Politicized parental responsibility in Danish early childhood education and care

This article presents a socio-cultural policy study of how expectations of parental responsibility in Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC) are addressed in three municipalities. The study explores how Danish national ECEC policies outline parental responsibility and tasks, and especially how municipalities reinterpret and reconfigure these expectations within their local guidelines and documents. The municipal documents within the ECEC field are analysed as policy material through a socio-cultural lens. Through this lens, the study focuses on how the ‘early learning’ agenda positions the home as a crucial ‘learning environment’, highlighting the growing emphasis on parental involvement in ECEC. The study further investigates how these ideals are communicated and reconfigured locally. The empirical material consists of municipal ECEC policy documents published between 2018 and 2024, introduction of the Strengthened Pedagogical Curriculum. The article argues that municipalities do not merely implement national ECEC policy. By selectively referring to research justifying the need for a `home learning environment´, the municipalities actively reconfigure expectations concerning parental responsibility, for children’s learning. By adopting a cross-scale perspective, the article shows how policy is a social practice shaped by power relations, cultural production, and the negotiation of norms, even when it appears knowledge-based or locally adapted.