Abstract
Early childhood education has been an important political matter and an urgent issue since its beginning. There are three power dynamics involved in the history of early childhood education, especially in the history of the kindergarten system. This paper discusses the powers that influenced early childhood education from the beginning.
Firstly, there was the politics of the nation-state. The founder of the kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, was acutely aware of Germanyʼs national school system. In the early 19th century, Germany was weakened by division into several countries. Many intellectuals such as Fichte and Froebel wanted to be German and desired a nation-state. Froebel thought the kindergarten was the base of the education system of the German nation-state. In the beginning, kindergartens became widespread in Germany, but were closed by prohibitions on the kindergarten in the middle of the 19th century because conservative governments viewed the liberal idea of the kindergarten as dangerous.
The kindergarten movement became a transnational movement through the new media of the 19th century, especially the Great Exhibitions and World Fairs. Exhibitions included the kindergarten and the ʻgifts,ʼ which were the toys invented by Froebel. The movement was supported by the modern consuming society.
Secondly, politics was the politics of class. At the beginning, the kindergarten system was a private system, and the ʻgiftsʼ were a product in trade. Thus, children of rich parents were able to attend kindergartens. Froebel targeted upper and middle class families for the success of his project. His project was relatively more accessible by the upper class, but his idea of education was open to all classes. The early childhood education system therefore contained an element of the dual system inherent in modern public education.
Thirdly, politics was the politics of gender. The kindergarten was supported by a large number of women. According to Froebel, the kindergarten was different from the school. The model of the educator in the kindergarten was not the teacher butthe mother. That idea supported women who had to earn their own bread. Thus, the kindergarten became a world of women, and shut men out. The kindergarten system was divided into kindergarten for the upper class and for the lower class, and therefore hierarchies of educators were also created.
Gender politics created a workplace and a special educational role for women, but the particular womenʼs society of the kindergarten was divided from the teacherʼs society in schools and is viewed as having a lower status in modern society.
