PhD in History

To explore the history of childcare provision in the late twentieth century, through the lens of gender and social history, as well as emerging international understandings of infant and child development after 1945. This project will explore the recent historical context of childcare provision, including informal family provision, church, voluntary and co-operative provision as well as formal childcare and early years settings between the 1960s and the 1990s. It will also explore changing attitudes towards childcare, children and working mothers in Northern Ireland, and in doing so uncover the social and structural barriers to childcare provision – within families, communities and the workplace – which may still impact on communities today. It may draw on emerging international understandings of the child after 1945, including from psychoanalysis, psychology and early learning to set the local experience in international context. It may also investigate the extent to which new ideas and models were extended to the north, shaping what has been considered ‘best practice’ over time. Possible methods include oral history/interviews and archival research.