… And this helps me how?: Family child care providers discuss training

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a national Canadian study designed to (1) produce a description of current Canadian practice with respect to various forms of training for family child care providers, and (2) deepen our understanding of what caregivers, parents, trainers, and other stakeholders see as the key training issues. This participatory study involved interviews with 298 caregivers and other stakeholders and a national survey of organizations that offer training. Results explore “front-line” perspectives on availability, accessibility, motivation, content, and recognition. We suggest that training programs be made more available and accessible, but also more relevant to the work and more sensitive to the ideas and needs of participants. We suggest that standardized core content be embedded in an adult learning process that focuses on real-world caregiving issues. The development of effective and accessible training is one of the key challenges facing the discipline, in part because success will require stakeholders to confront more directly their disagreements about what constitutes quality in family day care.