Slip on mud pants and rubber boots, straighten caps, close zippers: Outside on the daycare corridor, a dozen toddlers are ready for the excursion into Hamburg's bad weather. Inside, Christin Janschuk is sitting at the laptop.
Instead of being in the sandbox, the childhood educator will spend her day organizing - setting up contracts for parents writing rosters for the next month.
Janschuk is part of the executive team of the Fröbel Kindergarten in Winterstraße in Hamburg and the other in the crèche service. From the perspective of the 24-year-olds an ideal distribution: "I work a lot with children and at the same time have the opportunity to help shape the institution and its pedagogical direction." That's exactly what I decided to do in childhood education and teacher training. "
To strengthen early education, with this claim, almost 15 years ago, the first degree programs for childhood education were launched. Today there are about one hundred of them in Germany.
Strengthen children in their rights
"Not to decide from the top down, but to meet the children on equal terms, to respect their wishes and to strengthen their rights, was central content of my studies," says Janschuk. "I am all the happier to be able to implement this claim now."
Janschuk can do a lot in the winter road. Classic day structures and groups were abolished, for example. The 130 children can now decide for themselves whether they prefer to tinker in the studio or romp in the exercise room. The decision as to whether and when they want to sleep and what they want to eat is largely self-evident.
The content of the degree program is based on social education and educational science - with a decisive difference, explains Petra Strehmel, director of the Competence Center for the Growing of Children at HAW Hamburg. Social educators and educators could also work in youth work or with seniors. "Childhood education places a clear emphasis on the growing up of children, from pedagogical to legal issues."
More about SPIEGEL +
This knowledge is needed. Full employment prevails among the graduates. They run Kindertagestätten or the afternoon area of primary schools, work in the family counseling or youth welfare offices. Research also offers perspectives.
"Our students do not have to worry about employment," says Strehmel. "At the same time, standards for adequate pay and recognition of training and ideas for using knowledge are still lacking in many areas."
The Kita as a transit station
This is especially true for the day care centers. Many childhood educators often start in group service and with a "normal" educator salary of about 2,700 euros gross. Much heavier but weighs: Who is not in leadership positions, usually has no design options. The claim to improve the kindergarten quality can therefore only be met by very few. The result: Many graduates see the Kita only as a transit station. And that, although their expertise is urgently needed here.
Day care centers should now be educational institutions that set the course for later life and learning. "With this claim, a high level of expectation goes hand in hand with the educators," says Tim Rohrmann, Professor of Childhood Education at HAWK Hildesheim. "Today, daycare centers should provide language support, work inclusive and promote childish curiosity."
However, the number of children in the facilities is increasing, while staff is missing. There are vacancies in nine out of ten institutions. In order to occupy those, the educational demands are lowered. Quality assurance looks different.
Training rarely rewarded
The often required multiprofessional teams of childhood educators, therapists and educators with additional qualifications fail because of the general conditions. Ergo or physiotherapists can only hope for full-time employment in curative kindergartens. A study or further education for language promotion or movement pedagogy are welcome with educators, but rarely affect the distribution of tasks and pay slips.
The kindergarten of Christin Janschuk shows that there is another way. Your educational institution, the Fröbel Education and Training gGmbH from Berlin, has adapted to childhood educators and willing educators and created new positions. The management tasks such as personnel planning or quality management are distributed over several shoulders and are additionally remunerated. This also applies to educators with specializations in movement or media education.
more on the subject
This incentive for further education shows at least in the Hamburg winter road successes. In addition to educators and social pedagogic assistants also curative educators and some educators with a bachelor's degree. "From these different perspectives, from the variety we benefit as a facility and of course the children", explains Kita-leader Marco Radsziwill: "We can offer them more development offers, get more impulses for the daily practice."
Do not play off your studies and education against each other
At the same time, he warns against competing with classic educator education and pedagogical programs. Rather, it depends on the mixture. After all, from his point of view, school-based educator education not only has a high standard, but also a clear advantage - the large proportion of practice.
A newly trained educator could start without much training in the group service. For graduates, it often takes more time to work on the child - if only because the usual songs from the morning circle and trendy movement games are rarely part of their lectures. But the childhood educators could fill out development plans while they sleep and have many ideas for new projects.
