Embedded Internationalisation and Privilege in German Early Years Provision

This chapter explores how processes of marketisation and internationalisation interact in centre-based childcare provision in Germany, with the potential of sometimes perpetuating, but at other times also disrupting, processes of inequality and segregation. Adapting understandings of elite education and internationalisation from higher education research, we develop the notion of ‘embedded internationalisation’, that is, internationalisation efforts as embedded into centres’ broader strategic aims, provision and contexts. Two case studies from a larger qualitative research project are used to illustrate that there is no definite relationship between increasing internationalisation and trends of segregation or exclusivity—internationalisation efforts can sometimes even disrupt such trends. We conclude that when researching the possible effects of the nascent bottom-up process of internationalisation found within the German centre-based childcare sector, particular attention needs to be paid to the practical, professional and socio-geographic context of the respective setting.