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Early Childhood Matters: Evidence from the Effective Pre‐School and Primary Education Project

2010; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00308.x

1099-0860

Naomi Eisenstadt,

Education Systems and Policy

Early Childhood Matters: Evidence from the Effective Pre-School and Primary Education Project By Sylva Kathy, Melhuish Edward, Sammons Pam, Siraj-Blatchford Iram and Taggart Brenda ( eds ) Abingdon : Routledge , 2010 ISBN 9780415482431 , 263 pp, £24.99 (pb ) Anyone who has worked in Britain over the last 10 years in the field of early education and care will, whether they know it or not, have been influenced by the Effective Pre-School and Primary Education (EPPE) project. Indeed, many people currently employed in early years’ services owe the fact of their employment at least in part to the findings from this remarkable research. This book summarises in 12 chapters the EPPE study, the way in which the research was carried out, the key findings from the research, and how those findings influenced policy in the UK and beyond. Firstly, it is important to say, this is a good read. I have been working with evidence from EPPE as a policy-maker for a number of years but have never sat down and read the detailed studies. Hence, it was really interesting to read this explanation of how the team went about the enormous task of actually teasing out whether pre-school matters to children, for which children it matters most, and what aspects of pre-school deliver the best outcomes for children. Each of the chapters is written by one of the original EPPE team members and each has a helpful summary at the end, so for those for whom methodological issues are less interesting than actual findings, it is easy to find the nub of the issue at the end of each chapter. Furthermore, I would urge any social science researcher in any discipline to read the excellent chapter by Brenda Taggart, Making a difference: How research can inform policy. The importance of this chapter is its upfront advice on how to get bureaucrats and politicians to listen and craft policy based on real evidence; and how research findings can be used to improve people’s lives. Taggart identifies four key areas that need to be in place to ensure policy messages get through: timing, sound methodology, clear messages, and responsiveness to changing policy demand. Sadly, my experience is that the first, third and fourth of these areas are critically important. The third, sound methodology, is sometimes not as important as telling policy-makers what they want to hear. The authors of the book are gracious enough to acknowledge that in the case of EPPE, timing was on their side. A New Labour Government already had a manifesto commitment to expanding nursery education and childcare. Nonetheless, as described in Taggart’s chapter, the huge number of areas where policy was strongly influenced by EPPE is truly impressive. My only criticism of the book is that the policy context of childcare and early education pre-Labour in 1997 is somewhat scattered throughout, first in an early chapter by Siraj Blandford, and then in the chapters by Taggart and Sylva. This is probably inevitable in that each part of the story needs some contextual explanation, but I did find it a bit disjointed. The final reason to read this book is the ongoing critical importance to children of the EPPE findings. EPPE did tell us what we wanted to hear: early education is important for all children, has particular benefits for disadvantaged children, and the impact is long lasting. EPPE told us that the home learning environment was the most important factor in child outcomes, but that the home learning environment is only marginally related to social class. It also told us some uncomfortable truths: quality counts and that quality is powerfully related to staff qualifications. This message means if we really want to improve outcomes for children we probably need to pay early years staff more money, and attract better qualified people to work in early years settings. The landscape of early education and care has been transformed in the last 10 years. The research eloquently described in this book played a major role in that transformation, and has lessons for us in the next 10 years as we try to hold on to the gains we made, and indeed, continue to improve.