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Testing the Vision: Preschool Settings as Places for Meeting, Bonding and Bridging
Author(s) -
Thorpe Karen,
Staton Sally,
Morgan Robert,
Danby Susan,
Tayler Collette
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00336.x
Subject(s) - social connectedness , social capital , bridging (networking) , early childhood , early childhood education , publishing , quality (philosophy) , medical education , psychology , sociology , pedagogy , developmental psychology , social science , medicine , political science , social psychology , computer network , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , law
The OECD (2006 Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care. OECD Publishing: Paris) envisions early childhood education and care settings as meeting places for diverse social groups; places that build social capital. This vision was assessed in a comparison of three preschools types: full‐fee paying, subsidised‐fee and publicly funded. The social composition within each was examined and the connectedness of the children (n = 472) who attended compared. Publicly funded preschools had more socially diverse populations. The quantity of social connectedness did not differ but children in publicly funded preschools described higher quality social relationships. Not all preschool settings are socially diverse but, where they are, the quality of relationships is highest.