Standardisation and diversification–policy tools to govern early childhood education and care

Abstract

Policy tools have become widespread in education, which indicates efforts to standardise content and professional practices. However, such standardisation might be in contrast to Nordic early childhood education and care (ECEC) traditions of diversity and local variation. We therefore study the distributors and enactment of policy tools in ECEC in light of content regulations and calls for evidence-based practices in ECEC through comparative case studies of 14 Norwegian centres. We identify the tools that are used in ECEC centres and analyse how they are enacted by staff. The material consists of documents from ECEC centres and semi-structured interviews with heads and staff. By employing a theoretical framework based on discursive institutionalism, we find that efforts are being made to standardise didactical practices. The tools are distributed by a range of actors, but our analysis reveals that staff shape and develop tools through coordinative discourses.