Education & Care

This end of project evaluation examined how well Children First (CF) had responded to Mid Term Review recommendations as well as evaluation questions regarding innovative, sustainable and effective models of service delivery; quantity, quality and timeliness of results; capacity development for partners and communities; and institutionalization of models within relevant government structures.

CF sought to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe by developing and improving on effective models of care and support for OVC and leveraging the experience of national and community-based organizations to increase access to quality holistic services for OVC. CF sought to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe by developing and improving on effective models of care and support for OVC and leveraging the experience of national and community-based organizations to increase access to quality holistic services for OVC. Over the five-year project period, CF included 22 partner organizations that provided education, health, child protection services and advocacy for OVC.

Early Childhood Education Pre-Service Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Psychosocial Skills Across the Kindergarten Curriculum in Ghana assesses early childhood education pre-service teachers’ knowledge in teaching psychosocial skills across the kindergarten curriculum in Ghana. The research, published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, questioned 123 pre-service teachers pursuing a degree in early childhood education. The following research questions were the driving force behind this study:

1. How adequate is pre-service teachers’ knowledge in the constituents of psychosocial skills in the curriculum?
2. How adequate is pre-service teachers’ knowledge in the use of interactive techniques in inculcating psychosocial skills across the curriculum?
3. How adequate is pre-service teachers’ knowledge in the use of assessment procedures in inculcating psychosocial skills across the curriculum? 

The study concludes with implications for the early childhood curriculum in Ghana and recommendations for improvement.

The Innovative Pedagogical Approaches in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE): A Resource Pack includes case studies from nine countries. Each is an example of an innovative pedagogy developed according to a specific context and with concern for sustainable learning.This resource pack discounts the idea that ECCE should solely rely on a “universalized ‘one size fits all’ model" and emphasizes the need for ‘real-life’ approaches that connect children with their communities. Innovations in ECCE in the Asia-Pacific region are often intended to improve not only the lives of children but also those of the entire community. These examples of transformational pedagogy are inspirational reads for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers.

Gender imbalance in the pre-school teaching profession and feminization of the profession has been a common practice world over. In Kenya, there is an emergent trend of men training as professionals in Early Childhood Development Education but they are underrepresented. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the gender imbalance in pre school teaching workforce using a case study. The research sample comprised of 108 pre-school in-service teachers in teacher training institutions in Narok Municipality. Stratified followed by random sampling techniques were employed. The research methodology was qualitative .Focus Group Discussions followed by Key Informant Interviews were used to generate data. This study revealed that culture is the main determinant of feminization of pre-school teaching profession. Men were getting interested in pre-school education but to perform administrative duties not necessarily to teach. Additionally, male parents reported that they were uncomfortable in involving themselves in pre-schools.

Across and beyond Europe, demographic, social and economic pressures both at the macro and the micro level are impacting on the work contexts of early childhood educators. Alongside heightened drives towards expansion and increasing regulation of the field, expectations are intensifying. Additionally, goals and targets for higher education and vocational education at the European policy level are generating restructurings of the national qualification systems for work in the early childhood field. In this dynamic context of change the SEEPRO (Early Education/care and Professionalisation in Europe) study, based at the State Institute of Early Childhood Research in Munich and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs, set out to map the qualification requirements and workplace settings of early years practitioners in their country-specific context. Similarities and differences across the 27 countries of the European Union were documented and analysed. The findings of the study show considerable divergencies across Europe in terms of formal education and training requirements and the desired professional profiles for working with young children. Against this background of diversity, similarities in terms of workforce emergencies and challenges have also emerged: one is a common lack of truly flexible and inclusive pathways linked to formal professional recognition and status for all practitioners in the field; another is the continuing need to seek more effective ways of including men in the early childhood workforce.

This paper reports on a research program that investigates policy and practice relating to the building of a Chinese early childhood workforce in a context of changed government policy, improved standards regarding teacher qualifications and curriculum content, and changing parental expectations. The evolving context reflects the fact that recent economic development in China has witnessed enhanced need for a workforce that is suitable for jobs that require advanced skills and a high capacity to learn. This identified need has brought a renewed interest in early childhood education. Subsequently, policy makers have raised questions regarding what early childhood teachers should know and the skills they need to acquire to be competent practitioners.

The research findings draw on interviews conducted with 24 kindergarten directors from provinces across China. The interview explored opinions about skills and attributes teachers require, level and form of knowledge they need, and how teachers’ capacities might be enhanced.

Early childhood workforce sustainability is an important issue, with implications for children, families and national productivity, as well as for educators themselves. Yet, in many national contexts, workforce challenges continue to undermine efforts to support sustainability.

In this article, we evaluate efforts to address early childhood workforce challenges in the Australian context, where extensive early childhood reforms are underway. We argue that attempts to address workforce challenges in current policy initiatives are limited and may be insufficient for sustaining the early childhood workforce in the long term. Given the critical role that the early childhood workforce plays in Australia’s early childhood reform agenda, we then consider how workforce sustainability could be rethought and other possibilities generated for addressing entrenched workforce challenges. We conclude by arguing that greater attention to the everyday politics of educators’ practice, along with the forces shaping these milieux, may be a way of generating new possibilities for supporting workforce sustainability.

This research overviewed the present situation of Korean early childhood education and care workforce's certification, education and training, and working conditions, according to the elements to assure the quality of teachers. Results show that structure and condition of the initial teacher training system, certificating system, professional development system and working environment and treatment of kindergarten teachers were slightly better than child care center teachers', and national/public kindergarten teachers' were better than private kindergarten teachers'. The hidden issues behind it such as marginalization, traditional child care discourse and the underestimation of caring were pointed out, which must be considered in addition to the elements related to teachers' quality that appear on the surface, when the integration plan of kindergarten and child care center teachers is discussed.

Child Care Staff: Learning and Growing Through Professional Development offers insights and shares innovative practices about the current professional development and support activities currently offered to the Australian early childhood workforce.

Drawing on the views and experience of 684 child care service directors/managers/owner-operators and staff across Australia, this publication aims to answer questions about how professional development impacts children’s outcomes and the measures of effective support services.

A Review of the Literature: Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Personnel in Low- and Middle-Income Countries was commissioned to inform the development of a common survey instrument for the UNESCO pilot Survey of Teachers in Pre-Primary Education (STEPP) which will collect data on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) personnel in selected low- and middle income countries (LMICs). The authors address three questions in this literature review:

• What is the evidence on the relationship among personnel characteristics, the quality of ECCE services and child outcomes?
• What are the training requirements, working conditions, setting characteristics of ECCE personnel in LMICs? What beliefs do these personnel hold?
• What are the trends and main issues surrounding the above-mentioned characteristics and their implications for access and quality?