From emergency aid to education

From emergency aid to education

The project analyzes how the perception of extra-familial day care for children under the age of three in Germany has changed since the 1970s. Within a few decades nurseries changed from marginal institutions for children from disadvantaged families (“emergency aid facilities”) to an everyday place of early childhood, often regarded as relevant to education. Two research perspectives are combined in order to describe and relate the different processes of change: On the one hand, I observe how public attitudes towards childcare issues changed in the long term; on the other hand, changes in media and educational debates on non-familial childcare are investigated.