of expertise and research community.