IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v97y2023ics0738059322001730.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Low-fee private preschools as the symbol of imagined ‘modernity’? – Parental perspectives on early childhood care and education (ECCE) in an urban informal settlement in Zambia

Author

Listed:
  • Okitsu, Taeko
  • Edwards, D. Brent
  • Mwanza, Peggy
  • Miller, Scott

Abstract

This paper explores (1) the public and private options available at the ECCE level, (2) parents’ expectation for ECCE, and (3) preferred and actual choice of preschools in an urban informal settlement in Zambia. The findings reveal strong demand for ECCE among the urban poor. This demand overwhelms low-fee private (LFP) preschool options due both to an insufficient number of public preschools as well as parents’ relative preference for the LFP options. Typically, LFP preschools offer highly academic oriented curriculum with English as a medium of instruction, divergent from the government’s play-based and mother-tongue based curriculum. By adopting critical cultural political economy approach as an analytical framework, we found that urban poor parents increasingly view investing in LFP preschools as an important household strategy to ‘transform’ their children into ‘modern’ citizens, eventually exiting from their stigmatized lifestyle and marginalized social status.

Suggested Citation

  • Okitsu, Taeko & Edwards, D. Brent & Mwanza, Peggy & Miller, Scott, 2023. "Low-fee private preschools as the symbol of imagined ‘modernity’? – Parental perspectives on early childhood care and education (ECCE) in an urban informal settlement in Zambia," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:97:y:2023:i:c:s0738059322001730
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2022.102723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059322001730
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2022.102723?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bob Jessop, 2001. "Institutional Re(turns) and the Strategic – Relational Approach," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 33(7), pages 1213-1235, July.
    2. Heckman, James J. & Moon, Seong Hyeok & Pinto, Rodrigo & Savelyev, Peter A. & Yavitz, Adam, 2010. "The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 114-128, February.
    3. World Bank, 2003. "World Development Report 2003," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5985.
    4. Joshi, Priyadarshani, 2019. "The growth, roles and needs of the private education system: Private stakeholder perspectives from Nepal," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 57-67.
    5. World Bank, 2003. "World Development Report 2004," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5986.
    6. Nishimura, Mikiko & Yamano, Takashi, 2013. "Emerging Private Education in Africa: Determinants of School Choice in Rural Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 266-275.
    7. Stern, Jonathan M.B. & Smith, Thomas M., 2016. "Private secondary schools in Indonesia: What is driving the demand?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Singh, Abhijeet, 2015. "Private school effects in urban and rural India: Panel estimates at primary and secondary school ages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 16-32.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hu, Yujie & Sherlock, Phillip & Huang, Jing & Knopf, Herman T. & Hall, Jaclyn M., 2024. "Unveiling spatial mismatch in childcare supply and demand: An excess commuting analysis of home-to-childcare distance in subsidized families," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hiroyuki Yamada & Yasuyuki Sawada & Xubei Luo, 2013. "Why is Absenteeism Low among Public Health Workers in Lao PDR?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 125-133, January.
    2. Carmen Diana Deere & Rosa Luz Durán & Merrilee Mardon & Tom Masterson, 2004. "Female Land Rights and Rural Household Incomes in Brazil, Paraguay and Peru," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2004-08, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    3. Landes, Rip & Gulati, Ashok, 2003. "Policy Reform and Farm Sector Adjustment in India," Policy Reform and Adjustment Workshop, October 23-25, 2003, Imperial College London, Wye Campus 15735, International Agricultural Policy Reform and Adjustment Project (IAPRAP).
    4. Kis-Katos, Krisztina & Sjahrir, Bambang Suharnoko, 2017. "The impact of fiscal and political decentralization on local public investment in Indonesia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 344-365.
    5. Dereje Alemayehu, 2022. "Challenges to The Assumption That Economic Success Could Enhance State Legitimacy in Africa, Ten Years Later," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 65(2), pages 161-177, December.
    6. T. Paul Schultz, 2006. "Does the Liberalization of Trade Advance Gender Equality in Schooling and Health?," Working Papers 935, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    7. Robert J. Brent, 2014. "Cost–Benefit Analysis and Health Care Evaluations, Second Edition," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14892.
    8. Bushara, Mohammed O. A. & Abdelmahmod, Murtada Kh. A., 2016. "Efficiency of selected camel markets in Sudan: A multivariate approach (1995-2011)," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246910, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    9. Soham Sahoo, 2017. "Intra-Household Gender Disparity in School Choice: Evidence from Private Schooling in India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(10), pages 1714-1730, October.
    10. Herschel I. Grossman & Minseong Kim, 2003. "Educational Policy: Egalitarian or Elitist?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 225-246, November.
    11. Sanjaya Acharya, 2004. "Measuring and Analyzing Poverty," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 1(2), pages 195-215, December.
    12. Alan Gilbert, 2007. "Water for All: How To Combine Public Management with Commercial Practice for the Benefit of the Poor?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(8), pages 1559-1579, July.
    13. Marco Grasso & Enzo Di Giulio, 2003. "Mapping sustainable development in a capability perspective," HEW 0309001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Rainer Schweickert & Rainer Thiele & Manfred Wiebelt, 2005. "Macroeconomic and Distributional Effects of Devaluation in a Dollarized Economy: A CGE Analysis for Bolivia," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 120, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Hezri, Adnan A. & Dovers, Stephen R., 2006. "Sustainability indicators, policy and governance: Issues for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 86-99, November.
    16. International Food Policy Research Institute, 2015. "Global Nutrition Report: Actions and Accountability to Accelerate the World’s Progress on Nutrition," Working Papers id:7417, eSocialSciences.
    17. Barrett, Christopher B. & Swallow, Brent M., 2006. "Fractal poverty traps," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-15, January.
    18. Makoka, Donald & Kaluwa, Ben & Kambewa, Patrick, 2007. "The Demand for Private Health Insurance in Malawi," MPRA Paper 4974, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Lant Pritchett & Michael Woolcock & Matt Andrews, 2013. "Looking Like a State: Techniques of Persistent Failure in State Capability for Implementation," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Lakhwinder Singh, 2006. "Innovations, High-Tech Trade and Industrial Development: Theory, Evidence and Policy," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-27, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:97:y:2023:i:c:s0738059322001730. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.