Hilde Jarecki, social pedagogy and the transformation of society through early years learning

This chapter focuses on the refugee educator Hilde Jarecki. Born in Germany in 1911, Hilde trained in social pedagogy at the Jugendheim Charlottenberg, before teaching in the Jewish educational sector in Germany. In 1939 she arrived in Britain as a refugee on a domestic permit and worked briefly as a domestic servant before returning to teaching and running hostels for young women refugees in Birmingham and Reading with her companion and fellow teacher, Sophie Friedlӓnder. After further training in child development at the Institute of Education in London, Hilde went on to become the first professional adviser to the Inner London Playgroups Association, 1964-1972. During this period she supported the expansion of parent-led voluntary playgroups in the London area, and developed a professional training course for playgroup workers. Drawing on her personal papers and her book Playgroups: A Practical Approach (1975), the chapter will consider her contribution to early years learning through play. It will analyse her ideas on child development and her arguments in favour of the incorporation of psychologically informed practice in the work and governance of the playgroup. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of her contention that playgroups established as democratic learning communities on her model could make an active contribution to social transformation by ensuring the development of tolerance and promoting peaceful human relations.