Education & Care

This study, the second in this series, focuses on the role of preschool teachers in Ukraine. The country, with a predominantly public network of preschool education, has achieved coverage for a significant proportion of the population.

This study, the second in this series, focuses on the role of preschool teachers in Ukraine. The country, with a predominantly public network of preschool education, has achieved coverage for a significant proportion of the population. Nevertheless, it struggles to meet demand and ensure quality of services. In addition, Ukraine is at a unique moment where increasing attention is being paid in the country to improving the quality of preschool education and supporting inclusion, which have been elevated in recent policy reforms. Taking into account the significance of preschool teachers to the system of preschool education, this study aims to gain a better understanding of their experiences, including their backgrounds, the support that they receive, as well as the challenges that they encounter.

By illustrating the experiences of preschool teachers in Ukraine and identifying the size and scope of the challenges they face, it is hoped that this study will support officials within the Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerstvo osvity i nauky) in Ukraine as well as local education departments to strengthen and support preschool personnel through targeted policies and programs and contribute to the knowledge base around the early childhood workforce.

The Early Childhood Workforce Initiative

2018

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.

The EC Workforce 2020 Plan sets out a three-year roadmap for a comprehensive professional development system designed to recruit, retain, compensate, develop, and support a high-quality, diverse, early childhood workforce.The first section of this plan outlines the shared vision and guiding principles that underpin the goals provided in the document. Next, the plan details six goals:

• Workforce development
• Recruitment and retention
• Compensation
• Leadership
• Finance
• Data and continuous quality improvement

The plan also highlights key objectives and activities to best support and advance the workforce. 

Early Childhood Policies and Systems in Eight Countries: Findings from IEA’s Early Childhood Education Study  is an exploration of early childhood education (ECE) provision and its role in children's preparation for school and participation in society. In this context, formal early education and provision of care for young children from birth to the age of primary school is described and analyzed in Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Poland, the Russian Federation and the United States. The data was collected by way of a policy questionnaire, which collected basic information about the wider policy context for ECE in the participating countries. This report provides an overview of strategies, as well as systemic and structural results of ECE policy at the national and, where necessary, subnational levels.

This research study, from International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, presents key findings are presented throughout the report, alongside their supporting evidence. 

More than half of the 70 million teachers (primary and secondary) in the world’s formal educational system are from the Asia-Pacific region – making it essential to document the current situation for teachers in the region. Teachers in Asia Pacific: Status and Rights (2015) examines the trends and policies affecting teachers’ status and their emerging needs and challenges. It provides a general picture of the current situation of teachers in Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Indonesia.

Why is this report so important?

Raising the status of teachers and upholding their rights is a critical and global issue.

This study reviewed essential elements of the current status and working conditions of teachers, examined the rights and privileges of teachers and developed recommendations for policies and strategies to attract qualified teachers and motivate them to remain in the teaching profession. The key recommendations, which are based on this research, are aimed at improving the status and rights of teachers in each of the countries studies, and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

Though country contexts are diverse, this report gives a snapshot of the region and highlights the importance of advancing teachers’ status and providing multiple career progression pathways to motivate them to remain in the profession.

What’s included in the recommendations?

The results and policy recommendations presented in this report provide insights that are valuable to governments in advancing the status of their teachers with the view of retaining them in the profession. These include recommendations on selection criteria, pre-service teacher education, professional development, career development, salaries, measuring teacher performance, school leadership, teachers’ voices, teachers’ working conditions and gender within the workforce.

A workforce development plan for the early childhood care and education sector in Ireland is the culmination of a significant process of research and consultation across the diverse range of stakeholders in the sector. The result is the identification of a number of agreed perspectives on the type of workforce needed to support the development of high quality Early Childhood Education and Care services in Ireland, as well as the main challenges associated with achieving these goals. 

This plan sets out the scope and vision for workforce development in Ireland, presents the main challenges and opportunities, and reveals the implementation strategy.

Report on the Working Conditions of the Early Years Education and Care Sector 2017 primarily focuses on the poor working conditions and below average pay scales of all those working in the early years sector in Ireland. Diving into several issues impacting services across all provinces, in both rural and urban areas, the report includes sections on:

• policy related issues for consideration;
• working conditions in the early childhood sector;
• areas of concern as views by early years professionals;
• progressive early years investment in other EU countries; and
• recommendations from the joint committee on children and youth affairs.

The report concludes that the lack of recognition for this profession, as well as a lack of investment and high staff turnover rate cause serious sustainability issues for early years services in Ireland.

The Danielson Framework for Teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction. This white paper includes the findings of a research team made up of  researchers from Illinois State University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

The early learning examples in this document align to the 2013 Framework for Teaching and were developed through the shared efforts of early childhood teachers and coaches, school and district administrators, and early childhood policy and research groups to identify those aspects of teaching that are research-based and recommended practices for early childhood educators. Examples align to Danielson's 2013 Framework for Teaching domains/components and critical attributes in Preschool (3 & 4 year olds), and K-3 classrooms. The 2013 rubric with early learning examples is available on for download below, or on the project website.

Inclusive early childhood education environment self-reflection tool was developed in order to identify, analyze and promote the main characteristics of quality Inclusive early Childhood Education for all children. This tool was designed to address the need for professionals and staff in early years settings to reflect on their inclusiveness. 

The tool consists of eight sets of questions, which address the following aspects of inclusion:

1. Overall welcoming atmosphere
2.  flexibly and according to the needs of the user, setting or organization.
3. Inclusive social environment
4. Child-centred approach
5. Child-friendly physical environment
6. Materials for all children
7. Opportunities for communication for all
8. Inclusive teaching and learning environment
9. Family-friendly environment

The questions presented in this tool are designed to be used flexibly and according to the needs of the user, setting or organization.

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.