Policy/Curriculum 

The dissertation begins with a critical analysis of the historical and political context as regards ECD that was inherited by the ANC government of 1994. It moves on from there to examine the various plans, policies and legislation shaping ECD service provision between 1994 and the introduction of the National Integrated Plan for ECD in South Africa in 2005. The National Integrated Plan is then subjected to an in-depth critical examination. This examination finds that the Plan is profoundly flawed in a range of core ways and also that it is overly influenced by neo-liberal and child developmental psychology discourses that originated in the Minority Western world. The dissertation concludes with a detailed exploration of the impact which the legislative and policy framework has had on ECD provisioning in the Western Cape province. Amongst other things, this revealed most worryingly that the constitutional rights - social, economic and cultural - of children, and in particular of the poorest and most vulnerable children, are not being met. 

Thesis (MSocSc)--University of Cape Town, 2012