Support for daycare centers and childminders
Caring for children in daycare centers and childminders during a pandemic - a research project develops guidelines for professionals.
Since November 2020, researchers from the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Dresden and the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz have been investigating the needs and conditions of child care in Saxony during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a collaborative project. Based on their findings, they are developing a set of guidelines for educational work in pandemic situations for childcare centers in Saxony. Professor Andrea Eckhardt from the Faculty of Social Sciences is leading the project at HSZG.
"The pandemic poses a particular challenge for families. This makes it all the more important to support parents and their children. Our project examines how we can successfully fulfill our responsibilities in education, upbringing, and care. We want to demonstrate how good educational work can be achieved under pandemic conditions,” explains Andrea Eckhardt, professor of childhood education.
”Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conditions for child care facilities are constantly changing. The transition from normal operations—with special hygiene measures in place—to limited regular operations and ultimately to closure has restricted parents’ right to child care. As a result, these facilities can only fulfill their educational and childcare mandate to a limited extent. They face the challenge of maintaining high-quality educational practices even under pandemic conditions. After all, it is essential to uphold not only parents’ right to childcare but also children’s right to good education and upbringing.
Therefore, the project team is examining how daily life in child care centers has changed, what effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on educational work, and what practical solutions have been found. To this end, the processes in Saxon daycare centers are being analyzed and discussed with educational staff in expert workshops. This approach has a major advantage: “Our students in childhood education are actively involved in the workshops and in the exchange with practitioners, ” says Andrea Eckhardt.
Through this project, the researchers aim to contribute to the assessment of the pandemic and its consequences for educational work in childcare centers.
The project will run until the end of June 2021. It is funded by the Saxon State Ministry of Culture and the Municipal Social Association under the Saxon State Ministry of Culture’s guidelines for ensuring and further developing quality in childcare centers and in family daycare.
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