Synopses & Reviews
This book examines how quality and good practice in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is interpreted and implemented in a variety of settings and circumstances.
Drawing on her experience of research and policy making in a wide variety of countries, the author considers the variety of rationales that inform services for early childhood education and care. Services are organized, financed and delivered in many different ways across the world. The policies that have been adopted by governments, and the resources which are made available for implementing them, have shaped practice.
On the one hand there are complex ideas about what children should be learning and how they should be learning. These ideas about curriculum and the training of teachers and carers may differ radically between countries. On the other hand policies have been prompted by the need to reconcile family and work obligations and to provide childcare to support working mothers, irrespective of educational concerns. The notions of economic competition and parental choice have led to the growth of private for-profit childcare services which promote a particular view of quality and achievement. Above all, growing inequality within countries, and between rich and poor countries, have undermined attempts to provide good quality services. In an unfair world, the impact of any services is likely to be distorted.
The book charts the many different approaches to understanding and measuring quality and gives an exceptionally well-informed overview.
Synopsis
This book examines how quality and good practice in early childhood education and care is interpreted and implemented in a variety of settings and circumstances, globally as well as nationally. Drawing on a lifetime of practice in a variety of roles and in particular using her experience of research and policy making in a wide variety of countries, the author discusses issues of quality and practice in early education and care:
• What kind of behaviours, attitudes and assumptions go to make up good practice in early education and care?
• What kind of societal values do they draw upon?
• How can good practice be shaped and influenced?
• What kind enabling conditions are necessary for good practice to emerge?
• What are its outcomes?
• Are there widely accepted good practices which cross local and national boundaries or are such definitions irredeemably local?
Synopsis
Early childhood education and care has become a central policy concern in many countries, and as services expand it is crucial to examine whether children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive equitable services. In An Equal Start? experts from eight countriesandmdash;the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and Australiaandmdash;examine how early education and care is organized, funded, and regulated in their respective countries. They give up-to-date pictures of the access to services, providing rich insights into how policies play out in practice and the effects on the provision of services to disadvantaged children. Together they reveal a number of common tensions and complexities that many countries face in ensuring that early education and care is affordable, accessible, and of the highest possible quality.
About the Author
Ludovica Gambaro is a research officer at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education at the University of London.Kitty Stewart is a research associate at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and an associate professor in social policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.Jane Waldfogel is the Compton Foundation Centennial Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work for the Prevention of Childrenandrsquo;s and Youth Problems and visiting professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Table of Contents
Introduction
and#160;and#160; ~ Ludovica Gambaro, Kitty Stewart and Jane Waldfogel
Equal access to early childhood education and care? The case of the UK
and#160;and#160; ~ Ludovica Gambaro, Kitty Stewart and Jane Waldfogel
Towards universal quality early childhood education and care: the Norwegian model
and#160;and#160; ~ Anne Lise Ellingsand#230;ter
Equal access to quality care: Lessons from France on providing high quality and affordable early childhood education and care
and#160;and#160; ~ Jeanne Fagnani
Equal Access to High Quality Child Care in the Netherlands
and#160;and#160; ~ Y. Emre Akgand#252;ndand#252;z and Janneke Plantenga
Access and quality issues in early childhood education and care: the case of Germany
and#160;and#160; ~ Pamela Oberhuemer
New Zealand case study: A narrative of shifting policy directions for early childhood education and care
and#160;and#160; ~ Helen May
Early Education and Care in Australia: Equity in a market-based system?
and#160;and#160; ~ Deborah Brennan and Marianne Fenech
Delivering High-Quality Early Childhood Education and Care to Low-Income Children: How Well is the US Doing?
and#160;and#160; ~ Katherine Magnuson and Jane Waldfogel
Common challenges, lessons for policy
and#160;and#160; ~ Kitty Stewart, Ludovica Gambaro, Jane Waldfogel and Jill Rutter