Changing parenting norms in Denmark and Singapore?

Dil Bach, Aarhus University and The Danish Centre for Research in Early Childhood Education and Care, Roskilde University

• 2005-2008: Fieldwork among wealthy Danish families (incl. visits to kindergartens and schools).

• 2013: Fieldwork in families and preschools in Singapore.

• 2016: Fieldwork in a kindergarten in a wealthy neighbourhood in Denmark. Interviews with the parents.

Theoretical inspiration

Working women in Denmark Denmark has the highest rate

of working mothers with young children(approximately 80%) of all European Community countries.

One of the means to achieve

the high percentage of women on the labor-market was the enormous expansions of preschools during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Educational contentRather than subject-

oriented learning or academic school preparation, the educational content focuses on children’s play – often free play – and children’s development of social and emotional competences.

• Christoffer (8 years) is so good at playing... He is good at playing with things. He has all sorts of setups with things made of small wooden blocks. He is so creative... (If he gets frustrated by the computer, I’ll tell him not to use it for the next week, and he just starts playing with his toys. And he is really, really good at it.) If he has friends over, they will be playing too. And when their parents come to pick them up, they’ll be, like: ‘God, you haven’t played on the computer at all,’ because their children are really, like, computer-children.

• (Int. with Chris’ mum 2006)

Looking east.New norms?

We must focus more on parents’ active commitment to their children’s learning... It might be to say that one should be reading for 20 minutes each day with one’s child (Antorini 2012).

We can learn a lot from Singapore (Antorini 2014)

• For parents, it’s not about getting their children to be clever enough to beat the Chinese in PISA tests. The holistic development of children is more important (Hagensen 2014)

• The question is whether we want a situation like in Singapore where parents compete by buying private tuition for their children, so they can get ahead (Kryger 2014)

Out here, there are a lot of parents who have very high ambitions on their children’s behalves regarding learning abilities and how fast it should go. My wife and I are more like; we believe that a sense of security will ensure the optimal development of children … At the last parent-teacher meeting, some parents were asking whether the kindergarten is doing anything to prepare the children for school - something with numbers or letters, or some reading. And then the day-care manager simply said: 'We have received strict orders from the municipality that our task is to prepare the children for school by making them feel secure. We should not get involved in the academic stuff. That will start in primary school.’ And then some parents said: ‘No, at least the last six months before they start school, there must be something you can do.’ We do not belong to that category (of parents). (Christian 2016)

• But I also think, because we have family in southern Europe, that they learn a lot at that age, 5-6 years; that they are indeed receptive to learning a whole lot. There we sometimes feel that our kids are a little behind … It is hard to find out, as a parent, how much pre-school stuff is actually being put into their heads at the kindergarten … I think they are receptive to more than is typically the case when it's just free play ...(Laura 2016)

• C: They are very ambitious in their very early schooling. I also think they are too ambitious. But I really think that there were many good things there …They had a completely different school-like teaching. Every day they were sitting in a classroom, where they had a teacher, who would teach them to sit nicely and raise their hand and such things. I do not think they are doing that here.

• N: Would you prefer more of that here?• C: I think it is a good preparation ...• D: Do you think there's enough of that here?• C: For me, I wouldn’t mind, if there was more. (Charlotte

2016)

Singapore• Please let your children have

their childhoods!... Education experts, child development specialists, they warn against over teaching pre-school children. You do harm, you turn the kid off, you make his life miserable … No homework is not a bad thing. It is good for young children to play and to learn through play. So please... I read of parents who send their kindergarten age children to tuition, please do not do that

• ‘No, my child is going to have a happy childhood.’ And now he is in school, and he has [extra] Chinese class. I can’t say, ‘Well just continue to be happy,’ because he’s going to fall behind.

• In the end, it’s still the same and in the end it puts affluent children at an advantage academically. Off course they have a miserable childhood, but academically they are advantaged … Those children whose parents are educated enough to be worried about them academically, these are the ones who have a chance of becoming lawyers and doctors and have a great life.

• If I didn’t do that now, like pushing him and scolding him and being very fierce with him …, then I would have failed as a mother.

• She is a very good mother, because she sacrificed a lot of herself to push her children

SINDA//MOE

• All parents want PSLE-results. But the school is more than that. Find out other results, more holistic. We need to change the mindset of parents (MOE representative 2013).

SINDA Tutorials for Enhanced Performance – STEP