No abstract

Split early childhood education and childcare systems (ECEC) have historically been a common phenomenon, but today many countries are moving towards more coherent approaches to ECEC. Canada, however, has continued to maintain a divided ECEC situation. Reviewing Canada’s ECEC in 2004, the OECD suggested that greater integration of kindergarten and childcare would bring real advantages. In 2007, Ontario, Canada’s largest province, began to develop integrated “full-day early learning” for all four and five year olds. In the initial phase, several key challenges have emerged: first, merging the public kindergarten system with market-driven childcare; second, financing the new program; third, maintaining stability in user-pay childcare as four and five year olds move to the new program; fourth, determining staffing models, bridging differences between kindergarten and childcare staff; and fifth, managing the phase-in. How Ontario meets these challenges will have major implications for the future of ECEC programs across Canada.

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An international perspective on regulated family day care systems despiTe emerging evidence of The contributors to high-quality family day care, a comprehensive comparison of international family day care systems has not been undertaken. The aim of this paper is to compare regulated family day care (FDC)

A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to analyze the representation of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in the 2006 federal election in Canada. Guided by Fairclough's approach to CDA, this study analyzed written documents including newspaper articles from The Globe and Mail and The National Post, the policy platforms of the Liberal and Conservative parties, and political speeches from party leaders. Four textual and discourse processes were found to legitimize the 'choice' discourse and contribute to its dominance: conversationalization, nominalization, use of irrealis statements and recontextualization. It is concluded that a fundamental shift in discourse related to political and media discussion of ECEC policy in Canada is needed if progressive policy changes are to take place.