Incommensurable tensions facing early childhood education transitions: A collective writing project

Abstract

This collective writing article addresses transitions into, between and out of early childhood education and care (ECEC) from the standpoint of incommensurability, which entails a lack of a common measure between diverging standards, values and priorities between competing instances involved into a shared matter (Bird, 2000; Chang, 2013). We explore incommensurable tensions as non-reconcilable issues that arise between stakeholders, educational systems, socio-political landscapes and participating communities involved in transitions. The paper underscores four incommensurable tensions: First, policy into practice, discussing agenda conflicts between policy, funding and pedagogical orientations against the private life of under-three children transitioning into ECEC and the burdens of families and educators; second, equality versus equity in transitions, applying the tensional relation between these concepts to children’s sense of belonging and resources in transition; third, in whose best interest, contesting the ‘best interests of the child’ discourse over economic needs of families, educational institutions, and societies; and fourth, orienting age, exploring age as an orienting factor of institutional transition trajectories which produce age progression (de)valuation. Finally, the subsection Infant’s transition to ECEC: Incommensurable tensions in need to be overcome, written as a commentary to the main text by an invited collaborator, concludes the text.