Defining Quality Child Care: Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives

Harrist, Amanda W.; Thompson, Stacy D.; Norris, Deborah

doi:10.1080/10409280701283106

Cited by 33 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Importantly, where the perspectives of these stakeholders have been explored in an openended and qualitative way (for example, Singer & Miltenburg, 1994;Wiltz & Klein, 2001;Harrist et al, 2007), notions of what constitutes quality have included, but extended beyond, those elements investigated in empirical research and described in the introduction of this article. Moreover, studies such as these also show that different stakeholders hold common and different views about what they consider contributes to a quality ECEC setting.…”

Section: Quality Can Be Understood Through the Perspectives Of Researmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research

Fenech

2011

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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This article critically analyses how empirical research investigating quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the period 1980-2008 has conceptualised 'quality'. Applying Foucault's notion of 'critique' to 338 peer-reviewed journal articles uncovered six interconnected truths: quality is an objective reality; quality enhances children's optimal development; quality is the domain of science/psychology; quality can be known from researchers' perspectives; quality can be understood using an ecological framework that is limited to child, familial and childcare variables; and quality ECEC is more pertinent to preschoolers than babies and infants. The article problematises these prevailing truths, arguing that the dominance of positivist discourse in ECEC research has limited how quality ECEC can be thought and talked about. An addressing of the blind spots this article identifies has the potential to lead to more developed and nuanced understandings of quality ECEC.

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Section: Quality Can Be Understood Through the Perspectives Of Researmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research

Fenech

2011

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

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“…The authors emphasized that childcare providers seemed to place a higher value on the "professional" aspects of care, such as the availability (i.e., being patient, available, competent, attentive) and organization (i.e., a safe and healthy environment and caregiver sensitiveness to child's physical well-being), while mothers placed a higher value on relational aspects of care, such as warmth (i.e., caregiver responsiveness and joyful, positive interactions). Similarly, in USA, Harrist et al (2007) examined several stakeholder groups' perspectives on childcare quality, including parents and caregivers. Parents tended to be more child-focused and highlighted child outcomes as a way of assessing quality, while teachers tended to focus more than parents on caregiver practices, highlighting the importance of interactions and the implementation of appropriate curricula.…”

Section: Parents' and Teachers' Perceptions Of Ece Quality Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality in Portuguese childcare classrooms

Barros

Leal²

2014

Eur J Psychol Educ

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The main goal of this study was to examine parents' and teachers' perceptions of quality in early childhood education for toddlers in Portugal. A total of 110 parents and 110 teachers participated in the study, rating the importance of specific quality criteria and assessing childcare classrooms, based on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale Parent Questionnaire (ITERS-RPQ) and on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale Teacher Questionnaire (ITERS-RTQ), respectively. The same quality items were used by external observers to evaluate the same classrooms with the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS-R; . Results suggest that parents and teachers give high importance scores to the quality criteria included in the ITERS-R, substantiating the use of this instrument in Portugal. Although correlations were found between observers' and parents' ratings of quality, and between observers' and teachers' ratings of quality, results suggest that teachers and parents consider education and care in toddler classrooms to be substantially more adequate than the researchers observed. KeywordsChildcare quality. Early childhood education . Parents' perceptions. Teachers' perceptions.Portugal Research has been showing the importance of quality of early childhood education (ECE) for children's short-term and long-term outcomes (e.g., Vandell et al. 2010). In Portugal, in the last decades, a public investment has been made in order to increase the coverage rate of childcare services for infants and toddlers, dependent on the Ministry of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security, and the coverage rate of preschools (children between 3 and 6 years old), dependent on the Ministry of Education (Abreu-Lima et al. 2013;Pinto et al. 2013). However, research projects on ECE services for infants and toddlers, and initiatives to improve their quality, are still necessary (Barros and Aguiar 2010). Furthermore, quality of ECE has been considered a relative concept (e.g., Dahlberg et al. 1999), differing from country to country and depending on individual and/or group priorities, expectations, values, beliefs, social perceptions, and culture (e.g., Dahlberg et al. 1999; European Commission Childcare Network 1990). In this context, Bairrão (1998) highlighted that quality is related to objective criteria (associated with physical, material, and social well-being) but also related to subjective aspects, such as representations people have about quality. Therefore, parents' and teachers' perceptions should be considered in research and policies, as they often differ from official priorities and objectives. Fifteen years ago, Katz (1998) argued that the concept of quality should be considered from several perspectives: (a) top-down perspective on quality, (b) bottom-up perspective, (c) outside-inside perspective, (d) inside perspective, and (e) outside perspective. The top-down approach is more prevalent in research, consisting in identifying features of the program related to licensing guidelines and including aspects s...

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“…Providers are the exception, with the consistency of a child's single care-giver spanning five years or more, and often living in the same neighbourhood and school district as her clients. Participants' documentation of longterm relations of trust is a quality supported by research that included family child care: Harrist, Thompson, and Norris (2007) found that six themes defined quality across stakeholders, including communication and rapport. Trust between families, the provider, the community and eventually the school system, therefore, is predicated upon the provider's longstanding relations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home, school partnerships in family child care: providers’ relationships within their communities

Freeman

2011

Early Child Development and Care

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Defining Quality Child Care: Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives

Cited by 33 publications

References 30 publications

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research

An Analysis of the Conceptualisation of ‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Education and Care Empirical Research: Promoting ‘Blind Spots' as Foci for Future Research

Parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality in Portuguese childcare classrooms

Home, school partnerships in family child care: providers’ relationships within their communities

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