A Curriculum of Free Play? A Multi-sited Analysis of the History of a National Curriculum in Danish Early Childhood Education

  • Maja Plum
    Universidad de Copenhage

Abstract

In 2004 the first national curriculum was passed in the area of early childhood education (ECE) in Denmark. Opponents to the curriculum have argued that it introduces school-like thinking in the area of ECE, making it oriented towards particular goals. On the contrary, proponents argue that the curriculum embraces the natural child and should be seen as a continuation of a child centered tradition. As such, much of the discussion seems to reflect an interest in the intentions of the actors behind the curriculum and whether the philosophy of these actors is in accordance with a child centered philosophy of the past. A philosophy often seen as stemming from Friedrich Fröbel’s vision of a Kindergarten in the early 19th century and more broadly drawing on the ideas of a natural child formulated by Rousseau in the 18th century.With an ambition to historicize the present, I will argue that this first national curriculum scaffolds ways of thinking that crosses traditional philosophical dichotomies between inner (nature) and outer (goal). The historical question therefore is not whether this curriculum is in accordance with a tradition embracing the natural child, but how thinking about child nature – and the ways in which it is to be redeemed – is articulated in the work of Fröbel and his Danish followers Hedvig Bagger and Anna Wulff. Moreover, the paper addresses how this notion of nature is transformed in and through the developmental psychologies of the early 20th century and the sociological theories of childhood blooming in the late 20th and early 21st century. This implies that I do not focus on philosophy as a philosophy – as if coherent and possible to essentialize. Rather than looking into the intentions or meaning of the past great thinkers of kindergarten, I will dwell on the very ways of thinking the relation between knowledge and governing which is exposed in and through the work of such thinkers, but which is also at work in fields distinct from education, such as public administration and management. Thus, unraveling the history of this first national curriculum implies multiple different sites.
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(Traducción al español de Domingo Barroso, Universidad de Granada)
Plum, M. (2022). A Curriculum of Free Play? A Multi-sited Analysis of the History of a National Curriculum in Danish Early Childhood Education. Historia De La Educación, 40(1), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.14201/hedu202140121138

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