Abstract Early childhood education and care is expected to serve social inclusion and equality, but segregation counteracts this aim. While private provision is believed to foster inequalities, so far little is known about the consequences and effects of the pluralistic provider structures in Germany regarding possible segregation effects. Some studies indicate that parent initiatives are particularly homogeneous in their ethnic composition. Considering the complexities of segregation processes, the aim of our study is to analyse the impact of being a parent initiative on the settings’ ethnic composition–measured by the share of children with a non-German language of origin–based on a sample of day-care centres identified through families in nationally representative household data. The study is part of the project “Segregation und Trägerschaft. Eine quantitativ-qualitative Studie zur Untersuchung von sozialer und ethnischer Entmischung in Kitas” (Segregation and Day-Care Providers: a Quantitative–Qualitative Study Investigating Social and Ethnic Segregation in Day-Care Centers) and draws on data from the Early Childhood Education and Care Quality Study in the Socio-Economic Panel. We use multivariate regression analyses to better understand the specific aspects of parent initiatives that might impact the share of children with a non-German language of origin in the day-care centres ( N = 572). Even after controlling for other influencing variables, being a parent initiative accounts for a lower share by 8%-points (β = -8.30; p < .001). Additionally, it is especially aspects in the organizations own sphere of action–selective place allocation processes, the amount of parental involvement, a specific pedagogical orientation, and a lack of specifically trained staff–that is related to their ethnic composition. As preschool composition impacts children’s competence development, our findings point to the need to discuss system governance in relation to educational inequality and providers’ responsibilities to create equal opportunities and divers learning contexts for all children.
Hogrebe et al. (Mon,) studied this question.