Even before going to school education is central to children’s lives (OECD, 2018). In Germany, this can be concluded from the expansion of institutions of early childhood education and care (German education report, 2020). However, as educational inequalities are still prevalent (Kuger & Peter, 2019), educational plans may be seen as a chance to compensate for educational inequalities (German education report, 2020) in the way that educationally relevant skills are promoted (German ministries of youth & culture, 2004). Here, advancing social-emotional skills (SES) becomes especially important (NICHD, 2001, Sylva et al., 2011) as children’s deviant behavior increases in German ECEC (Klipker et al., 2018). This in mind, the aim of my paper is to show how educational plans in German kindergarten interrelate with educational inequalities in early childhood focusing on children’s SES. To do so I plan to present parts of my qualitative multi-level analysis (Hummrich & Kramer, 2018) focusing on expert interviews with kindergarten providers in rural and urban areas, and, additionally, interviews or field talks with parents and educators in socio-culturally contrastive kindergartens as well as observations of formalized meetings of the same parents and educators in the same kindergartens focusing on children’s SES before and after their transition to formal schooling. The interviews with kindergarten providers I conducted so far show that while the promotion of SES is seen as central to future educational success, it often remains unclear how heterogeneity is to be dealt with (Meyer, 2017), so that, for example, “unequal” children are treated “equally” (Nienhaus, 2021).

To get a comprehensive understanding of how educational inequalities in early childhood start to (re-)produce or reduce I work on three studies on different social levels based on qualitative multi-level analysis (Hummrich & Kramer, 2018). In the first study, which is at the stage of analysis, I conducted expert interviews with representatives of ECEC providers in rural and urban areas (regional level). The interview transcripts are analyzed qualitatively with regard to their specific content on the basis of categories (category-based content analysis, Dresing & Pehl, 2018) to get to know the providers’ views on education aims and SES in early childhood based on their specific tasks in ECEC. In the second study, which I am now preparing, I plan to do formal and/or ad hoc interviews with parents and educators in socio-culturally contrastive ECEC institutions (milieu level). Here educators’ tasks as well as parents’ and educators’ views on education aims and SES of socio-culturally contrastive preschool children shall be in focus. In the third study, which may run parallel to the second study, I plan to do participant observation during formalized meetings between the interviewed educators and parents on their children’s SES in ECEC institutions twice before the children’s transition to primary school (interaction level). If drawn upon during the meetings, I additionally plan to consider documents such as educational plan forms (Karila & Alasuutari, 2012) or testing documents (Kelle & Schweda, 2014) on this level. The interview transcripts and/or field notes of both the second and third study shall also be analyzed via category-based content analysis (Dresing & Pehl, 2018) to get to know how parents and educators understand and deal with education aims. My further aim here is to group differences, e.g. arguing for or against education plans, along empirically grounded typologies (Kluge, 1999).

Preliminary results of expert interviews with ECEC providers (first study mentioned above) show distinctive discrepancies: While the promotion of SES is seen as central to future educational success, it often remains unclear how heterogeneity is to be dealt with (Meyer, 2017), so that, for example, “unequal” children are treated “equally” (Nienhaus, 2021). This way, certain children’s frequently conspicuous behavior shall (supposedly) be reduced. Having in mind that researching educational inequalities in ECEC needs a focus on different levels, I aim to conclude my paper with an overview of possible inter-level linkages, i.e. ECEC practices on milieu level (see above) regarding children’s SES with understandings of children’s SES and its promotion on regional level (see above) behind the background of educational inequalities. For example, educators being fond of the education plan for Lower Saxony might try their best to foster preschool children’s SES, work on their relationship with parents, try to advance their qualifications and communication with their colleagues (Plewig, 2008; Scheithauer et al., 2019; Nix et al., 2013). Doing so they might focus on differences in gender, culture and disability (see above), addressed in the education plan for Lower Saxony (Schmude & Pioch, 2014). This way educators might be primed to see differences between, e.g. migrant and non-migrant children, leading to a clash in expectations, e.g. during formalized parent-educator meetings, when educators recommend to migrant parents to wait another year before enrolling their children at school, because they see problems in the children’s SES (Bader et al., 2019). This way, the educational plan for Lower Saxony might indirectly hinder migrant children with migration background developing their full potential.

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