ABSTRACT
In this chapter I will discuss two of the major studies funded within the Nursery Research Programme in the 1970s, both frequently cited on reference lists (BERA 2003 for example). This is a modified version of Chapter 7 of Children Under Five: educational research and evidence (Clark 1988). One research within the programme was the major study funded by SSRC and directed by Jerome Bruner under the title Oxford Preschool Research Project, which ran from 1975 to 1978. Within that project there were a number of researches: observational and interactional studies in preschool units (nursery schools and classes and playgroups); studies in day nurseries; also studies of childminders and parents and preschool. The findings were reported in six books; the first by Bruner entitled Under Five in Britain (Bruner 1980) gives an overview and summary of the project. That and two of the other publications will be referred to in this chapter, namely Childwatching at Playgroup and Nursery School (Sylva, Roy and Painter 1980) and Working with Under Fives (Wood, McMahon and Cranstoun 1980). A number of later studies by Sylva and others have utilized the observation schedules developed within the project; these have also been used within playgroups and elsewhere for training staff in observational techniques. In a review of the project at the time of these publications I expressed concern at a number of aspects, including some of the statements made by Bruner in his overview which, after consulting the relevant research reports, I felt went beyond or were not borne out by the data. The other research that I will discuss was directed by Corinne and John Hutt
at Keele University, funded by the DES, and ran from 1975 to 1979. The report of the research submitted to DES in 1984 under the title A Natural History of the Preschool (Hutt et al. 1984) was a parallel study to that in the homes of young children reported here in Chapter 3. Play, Exploration and Learning, based on the research, did not appear until some years after the completion of the project (Hutt et al. 1989). While these and the other studies funded within the programme were
underway, there were already threats of cuts to preschool education, rather
than the major expansion for which they had been planned. This had implications both for the willingness of preschool units to continue their cooperation in the projects and for the reaction of readers to any criticisms of preschool settings contained in the research reports. Only recently has there been a major longitudinal study in UK in which the effectiveness of preschool education has been evaluated and an assessment made as to whether some preschool centres are more effective than others in promoting the development of young children. The final report of this research, which was funded by DfES from 1997 to 2003, extended to 2004, appeared as I completed this book. At the end of this chapter I will give a brief outline of the EPPE research.
