Dr. Kaspar Burger is lecturer and researcher in education and developmental psychology at the University Institute Kurt Bösch in Sion, Switzerland.

Contents 5
I Executive summary 10
II Introduction 14
1 Early childhood care and education today 14
2 Equality of opportunity in view of social inequalities: what early childhood care and education strives for 16
2.1 Social inequalities 16
2.2 Equality of opportunity 16
2.3 Early childhood care and education as a means to combat inequalities 17
3 Research in early childhood care and education: disciplines and methods 18
3.1 Scientific disciplines 18
3.2 Research methods 19
4 Terminology 26
4.1 Use of terms in international research 26
4.2 Use of terms in Switzerland 26
5 Early childhood care and education: a unified concept 27
6 Ideological divide between childcare and education for young children 29
7 Use of extra-familial early childhood care and education 31
7.1 Rates of use in Switzerland 31
7.2 Rates of use in OECD countries 32
7.3 Determinants of the use of early childhood care and education 32
8 Why early childhood care and education has evolved in economically developed countries 33
8.1 Development of female labor force participation 34
8.2 Immigration and fertility rates 34
8.3 Gender equality 36
8.4 Child poverty and social disparities 38
9 Characteristics of effective early childhood care and education programs 39
9.1 Program duration 39
9.2 Program intensity 41
10 Regulation of early childhood care and education 43
11 The role of the family in early childhood care and education 43
III New contributions to early childhood care and education research 45
How does early childhood care and education affect cognitive development? An international review of the effects of early interventions for children from different social backgrounds5 47
1 Research objectives 49
2 Effects of socio-economic status on the development of children 50
3 Early education and care and equality of opportunity 51
4 Related analyses and main focus of the present analysis 51
5 Systematic review 52
6 Empirical evidence 68
7 Conclusion 97
Do effects of center-based care and education on vocabularyand mathematical skills vary with children’s socioculturalbackground? Disparities in the use of and effects of earlychildhood services6 102
1 Introduction 102
2 Previous research 104
3 Nursery provision in Switzerland 107
4 Objectives of the study and its contribution to research 108
5 Research questions 109
6 Method 110
7 Results 115
8 Discussion 125
A social history of ideas pertaining to childcare in France and inthe United States13 131
1 A brief comparison of France and the U.S. today 132
2 The beginnings of institutional childcare 133
3 Initial reception of institutional childcare 136
4 The evolution of institutional childcare 137
5 Institutional childcare prior to the Great Depression 142
6 Institutional childcare during the Depression and World War II 143
7 Institutional childcare after World War II 144
8 Conclusions 147
Begehren, Sprache und Bildung: Pädagogische Reflexionenüber «Die gerettete Zunge» von Elias Canetti14 152
1 Autobiographie als Bildungsbiographie 153
2 Methodische Vorüberlegungen zum Verhältnis von (autobiographischer) Literaturund Pädagogik 155
3 ›Die gerettete Zunge‹ als Untersuchungsgegenstand pädagogischer Forschung 156
4 Zum erziehungswissenschaftlichen Diskurs über Bildung 158
5 Sprache und Bildung 159
6 Sprache und Bildung bei Canetti 161
7 Canettis Bildungsprozess als Annäherung an das Fremde und das Begehren nachSprache 162
8 Das Begehren 166
9 Die prägende Funktion des sozialen Rahmens 167
10 Literatur und Sprache 170
11 Abschliessende Betrachtung 173
IV Synopsis 175
1 Equal opportunities in the light of social disparities: a persistent challenge for early childhood care and education 176
2 How early childhood care and education can influence children’s skills 178
3 Implications of the present research for practice 180
3.1 What type of early childhood care and education should we implement? 181
3.2 For whom should we implement early childhood care and education? 182
3.3 Should early childhood care and education be regulated? 182
3.4 Why should practitioners be sensitive to social and cultural context characteristics? 183
3.5 What should parents know? 184
4 Prospects for future research 185
4.1 Ensuring multiple methodical approaches and disciplines in early childhood research 185
4.2 Avoiding ethnocentric description of children: technological challenges 186
4.3 Challenges in comparative-historical research 187
4.4 Equality of opportunity: Defining the scope of responsibilities of early childhood institutions 189
4.5 Generalizability of findings from research on literary accounts 190
5 Concluding remarks 191
Acknowledgements 194
References 196