Insights from the Playgroup Movement: Equality and Autonomy in a Voluntary Organisation by Ann Henderson (Editor).
The past histories of early childhood services are often written up in a way that make for good bed time reading if you want to go to sleep quickly.
This book on the British playgroup movement is something different and to be treasured.
It’s not boring, it’s not just a collection of facts and recollections and it’s not a book that can be easily forgotten once read.
As the reader turns each page a message unfolds that if we are to make any real progress today for children and the society we live in we really need to be open to learning about and taking lessons from the experiences and values of the past.
The Pre-school Playgroups Association which founded the playgroup movement survived in its original form for 30 years and then it changed and became the Pre-school Learning Alliance in 1995. In “Insights from the Playgroup Movement” we are taken back in time to discover the principles upon which the playgroup movement was founded and how it operated in the days when the organisation was one of volunteers as opposed to being one that uses volunteers.
Those were the days when decisions about educational provision could be made with the child in mind, and not on adult needs, government votes or economic imperatives.
Lots of people contributed to the book and the writing was done by a team of writers most of whom had been involved in a playgroup in their personal lives or had professional associations with it. Each writer took a different issue or aspect of the movement to produce the book which is strongly coherent due probably in no small part to the skill of Editor Ann Henderson. The writers include Mary Bruce, Linnet McMahon, Sue Griffin, Meg Burford, Sheila Shinman, Charlotte Williamson, Jill Faux, along with Dame Gillian Pugh who contributed the Forward.
There are many ideas, tips and arguments to reflect on in the book – too many to mention here. But among these are thoughts that are very topical issues in today’s context of early childhood education provision about:
- Who manages and management style. The members themselves were the people with the information, the power and the opportunity to make happen what they wanted. There was no hierarchy. There were no bosses. And the principle of ‘moving on’ ensured that no one held too much power for too long and gave new playgroup parents opportunities for learning and satisfaction that earlier playgroup parents experienced.
- Locking children out or involving them in the world of adult work. The parents ran the playgroups with their children alongside them. Children were given knowledge of adults’ work which has become rare today as parents drop off their children at the start of the day and come back from work later in the day.
- Creating community support. Playgroups can be a means of re-creating a community for families and children to be part of and to belong to, and for parents and children community and not isolation is important for health and happiness.
- What makes for school success? Parents who develop responsibility for their child’s education and realise they have an essential role to play in it have children who are more likely to do well at school and beyond. Early childhood education intervention is only effective in the long-term in as much as it leads to children going back to better parents and better home-life and this is something that the playgroup model seemed to achieve very successfully.
- Courses for learning or qualifications for credentials. Today’s focus in early childhood education is on professionalism and qualification. In the early playgroup movement days the focus was on what the course members’ needed to learn about it. Course content and teaching was arranged so as to build on course members’ experience and knowledge rather than about judging abilities and progress.
“Insights from the Playgroup Movement” is a book that will be of particular interest to people who are involved in adult learning, early childhood education, community development, social development and early childhood policy advice and planning.
ISBN 978-1-85856-503
Published in 2011 by Trentham Books
Email: [email protected]
