Vale John Bennett (1937–2015),international leader in early childhood education and care

John Bennett’s contribution to shaping the early childhood education and care (ECEC) systems across the world was unique. Perhaps best known for his leadership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Thematic Reviews of ECEC policy and provision, John led the design, implementation and completion of 20 individual country-level studies from 1998 to 2004, and the synthesis work on key ECEC policy for consideration that was reported in the Starting Strong publications of 2001 and 2006. His vision of ECEC was broad and deep, and yet his persona was markedly humble. ECEC specialists across the world valued and enjoyed working with John, and he did much to advance and support their work. So many will now miss the capacity to check in with him whenever a big question or a new direction is being canvassed. For me, working with John was a turning point in understanding systems, policy influences and the realities of both respecting diversity and achieving social cohesion.

A major legacy of John Bennett’s work – apart from key policy areas, findings and ideas for the advancement of ECEC – is the range of processes that he refined through his own deeply considered experience and his commitment to provoking system-level improvement. His analytic processes stemmed from formal studies, and achievement with distinction, across literature and philosophy, child psychology, comparative education, social anthropology and the critical social theories movement in France, including the works of Barthes and Foucault. John was also multilingual and a scholar of ancient languages. The history of ideas embedded within these broad studies helps to account for John’s unique analytic contribution to the ECEC field. Others coming forward to study ECEC systems will find wise counsel embedded within his reports and policy reviews. For those concerned with inequality and poverty, access to services, disenfranchised groups, the quality of ECEC provision for children under three years, and participatory approaches to care, well-being and education, John Bennett’s articles and reports are a landmark. His work reveals the complex nature of ECEC provision, its functioning, and the power of people to develop better opportunities for the very young.

John Bennett also had the capacity to put people at ease, a disposition to listen, and respect for the knowledge and experience of practitioners, families, leaders and academics. Within this relational context, he rigorously pursued information about the nature of provision for children and families. Understanding and giving voice to contrasting or competing ideas and approaches, and a potent probing of system design for its capacity to ensure the dignity and rights of citizens, especially those disenfranchised by powerful dominant cultures within nations, was John Bennett’s work. Two conditions – demonstrating the relational skills necessary to listen and have people speak openly about conditions and practices, and implementing rigorous critical review and triangulation processes – characterised John’s approach. Many governments – not least in Australia – have adjusted the scope and administration of their ECEC programs and services in light of John Bennett’s work in the OECD. The Australian Early Childhood National Quality Framework, launched in 2009 to guide ECEC provision, exemplifies evolutionary systems-change processes that address findings from the Starting Strong reports.

Prior to his leadership of the OECD’s Thematic Reviews, John Bennett served as Director of the Early Childhood and Family Unit at UNESCO from 1989 to 1997, where he engaged in policy fieldwork with international early childhood organisations, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Committee for the International Year of the Family. Few ECEC leaders span this breadth of ECEC activity. He championed the placement of children’s rights on the political, economic, social and educational agendas, promoted achievements – however small – wherever they were found, and provoked in a way that sought to avoid short sensational stories or reactions of ‘Who’s to blame?’ or ‘Who pays?’, and rather to contribute to collaborative analysis and consensus-building. John Bennett’s quiet wisdom and wit, and his humility, camouflaged the power and influence he had across the ECEC world. In 2015, ECEC has lost a leader and the world a fine human being.