Investigated strategies for stakeholder cooperation in Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Zambia. Emphasized collaboration between government, educators, families, and community organizations. Applied an interpretivist-phenomenological design with qualitative methods (interviews, observations, document review). Involved 10 purposively selected participants. Identified key barriers and enablers of stakeholder engagement. Recommended improved communication, stakeholder training, and formal collaboration policies.
Background Child mortality remains a major public health challenge in low- and middle-income countries, with Sub-Saharan Africa carrying a disproportionate share of the global burden. In South Africa, rural and under-resourced areas such as Mount Fletcher in the Eastern Cape continue to record high rates of preventable under-five deaths. The effectiveness of national and provincial health promotion strategies depends heavily on local awareness, acceptance, and participation, yet little is known about how caregivers in rural communities such as Mount Fletcher understand and experience these interventions. Objective To explore the awareness and perceptions of health promotion strategies among caregivers to reduce child mortality in Mount Fletcher, and to identify the barriers and facilitators influencing their uptake. Methods A qualitative descriptive study was conducted among 20 mothers and primary caregivers of children under five years attending Taylor Bequest Clinic in Mount Fletcher, Elundini Local Municipality. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and took part in semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews conducted in isiXhosa or English. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically using ATLAS.ti (version 8), guided by the Health Belief Model. Results Participants demonstrated good awareness of core child-survival interventions, including immunisation, exclusive breastfeeding, nutrition, hygiene, and clinic attendance, and generally held positive attitudes toward health promotion services and healthcare workers. However, participants identified substantial barriers to the uptake of these strategies, including poverty, transport costs and distance to health facilities, long clinic waiting times and staff shortages, and the continued influence of traditional and cultural beliefs on health-seeking behaviour. Conclusion Caregivers in Mount Fletcher are broadly aware of, and hold favourable attitudes toward, child health promotion strategies, but structural, economic, and cultural barriers continue to limit their consistent use. Strengthening community health worker outreach, addressing health system constraints, and engaging traditional and community leaders alongside biomedical health education may help translate existing awareness into more consistent uptake of child mortality reduction interventions in similar rural South African settings.
Lulama Lathitha Faku, Mirabel Kah-Keh Nanjoh, Luviwe Lutotswana et al.
How to cite: Bloch, C & Moodley, T 2026, ‘The indigenisation of early childhood education in South Africa: Finding synergies with Froebelian principles’, in T Moodley, S Stofile & R Govender (eds.), Holistic and inclusive education practices for young learners in South Africa: From early childhood to Foundation Phase, The University of the Western Cape Faculty of Education Book Series, vol. 2, AOSIS Books, Cape Town, pp. 143–161. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2026.BK568.08
Despite its pivotal role in young children's development and learning, early childhood care and education (ECCE) remains undervalued and under-resourced, with its professional status and recognition often ambiguous. In South Africa, ECCE professionals experience dislocation and marginality within a fragmented system, hindering their efforts to achieve professionalism and consistency in recognition and status. This article examines workforce professionalism in South Africa's ECCE sector, analysing the interplay between policy ideologies and teachers’ understandings. A dual lens of democratic professionalism and transformative feminist perspectives was employed to analyse the sector's challenges within a highly unequal socio-economic landscape. The study combined document analysis of the Policy on Minimum Requirements for Programmes Leading to Qualifications in Higher Education for Early Childhood Development Educators (MRQECDE), and data collection through an online questionnaire with a purposive sample of 208 ECCE teachers from 73 ECCE centres in the Ekurhuleni district of Gauteng province. Findings reveal tensions between qualification-centric policies and teachers’ experiences, highlighting how systemic constraints and intersectional disadvantages affect workforce professionalism. Whilst teachers internalised policy ideologies on qualifications, they demonstrate agency by reimagining alternative pathways for their professionalism. This study contributes to global debates on ECCE professionalism, particularly to contexts where predominantly feminised workforce experience similar structural challenges. A more inclusive and context-responsive approach to professionalism is essential – one that adopts an empowerment framework and prioritises the recognition of marginalised voices.
Colwyn Deborah Martin, Hasina Ebrahim, Mary Clasquin-Johnson et al.
The purpose of this study was to establish parents’ perceptions of the involvement of males as early childhood development (ECD) teachers. The research adopted a qualitative approach and used a case study design to allow interaction with the subjects and to draw conclusions based on their diverse perceptions. A sample was drawn from the Khami District population that comprised 10 parents, four administrators, four female teachers and two male teachers. Two sampling techniques, namely convenience and purposive sampling, were used. Convenience sampling allowed the researcher to select a small sample where participants were chosen on the basis of being accessible and convenient. Only parents with children taught by male teachers were purposively sampled. Ethical considerations were observed during data collection by explaining to participants that participation was voluntary, with confidentiality guaranteed. Online questionnaires, telephone interviews and virtual focus group discussions were used to collect data, making it easy to maintain social distancing during the Covid-19 lockdown. The following are some of the major findings of this study: parents have mixed perceptions about the involvement of males as ECD teachers; female teachers and school administrators have more positive perceptions about the involvement of males as ECD teachers because they are viewed as qualified for their job. However, in spite of the positive perceptions established about male teachers, some factors such as gender and societal inclinations still cause parents to have fears about the involvement of males as ECD teachers. The study recommends that more male teachers should be recruited to balance gender representation and more workshops and refresher courses for both parents and teachers should be conducted to develop trust.
Three decades into democracy, the conspicuous prevalence of immoral and unethical behaviour in South African society is indisputable. In 1997, this society was alerted to “a moral timebomb” (RSA, MRM, 2000) and a 2019 review report (DPME, 2019) confirmed the erosion of its social fabric and morality. Over the years, various initiatives and programmes aimed at inspiring or restoring morals, values and ethics emerged. However, these patchy, disconnected attempts have failed to stem the tide of social deterioration. Research indicates that interventions for behaviour and attitude changes are most efficacious in the early childhood phase. Accordingly, a doctoral study (Padayachee, 2022) proposed an early childhood development integral education and Ubuntu approach to foster the values of social responsibility and citizenship in preschoolers. The study included, in the exploratory phase, the category of values education, which is the focus of this paper. Data were gathered through focus group interviews with early childhood development staff, parents and community members in six pre-schools and analysed thematically. The findings on this specific category are presented to validate the argument that the explicit inclusion of values in early childhood development has the potential to build progressively a foundation for a moral and ethical society and possibly impact social transformation in South Africa.
Background: This article examines the development of early childhood development (ECD) home-visiting services in South Africa.Aim: To examine the factors that could support the success of home-visiting programmes as well as to explore the experiences of bachelor’s-level home visitors rendering such services.Setting: This study was conducted in the Eastern Cape, a highly impoverished area of South Africa.Methods: It begins with a discussion of the emergence of home-visiting as a strategy for the delivery of ECD services in South Africa and a review of the literature on ECD home-visiting, particularly with highly vulnerable, impoverished families. Next a focus group conducted with a small sample of home visitors as part of a multi-faceted community assessment is described. The results are examined within the context of challenges facing this particular part of South Africa and the nation as a whole.Results: Four themes emerged as most prominent: (1) encountering the effects of extreme family poverty, (2) identifying high rates and multiple aspects of child maltreatment, (3) encountering scarce resources in high-need areas and (4) finding rewards and maintaining a desire to continue serving challenging populations.Conclusion: This study provides a unique window on the challenges that ECD home visitors are likely to encounter when working with families living in extreme poverty, the resourcefulness that home visitors often demonstrate and the rewards to be found in this work.
A child must be exposed to early learning situations and assisted in developing the skills and ways of functioning to develop, thrive, and be ready for school. It is established that poor school readiness preparation (SRP) negatively impacts subsequent learning outcomes. A qualitative study was conducted in Gugulethu, a poor community in the Western Cape province in South Africa, to determine how Early Childhood Development centres in a poor community prepare children for schooling. The study involved a sample of 12 community-based ECD centres. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with direct role-players, including principals, practitioners, and ECD industry key informants. Data was enriched through direct observation of operations at each facility. The study found that all the community-based ECD centres struggle to provide quality SRP. Contributing factors include limited ECD practitioner training, education resources, infrastructure, and facility management. Because these conditions relate to poverty, they affect the SRP of most children in poorer communities, such as Gugulethu, who tend to only have access to under-resourced ECD centres. The study concludes that, given the appalling performance of South Africa’s basic education system, the government has to accept that improving its learning outcomes begins with vastly improving the SRP of children from birth
New evidence suggests that over four months after the closure of early childhood development (ECD) programmes on 18 March 2020, the ECD sector was likely to be operating at less than a quarter of its pre-lockdown levels. Of the 38 percent of respondents from the new NIDS-CRAM survey reporting that children aged 0-6 in their households had attended ECD programmes before the lockdown in March, only 12 percent indicated that children had returned to these programmes by mid-July, well after programmes were allowed to reopen. Using these findings, we estimate that just 13 percent of children aged 0-6 were attending ECD programmes by mid-July to mid-August compared to 47 percent in 2018. The last time that ECD attendance rates were as low as this was in the early 2000s. At this point it is not yet clear what proportion of these declines are only temporary, or whether there will be a lasting impact on ECD enrolment in the country. This dramatic contraction in the ECD sector relates to prohibitive costs to reopening ‘safely’ imposed by the regulatory environment, coupled with shocks to the demand side for ECD programmes (both in terms of reduced household incomes and parent fears of children contracting COVID-19). When viewed from a broader socio-economic lens, the threat of ECD programme closures across the nation will have impacts beyond ECD operators to the lives of millions of children, millions of households and millions of adults who rely on these ECD services. A swift intervention by government is necessary to save this important sector and limit the ripple effect of programme closures on multiple layers of society.
Background: The professional development (PD) of early childhood teachers is of strategic importance in higher education and the profession given the need to improve responsiveness and progress towards millennium goals. Aim: The purpose was to analyse classroom practices and teachers’ experiences of PD programmes, through the theoretical lens of the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers to construct an authentic data-based model, which can be used to understand PD challenges and guide decisions about the improvement of education quality. Setting: The study was conducted in Gauteng with teachers from a selection of early childhood centres. Methods: A phenomenological inquiry explored the settings and practices of 23 selected teachers in Gauteng province. Interview and observation data were analysed for content categories and grounded theory articulations. Results: The main finding is that teachers facing everyday educational challenges benefit from school-based support and available media but need additional learning to advance their professional aspirations. The grounded theory analyses of the data highlighted that early childhood practices and articulated development needs are best explained as authentic caring. This was conceptualised metaphorically as garden spaces where careful tending, deliberate planning and various elements of nurturing knowledge may harmoniously be blended. The model extends prevailing theories of PD and the flipped ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. Conclusion: The model of authentic caring is a grounded theory articulation based upon beliefs of practising EC teachers. Contribution: The article provides a comprehensive online teacher professional development framework for EC teachers, emphasising authenticity, care and alignment with global educational standards.
