Research study

The Working in Early Care and Education in North Carolina workforce study provides comprehensive data on teachers, assistant teachers and directors in early care and education centers and on the licensed early care and education programs in which they work.

Data is provided from statewide surveys of the workforce from September 2012 through February 2013.

Other workforce studies can be found via the website listed below.

Early Childhood Care and Education in Five Asian Countries seeks to consolidate early childhood developments in Asia as a basis for The Head Foundations further research and advocacy in this area.

A general overview of the ECCE landscape in the Asia-Pacific region is introduced by this resource. Country profiles are included as a way to share data on individual countries. These country profiles are presented through five aspects:

1. Programme structure,
2. Teacher qualification
3. Demographics
4. Funding and governance structure,
5. Public-private share

These profiles also provide a look at current concerns and recent developments in the countries. Common threads between these profiles are also addressed.

Innovative approaches to continuous professional development (CPD) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Europe: Findings from a comparative review explores innovation as an aspect of in-service continuous professional development in ECEC.

A literature review and cross-country analysis conducted in ten European countries uncovered the fact that innovation in CPD was understood a way to improve quality. This finding shows how CPD encompasses processes such as critical thinking, reflexivity and co-creation within and across ECEC systems. This resource highlights insights identified as crucial aspects of CPD in terms of innovation including:

• Critical reflection;
• Communities of practice; and
• A growing focus on politics that address social inequality through ECEC

The analysis is a contribution to research on innovative CDP in ECEC at the micro, meso and macro levels. The authors suggest more research into in-depth and identified approaches to innovation related to CDP and their impact on the quality development in European ECEC. 

The 2018 Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study focuses on the importance of quality, and how to strengthen it in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Extensive research demonstrates that the benefits of ECEC for children are increased when the service provider and educators are highly skilled and participate in professional development (PD), and the service is of high quality. Upskilling the workforce, including in-service professional development, is considered to be a key to improving quality, and can produce substantial and practical improvements for staff and children alike.

Building on the existing body of international research, the findings of the Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study, address the need for quality improvement in ECEC by showing how a particular form of evidence-based in-service PD can produce substantial and practically meaningful improvements in both staff practices and child outcomes.

The FEEL study was conducted by the research team from Early Start, University of Wollongong, on behalf on the NSW Department of Education.

You may also find the The Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) Study's Literature Review below. The Literature Review highlights the importance of quality teaching practice in early childhood education and outlining the key elements of the best practice professional development used in the Study.

Early Childhood Workforce Index 2018 is the second edition of the biennial Early Childhood Workforce Index from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. This edition continues to track the status of the early childhood education workforce and related state policies in order to understand changes over time. Several new analyses, as well as updated policy indicators and recommendations, have been added. 

The chapters in this resource take a look at those working in the early childhood workforce, their economic security and the policies that impact them.

This report presents ‘good practice case studies’ of exemplary approaches to innovative in-service Professional Development (PD) of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners in three countries: Denmark, Italy and Poland.

The report reviews the use of new technologies, peer learning, reflective practice and organizational learning, within the field of Early Childhood Education in Europe. This document presents the case study design, results and interpretations of findings from each of the three case studies The case studies in this report aim to explore new effective approaches to professional development focused on enhancing education and improving workforce training strategies for ECEC practitioners.

In debates about child care and early education, the voices of providers are often missing. Voices of child care providers: an exploratory study on the impact of policy changes document findings from a study on child care provider perspectives on how regulation and policy changes impact their work.

Researchers used interviews and focus groups with home-based providers and center-based administrators in New York, United States counties. Several themes emerged, including:

• the undervaluation of child care providers;
• challenges faced by providers and the parents of the children they serve;
• regulatory disconnect; and
• discretionary implementation of laws and regulations.

Findings from the study suggest that, excluding input from providers when creating policy, may have unforeseen and even harmful results.

Quality through Professionalisation: Local Evaluation of the Tallaght National Early Years Access Initiative is a report on the evaluation of the Quality through Professionalisation programme, one of 11 projects under the National Early Years Access Initiative. This three-year initiative aimed to improve the quality and outcomes of services in the early years sector. At the national level, the initiative focused on the establishment of an evidence base contributing to improvements in practice and influencing policy changes. At the local level, the initiative focused on building the delivery capacity of local projects.

Five preschools were invited to participate in the local evaluation of the Tallaght NEYAI; all five preschools were based in Tallaght in South County Dublin. The evaluation approach focused on the following broad areas of investigation:

1. Conducting a profile analysis of the preschools involved in the programme
2. Conducting an investigation of the impact of the Tallaght NEYAI on the early years educators
3. Assessing the quality of provision within 4 of the participating services post-training delivery
4. Conducting a process evaluation investigating the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance of the training programme

Key findings include information about preschool characteristics, quality within preschools, the impact of training on educators, and trainers' and staff experiences of the initiative.

The complexities of societies impact the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector as a whole – including the professionals working within it. Changes in societies challenge the workforce to grow and evolve. The research study, Longitudinal Study of Changes in Teachers’ Views of Early Childhood Education in the USA, Russia, and Finland, takes a look at the changes in teachers’ views of the needs of children in the aforementioned countries.Researchers documented teachers’ views about the needs of children, their professional work, and center-based child care between 1991 and 2011. Data was collected from teachers in child care centers through focus group discussions. Results suggest vast changes on both the micro and macro levels of ECE.

Social Status and Professional Development of Early Childhood and Preschool Teacher Profession: Sociological and Pedagogical Theoretical Frame takes a look at the relationship between the concepts of social status and professional development in the early childhood and preschool teacher workforce,. The paper aims to determine early childhood and preschool teachers attitudes about the position and the relevance of their profession in their society. It further aims to explore whether or not their is a connection between such attitudes and these professionals' attitudes about professional development.