Early Childhood Education and Solidarity Education: A Black Box

Abstract

Great hopes are placed in early childhood education that it contribute decisively to equal opportunities for all children. The implicit assumption is that participation plays a significant role and that solidary action results from it. Although the coronavirus crisis has created the metaphor of solidarity in practice, it remains to be seen whether the discussion of important, previously neglected parameters will be taken into account more in the future: firstly, the fact that children from the middle class usually have better learning conditions and therefore benefit more from early support programmes than children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. Secondly, the currently practised intensive style of education in families and day care centres is almost exclusively focused on the individually unique child and their needs, which is why the education for solidary behaviour has a hard time. Taken together, pre-school childhood threatens to become a key area of the reproduction of educational inequality and also to miss out on guiding children towards solidary behaviour as an important life skill.