BIKA - Participation in Everyday Daycare Centre Life

BiKA is a joint research project of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the research and development institute PädQUIS®, affiliated institute of ASH Berlin and co-operation institute of the University of Graz. The study was developed jointly and is being carried out under joint responsibility. It is funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

In recent years, the childcare centre sector, especially crèches, has been greatly expanded in Germany, laying a good foundation for many parents to reconcile family and professorial recruitment. As a next step, the federal and state governments are now jointly focussing on quality.

In the BiKA study, the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, in cooperation with the PädQUIS Institute, is investigating the quality of child daycare with a focus on realising the participation of young children. This puts the spotlight on an important part of process quality demanded by professionals and large provider associations, which has so far received little attention at national level. The study examines how educators in daycare centres manage to take the perspective and needs of the children in their care into account in an appropriate manner and ensure their participation in the life situations that are important to them.

To this end, the ability of the educator to recognise and react to the signals of young children, to accompany them sensitively and supportively, and their competence to shape ritualised key situations in the day-to-day life of the daycare centre in a participatory manner are assessed. In addition to these pedagogical competences of the professionals aimed at participation, the aim is to examine the reaction of children to the participation-oriented interactions of the professionals. Both the participation-oriented skills of the professionals and the corresponding reactions of the children are videotaped in everyday educational situations, with everyday routines such as eating, reading aloud and playing taking centre stage.

You can download the final report here:
Final report BIKA https://www.fh-potsdam.de/media/5834/download?inline
Summary of the final report BIKA https://www.fh-potsdam.de/media/5835/download?inline