Manifestations of the ethics of hospitality at children's hospitality centres in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Early childhood education is an institutional introduction of children to the world, making it essential for policymakers, educators and society to find the best way to provide such an introduction. Following a new policy in Saudi Arabia, daycare centres have been renamed ‘hospitality centres’, bringing a set of duties and rights rooted deep in the ethics of hospitality. However, empirical research on nursery provision is generally lacking in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this study examined the experiences of children and caregivers in two children's hospitality centres in the capital city of Riyadh. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field observations, the authors observed and listened to the experiences of educators and children in two of the new hospitality centres. Open and focused coding of the interviews and structured observations helped to identify the way the ethics of hospitality manifested itself in the daily experiences of the caregivers/hosts and the children/guests. The results demonstrated the complexity of the situations in which the ethics of hospitality encountered reality.