Quality and Early Childhood Education and Care: A Policy Initiative for the 21st Century

Abstract

The expectation of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is that higher quality inputs will produce higher quality outcomes for children. There are many ways that outcomes may be expressed and measured, though current procedures emphasize threshold quality. However, threshold quality is essentially an entry-level concept — once the entry requirements are met, quality is assumed to have been attained and subsequently sustained. A more sophisticated, comprehensive procedure is needed. For more than a decade ECEC policy in Australia has been generally weak, fragmented and dominated by matters related to quantity (market issues) rather than quality (pedagogical issues), despite the rhetoric. What should be measured to identify quality in ECEC settings? What should a quality directed ECEC policy emphasize? This paper addresses significant issues in determining and measuring quality for a comprehensive ECEC policy and the links to a rating system in Australia.

Educator identities. Emerging issues within personal and professional identities: changes experienced by Australian pre-service teachers following professional exposure to educational practice within childcare settings

“…The Standard is based on international research, as noted in The Guide to the National Quality Standard and is designed to 'give services and families a better understanding of a quality service ' (ACECQA, 2013). The seven Standards comprise elements of both process and structural interpretations of quality, as suggested in empirical research (Ishimine, Tayler, & Bennett, 2010;Ramey & Ramey, 2006;Tayler, 2009). Learning Framework: Belonging, Being and Becoming (DEEWR, 2009) which forms one part of the National Quality Framework provides an outline for educators working with children aged birth to age 5 and through the transition to school.…”

Children’s negative experiences as a part of quality evaluation in early childhood education and care

“…The general purpose of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is to provide a good-quality early childhood education that supports children's growth, development, and learning (Finlex, 2018). However, defining and monitoring quality in ECEC is challenging and complex due to cultural differences (Ishimine, Tayler, & Bennett, 2015), different ECEC settings (OECD, 2015), and different emphases on what is understood as valuable in ECEC over time (Vlasov et al, 2018). Quality, therefore, should be seen as 'a relative concept based on values and beliefs, and defining quality should be a dynamic, continuous and democratic process' (European Commission Network on Childcare … , 1996).…”

“…Structural factors consist of countable measures such as characteristics of the curriculum, qualifications of the ECEP, health and safety aspects of the physical ECEC environment, and teacher-child ratios. Legislation supports the provision of structural quality (Ishimine et al, 2015;OECD, 2006). Process factors, in turn, refer to interactional situations between peers, children, and the ECEP, as well as collaboration between families and the ECEP.…”

“…Process factors define the activities and experiences that children have in ECEC. Monitoring and evaluating process factors is more challenging compared to evaluating structural factors that have standards (Ishimine et al, 2015;OECD, 2006). Evaluation of the quality of interactional factors in ECEC is essential, though, since interaction has direct implications for children's development (Pianta et al, 2016).…”

Teacher Talk: "I wonder..." Request Designs

“…Epstein, 2007;Ishimine, Tayler, & Bennett, 2010;Mashburn et al, 2008;Siraj-Blatchford, 2009b The overall aim of the study is to investigate teachers' interactions with children to extend understandings of teacher-child interaction using a detailed interactional analysis. The study is underpinned by the broad research question:…”