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1 - A political–pedagogical landscape

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2013

Marilyn Fleer  and
Mariane Hedegaard
Marilyn Fleer
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Summary

Society and its institutions are not stable, unchanging structures. Emerging economic, political and cultural changes modify the ways people act and interact, and these changes also may have significant influences on human cultural development. However, the influence of changing societal structures on human activity and development is not a deterministic process. It depends on how these changes are perceived and how people cope with them. The recent transition of the global society into a knowledge economy is changing people's interactions, including their expectations, and the demands that are made on people.

(van Oers, 2009: 213)

INTRODUCTION

Over the past 10 years there has been unprecedented research interest in early childhood education around the globe. Longstanding and recent economic arguments (e.g., Heckman & Masterov, 2007; McCain & Mustard, 1999, 2002) have caught the eye of policy and departmental administrators in many countries. Economic arguments have centred on the rates of return in relation to investment in education. Age has become an important criterion in the investment analysis, with early education, particularly for the disadvantaged (usually defined as a low socioeconomic community), yielding the best economic returns for a society (see Heckman & Masterov, 2007).

Type
Chapter
Information
Early Learning and Development
Cultural-historical Concepts in Play
 , pp. 3 - 19
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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