Tackling educational inequality with leading experts in early childhood development
On 14 November, Places to Grow hosted a conference under its name that brought together early childhood development (ECD) experts to share research on early childhood development and what policymakers can do to stop educational imbalances and inequality. I went there to speak to the head of PAQ Research, Daniel Prokop; Professor of the National Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioural Research at the University of Stavanger, Thomas Moser; and Senior Director for Strategic Engagements and Organizational Learning at Harvard University, James Cairns.
What are the key components of an effective preschool program, especially for disadvantaged children?
Daniel Prokop: “It has to start early, not when the child is five years old, but preferably when the kids are like three years old and so on because we know that the programs which take two or more years are more effective.
“Second, you have to reach out and increase attendance among kids who are disadvantaged, because you cannot take it for granted that they will just go there. You have to reach out, suggest it, lower the cost, don't charge for the lunches, and help them with the transport because the costs of these programs are a much bigger obstacle for poorer families than for middle-class families.
“Third, quality matters, as well as the quality of the education within the preschool, but also the quality of reaching out to families. The more effective programs work with the families; they discuss how the kids are coping at home, and the successes of the kids; they also teach the parents how to educate the kids; they are changing the environment at home; they are helping them to solve some problems at home; they are solving some dilemmas which they don't know how to solve at home. [That’s not to give the parents] the responsibilities; instead, the programs help them be able to do the things at home to set, for example, some regular regime which is necessary when you go to school and so on.
“So all these things, when you combine them, create an effective program. But what we saw from the researchers from abroad – and I think it is the case in Czechia as well – it's not that effective if you give a kid a good preschool education with all these things which I talked about and then put him in a segregated school – to an environment where there are no aspirations and other kids didn't go to preschool and so on. We know from the research that the effects diminish if you contradict it with other things in the future.”
The Czech Republic spends a lot less than the EU average. What would a recommendation for spending be for a policymaker? What is the good model, another EU country that spends an appropriate amount or is it not translatable just because of the population differences in different people groups?
Prokop: “Even the average European country spends much more than us, such as the Scandinavian ones. Let's say from post-communist countries, Estonia focuses on preschool education. And that's one of the reasons why they have much lower education inequality. The kids from poorer backgrounds in Estonia cope much better at school than in the Czech Republic. So, for example, Estonia or other countries.”
And then what about the differences between sexes: There is research that points to arguments for boys attending later than women. Have you looked at that as well? Is that something with regard to preschool that's too early?
Prokop: “No, not so much. Maybe Thomas or James can tell you about the gender differences among kids if it's good to start at the same age. I don't know any evidence that would show that there is a huge difference between boys and girls in terms of the effects. But maybe you know some.”
Thomas Moser: “I don't know directly about this question. But I know that the outcome [in preschool programs] for boys is often better. And this may depend on the developmental progress of the girls. So the girls have a higher functional level of language and social skills. This may be some kind of a compensatory effect for the boys – especially the boys – the boys who have the lowest skills in language and so on. But not in general.”
Prokop: “The thing we know from the Czech Republic – I don't know if it's the same in the other countries in Europe – when you take the PISA results, the boys who have the same math skills and reading literacy have usually significantly worse grades at school. This is because in Czech schools, at least, children are rewarded also for some other things than literacy. You are rewarded for social behavior and so on. So that's kind of like also an environment where the boys are disadvantaged. I don’t want to imply that the preschools should help with that. But maybe the expectations of the teachers can also be adjusted. And some experiences from the schools from our age can help them. But I don't know.
James Cairns: “I think there are definitely differences. I don't have expertise in the literature specifically, but there are definitely differences. They vary in different contexts. And I think for some of the reasons that you're mentioning. But I don't think there's not one answer to that.”
Well, because I don't know if you're familiar with Richard Reeves' work in, I believe it was, Of Boys and Men, but he was touching on arguments for enrolling boys later into, I think specifically primary education.
Cairns: “And I think there's a growing body of research that there might be slight gender differences in terms of pace of brain development. But how much of that is biology versus environment versus some of the social, that's hard to tease out. And so I think there is some broad sense that we have designed schools in a way that isn't benefiting [boys]. There are biological differences here. But I think making too stark an assessment there is probably not helpful.”
Moser: “I think there's also a very high impact factor on expectations. We have this saying in Norway, ‘That's a real boy.’ And the ‘real boy’ means that he can't behave in the same way as the girls. And I think that perhaps also the preschool teachers meet the children with gendered expectations. They do expect that the boys are a little bit behind the girls and that the girls are a little bit better in their behavior. And I think this interaction may even increase small differences in the developmental trajectories as social and environmental phenomena.”
Cairns: “And talk about mentors and how many of the teachers and staff in early childhood programming settings are men? Very few. So all of these things, I think, are dynamics within the kind of just social and gender, both the biology that is different, but also, I think, a lot of the social and environmental dynamics around what we expect, how we get treated, what we project, that's very much shaped in our cultures.”
Well, there is obviously a concern with men now that they're really falling behind women in various disciplines, especially also attendance of post-secondary education and that kind of thing. So is that also showing up in your research that you're doing on very early development? But [this new developmental divergence between the sexes] isn’t an issue at that point yet, you're saying?
Prokop: “Well, I think in the Czech Republic you have this absurd gender inequality, where the boys are disadvantaged by the structure of education. Because the vocational schools, which are usually the worst quality, are mostly focused on men's jobs. Boys go to vocational schools. With the same grades, a girl would go to gymnasium. The boys go with the same levels on PISA results and they go to vocational schools.
“So, that shapes the education trajectories in the worst way for boys. Then the girls go much more often to universities in the Czech Republic. But then you add the lack of preschools in the Czech Republic and other obstacles at work. So, the women spend like four, or six years at home and you lose all this intellectual potential to labor market obstacles. You create poverty for single households; you create one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Europe. So, it's absurd that you are disadvantaging boys in education and then you are also disadvantaging women who have better chances in education.”
Moser: “We had a white paper, a governmental commission who should look at the disadvantaged boys in the educational run, which is thirteen years plus five, six years early childhood education. And they had very different conclusions. But it is the same in our country as you’re saying that there are highly prestigious studies like law, medicine, and maybe veterinary.
“At the same time, only girls qualify by their grades at the end of gymnasium to go into this stuff. Not only. But a lot. 90% of all applicants for veterinary or psychology are girls. And then you look maybe 10 years later and all the leading positions are men. Not all, but there are more men than there would be if there was a direct association between how they did in education and what they achieve later. So there are some absurd, at least bizarre relations. And maybe motherhood and getting children is one of the factors, or surely it is one of the factors, which stops the disadvantages of females.”
Last question because I don't want to take up your coffee break. But I want to talk about the economic argument. Because it seems that that is probably the leading argument for doing a lot of this preschool development. That it shows that people do better, etc. So how persuasive is that to policymakers? When you present that argument?
Prokop: “I will start in the Czech Republic. I was kind of short of time [in my presentation] and I didn't explain it very well. But, at times, it works. I think it works when the person already believes it in the core. It doesn't change your mind. I think it helps you when you already have some kind of openness about these things.
“The problem in the Czech Republic is that, as we have 6200 municipalities – and they are responsible for the pre-schools and for elementary schools – you are arguing that you should have higher costs because of the economic benefits of somebody else, of the whole society, the whole state, and so on.”
Moser: “In 20 years.” [laughter]
Prokop: “In 20 years. So, they can’t even believe it. But they see, okay I will invest here.”
Cairns: “The election is next year.”
Prokop: “The election is next year. But also the economic effects are not in the small municipalities. So it creates this, I would say, moral difficulty, that you are talking to people who have the costs and don't have the benefits sometimes. And it's the same if we are arguing against segregated schools.
“So you can explain to them how they will go to low-risk high schools. There will be unemployment. Lower taxes and so on. But there is a political cost within the municipality, which is very small, and the economic benefits in the whole country after 20 years. Which makes this argument weaker than you would think.”
So in China, or countries that don't have democracies that rely on these election cycles and short-term governments, do you see these programs appearing there?
Cairns: “Not necessarily. No. In almost every society, all of the things it takes to actually have high quality are not seen as prestigious. It's not seen as what we need to do today. There are pressures. Even in those societies. The pressures are on employment, infrastructure, things that we have to take care of today.”
“We just had [an election] in the United States, it was all about inflation. What are the prices of groceries today? These questions are driving [the day-to-day politics]. I mean, China right now has a huge challenge around housing investments, not to mention their banking system. A lot of these things are factors regardless [of the form of government].”
Moser: “But I can say something about China. Because I'm also a guest professor in Graz in Austria, and they have been in China because they do professional development and some comparable qualitative research. And of course, this is not representative, but what they told me and showed me with videos, was mind-blowing. Highly educated teachers in early childhood education, at least an undergraduate, often a master’s degree, both in private and public institutions. And an enormous prioritizing of early childhood education. I do not have numbers or could say this is representative, but it looked like there is some understanding. And I do not have the background, but what they get allowed to film and to talk with people.”
Cairns: “I take that back then. Listen to him.” [points at Moser]
Moser: “Whether it's representative or not, I can't say.”
It's a very big country.
Cairns: “Yeah, again you might see this socioeconomic separation if it's privatized, who has access to it and those kinds of things as well.”
Moser: “Yes. But the pedagogy I saw in these videos was interesting.”
