Like the other Scandinavian countries, Denmark has traditionally had a holistic approach to ECEC where play has been at the center of activities. Kindergartens are thus not primarily a preparation for formal schooling; they are an inde-pendent service. This is reflected in kindergartens being regulated by social leg-islation instead of school policy and that the educational staff are pedagogues rather than teachers (Kjær et al., 2020). However, following universal coverage in the 1990s, the emphasis changed from expansion of the service to debates about the content (Borchorst, 2000).
Changed policy focus – kindergartens for school readiness At this time, kindergartens also became a more central policy issue, and the central topic was their role as an educational offering and in preparation for school. In the early 2000s, the “PISA shock” to all Nordic countries, except Finland, spurred further debates about how to improve results, and the ECEC
2 See https://www.ft.dk/samling/20201/almdel/buu/spm/208/svar/1768270/2369971.pdf
sector was assigned a more instrumental role in the educational system (Kjær et al., 2020). This lead to the introduction of a curriculum for kindergartens in 2004, and the government established expert commissions regarding how ECEC could be used to improve the school system (Regeringens Skolestartudvalg, 2006).
In 2007, a new law on kindergartens took effect. It represented a leap in the development of prioritizing the educational aspects of kindergartens. ECEC’s integration into the educational system made it clear that school preparedness was a distinct goal. Furthermore, all children are tested in their Danish language skills at the age of three years old in order to enable institutions to intervene in cases where language skills are inadequate. The goals are fourfold (dagtilbud-sloven, 2007): (1) to promote development and learning, (2) to give families flexibility and freedom of choice, (3) to counteract negative social inheritance and exclusion, and (4) to make public services complete and connected.
Observers saw this as a downsizing of the tradition of promoting children’s play, creativity, and fantasy at the expense of a predefined take on children’s interest in harmony with the interest of the larger society (Gulløv, 2012, p. 103).
The state’s steering of the sector increased, reflecting increased political interest in kindergartens and their role in society.
An interesting point is that as a means to expand the flexibility of families, the law extended economic support for childcare within families as an alternative to the use of ECEC, though with an exception for people who have lived in the country for less than seven years (except EU citizens). This exception is telling in terms of the role that kindergartens are assumed to have for integration, learning, and establishing relationships between immigrant children, their fami-lies, and Danish society (Gulløv, 2012).
In 2011, the government commissioned a new task force (Task Force for Frem-tidens Dagtilbud, 2012) to provide advice on the future of Danish ECEC. A central part of their mission was based on the view from the government that
“children who experienced quality early in day care perform better in school and later as adults in the labor market. This is especially true for children from disadvantaged families” (our translation). The task force gave advice leading to new legislation in 2018, which further advanced the expected learning outcomes from ECEC.
Quality regulation and supervision
Danish kindergartens have traditionally had much local freedom in how to develop their service and decisions regarding substantive content. Since the 1990s, the service area has increasingly become a central part of the attention and priorities of national policymakers, with ECEC being recognized as part of the educational system (Dannesboe & Kjær, 2021). This has resulted in the increased national steering of the sector. All kindergartens—municipal, self-owning, and private—must adhere to national regulations. In addition, each municipality develops their own quality standards, which all kindergartens must adhere to.
Traditionally, there was no legislation demanding standards in terms of the number of children per employee or the number of educational supervisors.
Over the last years, the ratio of children per employee has become a salient issue. Since 2010, the trade union Association of Child and Youth Educators (BUPL) has demanded a national minimum standard regarding the number of children per employee. This demand has garnered growing attention, and in 2018, a number of parents organized to demand more employees in the ECEC sector. In December 2020, this demand resulted in an agreement between the social democratic government and the other center–left parties, securing
minimum staffing-related standards, which involve considerable public expendi-ture on more staff.
Municipalities are tasked with the supervision of all kindergartens in their geo-graphical area, including non-public providers. Supervision includes issues such as physical aspects of the building and playing area, staff qualifications, and the substantive content of the service. All aspects must be in adherence with national and municipal guidelines. For municipal and self-owning kindergar-tens, supervision involves all economic aspects, but for private kindergarkindergar-tens, economic aspects are not supervised by municipalities (Dagtilbudsvejledningen, 2015, chapter 8), although this is set to change as the agreement from 2020 is implemented. However, private institutions may not use funds in violation of the law, and if the municipality is informed of such practices, it must stop the transfer of funds to the private institution. The content of the supervision of self-owning institutions is normally agreed upon in the agreement between the insti-tution and the municipality.