Recognition of the profession

There is mounting evidence on the positive link between high quality early childhood development (ECD) personnel and the physical, social, and cognitive development of young children. Despite this growing body of knowledge, the early childhood workforce continues to face challenges such as inadequate training, low remuneration, and a lack of professional recognition. Moreover, a lack of documentation on promising approaches to address these workforce challenges limits opportunities to learn from the implementation experiences of different countries around the world.

To bring light to these challenges, and potential responses to them, the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative (ECWI) has developed 6 country briefs which highlight efforts to support the workforce across different geographies and services.

These country briefs were informed by desk reviews and information collected through key informant interviews (KII) with country experts from implementing NGOs, multilaterals, and research institutions, as well as program managers and government officials across 15 countries. After identifying six promising country approaches to highlight, we conducted further desk research and interviews to inform the country briefs. These interviews were particularly helpful for clarifying the key enablers and barriers to implementation in each country as well as the policy lessons for other countries.

The second of these six briefs comes from Georgia. Training Early Childhood Intervention Workers to Close a Workforce Gap examines the development and implementation of a pre-and in-service training program for the early childhood intervention (ECI) workforce and the creation of accreditation mechanisms for building the capacity of ECI services.

Mihaela Ionescu and Sandipan Paul, International Step by Step Association

2019

Recruiting and retaining skilled staff is a long-standing challenge for the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. OECD countries are increasingly demanding that ECEC staff be highly skilled and highly qualified, but a combination of low wages, a lack of status and public recognition, poor working conditions, and limited opportunities for professional development mean that recruitment and retention are frequently difficult. What can countries do to build a highly qualified and well-trained ECEC workforce? What is the best route to increasing staff skills without exacerbating staff shortages? How can countries boost pay and working conditions in the context of limited resources? Building on past OECD work on early childhood education and care, and drawing on the experience of OECD countries, this report outlines good practice policy measures for improving jobs in ECEC and for constructing a high-quality workforce.

OECD

2019

Understanding the personnel-related opportunities and challenges the early childhood education (ECE) sector faces, as well as how these differ from those encountered in grades K-12, in order to adopt an early learning strategy for the U.S that is capable of improving educational outcomes for young children is of central importance. To that end, this paper begins with the public perception of early childhood teaching, followed by a brief discussion of the history and purpose of education for children of different ages. Next, the paper describes key features of the personnel systems that have emerged from these varied roots, comparing them along several dimensions, and conclude with suggestions for promoting a skilled and stable early care and education workforce for the 21st century.

Marcy Whitebook, Caitlein McLean

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

2014

There is broad consensus that high-quality environments for young children depend on teachers who are skilled at nurturing their development and learning, yet low pay and inadequate working conditions routinely hamper teachers in their efforts to apply their skills and knowledge. Yet, the voices of early educators — those working with children from infancy through preschool — are rarely heard, and public awareness of the challenges facing this workforce remains low. Compared to their K-12 peers, early educators are less organized and vocal about their situation, but a persistent state of teacher crisis casts a pall over efforts to ensure high-quality early care and education for all children prior to kindergarten. This study captures the perspectives of early educators about their working environments in one state, New York, and how these environments impact teaching staff practice and wellbeing. In order to teach to the best of their ability, educators require work environments that support their ongoing learning, emphasize time without child responsibilities for professional activities, and offer dependable benefits that ensure their well-being. With prioritization of workforce supports, quality improvement initiatives can make substantive progress towards a system that is equitable, efficient, and effective for children, their families, and educators alike. Capturing the experiences and perspectives of early educators working directly with children as a component of evaluating QUALITYstarsNY presents an opportunity to further refine and strengthen the policies, practices, and resources necessary to facilitate a high-quality system that supports children and their teachers alike. 

Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (Berkeley)

2018

This report reveals how states and cities are closing the gap in compensation between equally qualified pre-K teachers and kindergarten and elementary school teachers. The report indicates states and cities across the country are moving to improve pre-K teacher compensation as recruiting and retaining skilled educators is critical to delivering the high-quality learning environment these programs promise. Strategies in Pursuit of Pre-K Teacher Compensation Parity: Lessons from Seven States and Cities looks at policies in Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, Oregon, West Virginia, New York City, and San Antonio where a variety of strategies have successfully been implemented to get closer to or surpass equal pay and benefits for pre-K and teachers of older children.

McLean, C., Dichter, H., & Whitebook, M

National Institute for Early Education

2017

This report addresses the following four research questions:
1. Understanding the attitudes and beliefs of current educators about the profession
2. Identifying factors that will be most helpful in encouraging educators to make the field a long-term profession
3. Assessing strategies for attracting new educators to join the field
4. Developing messaging to enhance public appreciation of, and support for, the work of early childhood educators

National Association for the Education of the Young Children

2015

This article describes an initiative that extended the Investigating Quality (IQ) Project’s model of pedagogical development to a partnership between local ECE programs and their ongoing professional learning and an ECE training institution and its preparation of student educators. We begin with an overview of the project and pedagogical development model, describing how it conceptualizes and promotes professional learning as co-constructed in socio-material-historical-cultural-political contexts. We follow this with an analysis of the model’s three key conditions: inquiry based learning, making learning visible, and pedagogical facilitation support. We conclude with considerations for what this model of pedagogical development might mean for the ECE profession.

Kathleen Kummen and B. Denise Hodgins

Journal of Early Childhood Studies

2019

There is broad consensus that high-quality environments for young children depend on teachers who are skilled at nurturing their development and learning, yet low pay and inadequate working conditions routinely hamper teachers in their efforts to apply their skills and knowledge. Yet, the voices of early educators — those working with children from infancy through preschool — are rarely heard, and public awareness of the challenges facing this workforce remains low. Compared to their K-12 peers, early educators are less organized and vocal about their situation, but a persistent state of teacher crisis casts a pall over efforts to ensure high-quality early care and education for all children prior to kindergarten. This study captures the perspectives of early educators about their working environments in one state, New York, and how these environments impact teaching staff practice and wellbeing. In order to teach to the best of their ability, educators require work environments that support their ongoing learning, emphasize time without child responsibilities for professional activities, and offer dependable benefits that ensure their well-being. With prioritization of workforce supports, quality improvement initiatives can make substantive progress towards a system that is equitable, efficient, and effective for children, their families, and educators alike. Capturing the experiences and perspectives of early educators working directly with children as a component of evaluating QUALITYstarsNY presents an opportunity to further refine and strengthen the policies, practices, and resources necessary to facilitate a high-quality system that supports children and their teachers alike.

Alaina Roach O’Keefe, Sonya Hooper, and Brittany Jakubiec

Journal of Early Childhood Studies

2019

These Guidelines are the first international text dealing specifically with the status of early childhood education personnel. The Guidelines set out principles for the promotion of decent work for ECE personnel as a means of ensuring universal access to high-quality ECE services. In this respect they
cover conditions of work and employment of ECE personnel and related issues. More precisely, the issues covered are:

1. General roles, rights and responsibilities
2. ECE objectives and policies
3. Preparation for the profession
4. Recruitment, deployment and retention
5. Professional and career development
6. Employment terms and conditions
7. Learning and teaching conditions
8. Social security and social protection
9. Evaluating ECE personnel to support quality practice
10. ECE governance and social dialogue

The Guidelines are meant to serve as a reference tool on principles that should be reflected in the design and implementation of ECE measures such as policies, strategies, legislation, administrative measures and social dialogue mechanisms, including collective bargaining agreements. The Guidelines can be implemented progressively to achieve their objectives so as to take account of different national settings, cultures, and social, economic and political contexts.

International Labor Organization

2013

ISSA’s Quality Framework for Early Childhood Practice in Services for Children under Three Years of Age is grounded in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and stands for the centrality of the child and family in conceptualizing, designing and implementing programs dedicated to this age group, no matter the type of service, program, or sector.

It comprises 31 principles and 143 recommended practices, grouped around 9 Focus Areas, thus covering the complexity of the practices and responsibilities that binds all professionals working in early childhood services.

Through this framework, ISSA launches an invitation for dialogue and joint action among practitioners, managers, policy- and decision-makers, program coordinators, trainers/mentors from all sectors and institutions active in early childhood systems, so they may develop an articulated vision and a shared understanding around quality practices impacting the lives of the youngest children.