Abstract
Despite being generally viewed as homogenous, the four provinces that make up Atlantic Canada have quite different Early Childhood Education and Care systems. Through in-depth interviews of policy actors within the four Atlantic Canadian provinces completed in 2011, this article illustrates that Prince Edward Island had an ‘inclusive liberal’ childcare system. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick mixed elements of ‘inclusive liberalism and ‘neo-liberalism’ in their childcare systems; and Newfoundland had a ‘neo-liberal’ childcare system. It is argued that the movements towards ‘inclusive liberal’ childcare systems in Atlantic Canada were engendered through an alliance of bureaucratic champions and unified childcare sectors. Using ideas that linked improved childcare with economic growth, childcare organizations and bureaucratic champions were able to take advantage of opportunities presented by new circumstances in their childcare systems to engender structural reforms.
Highlights
There has been several interesting case studies that have concentrated on ECEC policies and advocacy within a single province (Lero and Kyle 1991; Hayden 1997; Andrew 1997; Prentice 2000b, 2004; Kershaw 2004, 2005; Martin 2001; Langford 2001, 2011; Tyyska 2001; Friendly 2005; Albanese 2006; Vosko 2006; Jenson 2002, 2009a; Muttart Foundation 2010), two provinces (White 1997; Collier 2001), or Canadian municipalities (Mahon 2005, 2007, 2009b; Prentice 2007; Corter and Pelletier 2010). Though these above studies have concentrated on jurisdictions outside of Atlantic Canada, certain parts of the New Brunswick ECEC system have been examined in comparison with provinces outside of the Atlantic region (Johnson and Mathien 1998; Jenson and Thompson 1999; Langford 2010)
Years Study 3 created the ‘Early Childhood Education Index’ which is a mixture of statistics and basic descriptions to rank the comprehensiveness of the childcare systems of all Canadian provinces on a 15-point scale
One of the limits of the research in this article is that it focuses on the development of Atlantic Canadian childcare systems up to 2011, and it does not take into account developments and reforms that took place after that year
Summary
Most of the research on childcare in Canada has concentrated on the ECEC policies of the federal government (Cleveland et al 2001, 2008; White 2001; Mahon and Phillips 2002; Jenson et al 2003; Friendly 2000a, 2000b; Friendly and Prentice 2009; McKeen 2009) or comparing Canadian federal government childcare policies to those of other developed countries (Mahon 1999; White 2002a, 2004, 2012; OECD 2004; UNICEF 2008; Turgeon 2010). The only research that systemically compares ECEC in the four Atlantic provinces is Lyon and Canning (2000) that gathered data from 48 childcare centers in 1993 to 1994 and found only minimal differences in quality among the provinces These case studies of Canadian childcare have been augmented descriptive and statistical comparisons of the ECEC systems of all ten provinces (Pence 1992; Doherty et al 2000; Jacobs 2000; Ferguson and Prentice 2000; Prentice 2000a; Bushnik 2006; Human Resources and Social Development Canada 2012). PEI scored a ‘9.5’, Nova Scotia received a ‘5’, New Brunswick received a ‘4.5’, and Newfoundland scored a ‘1.5.’
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