Education & Care

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.

Professional development is essential for early years teachers. Recognizing this fact, the Romanian education system aims to promote high quality professional development programs for teachers in order to improve their work. This study investigated kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of their in-service training programs; including the impact these programs had on their professional development processes and classroom practices. Eighty-four kindergarten teachers responded to an online, structured questionnaire focused on:

• activities considered necessary for teacher training programs;
• factors that influence the level of professional development;
• types of activities based on programs that may influence classroom practice;
• the level at which programs focused on specific aspects of educational practice; and
• aspects that might influence the teacher's educational practice.

Findings show a significant difference between the perceptions of beginners and those with more than 10 years experience. While the new teachers tend to focus more on the visibility and status to the profession, more experienced teachers focus on approach on professionalization.

Preschool teachers education curricula harmonization framework in Serbia, produced under the TEACH project in. This particular work package was titled "Harmonization of Preschool Teacher Training Education in Serbia." The process of curricula harmonization brought together task forces from four preschool teacher education colleges. Each task force was composed of professors, teaching assistants and students. This document lays out the jointly created framework for curriculum harmonization these four teacher education colleges in Serbia.

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.

The early years workforce: a fragmented picture, produced by the Education Policy Institute, gathered administrative data about early years providers and staff in England. The aim of this report was to create a clearer picture of the demographics, pay and qualification levels of the early years workforce. Further, the report set out to understand how these characteristics vary across school-based settings, private, voluntary and independent providers and childminders.

This project used readily available, official resources in order to generate new researched questions that require additional analysis. The early years workforce: a fragmented picture provides a glance into early years provision in England, data about the workforce and the implications for children in funded provision.

Competent Educators of the 21st Century: Principles of Quality Pedagogy is a policy document that defines quality teaching practices when working with children from 3 to 10 years old, and their families, to better support the child's development and well-being. 

This resource contains:

• A brief history of the development of the Principles, including references to the international documents on which they are built,
• Explanations of the values the Principles represent for ISSA and its member NGOs,
• Short suggestions for how they can be used and by whom,
• Brief descriptions of each of the 7 Focus Areas that provide the framework for the Principles of Quality Pedagogy,
• A list of the 20 Principles and the 85 Indicators that describe how to apply these Principles.

In addition to the to the four full PDF versions, ISSA has translated the Quality Principles into two Romani dialects: Vlaxicko and Rumungricko. You can find these on the ISSA website.

Based on its long experience in working with practitioners, mostly in challenging contexts, ISSA has articulated an approach that embeds the values and practices that are considered to lead to meaningful and sustainable mechanisms for continuous professional growth.

An important outcome of this process is called “Roads to Quality”. This is more than a guidebook explaining how the resources in the ISSA Quality Resource Pack can be used to increase the quality of practices in early childhood education services. It stands for ISSA’s approach towards practitioners’ professional growth and nurturing their professionalism. It stands for the systemic change in early childhood education systems that should reflect the concern to invest in professionalism. As a democratic and inclusive professional learning community, ISSA promotes learning within its network, while at the same time bringing in knowledge and innovation from outside the network.

With this guidebook, ISSA proposes not only a quality framework for early childhood education practices—including a range of resources supporting its translation into practice—but also a “know-how” approach that reflects the consistency between scaffolding children’s development and learning, and scaffolding practitioners’ professional growth in such a way that each achieves their full potential.

This Early Years Workforce Strategy from the United Kingdom details how the department for Women, Equalities and the Early Years plans to support the early years sector and remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing the early years workforce. 

Chapter one of this document focuses on attracting staff to the sector, while the second chapter takes a look at retaining and developing staff. Several commitments are also addressed in this strategy, including: 

• Enabling staff with Early Years Educator qualification who also hold level 2 English and mathematics qualifications, including Functional Skills, to count in the level 3 staff:child ratios.
• Consulting on allowing those with Early Years Teachers Status (EYPS), and its predecessor Early Years Professional Status (EYPS), to lead nursery and reception classes in maintained schools. 
• Working with the sector to develop level 2 childcare qualfication criteria.
• Improving the quality of early years training and providing access to continous professonal development (CPD).
• Providing funding to support the sector to develop quality improvement support in partnership with schools and local authorities.

This document further addresses challenges faced by the early years workforce and actions to be taken to address these.

Changing Systems & Practice to Improve Outcomes for Young Fathers, Their Children & Their Families recognizes that, though there is an increasing interest in supporting fathers, little attention has been paid to the importance of engaging fathers under the age of 26 – particularly young fathers who are involved in child welfare systems.

This brief makes recommendations for child welfare system policy and practice, recognizing the important role that fathers play in improving their child's outcomes. The document highlights policies and programs seeking to identify, engage and support young fathers. It also includes links to practice guides and resources aimed at supporting the implementation of these recommendations. The policy recommendations in this brief address these challenges:

• The lack of attention to the dual roles and needs of young fathers who are simultaneously navigating a transition to adulthood while learning to parent;
• The invisibility of young fathers in child welfare systems and the dearth of opportunities for them to support the well-being of their children and families;
• The lack of data on the characteristics and needs of young fathers; and
• The lack of cross-system collaboration among the education, juvenile/criminal justice, early childhood education (ECE), child support enforcement, health care, homeless services, housing and mental health systems to support young fathers and their families.

Throughout the brief, voices of young fathers are shared.

This online magazine, from the Journal of the National Association of State Boards, shares the following articles: 

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Tracing the Arc of Early Childhood Policy

A 30-year-old NASBE task force on early education still holds water, even as the context and concerns of the field have shifted. Lori Connors-

Tadros and Madelyn Gardner

Transforming the Early Care and Education Workforce

It’s time to improve care for the youngest learners by improving preparation and support for those who teach them. Sara Vecchiotti

States Pave the Way for Smoother Transitions to Kindergarten

Four states back statewide initiatives to make sure children are ready for kindergarten. Aaron Loewenberg

Fully Funding Pre-K through K-12 Funding Formulas

While just 11 states have tried it, inclusion of state-funded pre-K in the school funding formula may well be the best option for extending access to

more children. W. Steven Barnett and Richard Kasmin

Serving Young Dual Language Learners in Illinois

Illinois puts the accent on interagency collaboration to achieve linguistically and culturally appropriate instruction. Luisiana Meléndez and Patricia Chamberlain

Leveraging Early Childhood Data for Better Decision Making

Most states now have the tools they need to make good decisions for early learners. Now they need to learn how to use them. Philip Sirinides and Missy Coffey