Exploring early childhood educators’ understanding of social sustainability in England: implications for policy and practice

This Campbell systematic review examines the current empirical evidence on the correlation between teacher qualifications and the quality of the early childhood learning environments. The review summarises findings from 48 studies with 82 independent samples. Studies included children from pre‐kindergarten and kindergarteners prior to elementary/primary school and centre‐based providers. The review shows a positive statistically significant association between teacher qualification and the quality of early childhood learning environment. This finding is not dependent on culture and context given that the evidence is from several countries. Mandating qualified teachers, i.e. with tertiary education, may lead to significant improvement for both process and structural quality within centre‐based and home‐based ECEC settings. However, the evidence is from correlational studies, so evidence is needed from studies with designs which can assess causal effects. Further research should also assess what specific knowledge and skills learnt by teachers with higher qualifications enable them to complete their roles effectively. Synopsis/plain language summary Higher teacher qualifications are associated with higher quality early childhood education and care This review examines the empirical evidence on the relationship between teacher qualifications and the quality of the early childhood learning environment. Higher teacher qualifications are significantly positively correlated with higher quality in early childhood education and care. What did the review study? Poor quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) can be detrimental to the development of children as it could lead to poor social, emotional, educational, health, economic and behavioural outcomes. The lack of consensus as to the strength of the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood learning environment has made it difficult for policy makers and educational practitioners alike to settle on strategies that would enhance the learning outcomes for children in their early stages of education. This review examines the current empirical evidence on the correlation between teacher qualifications and the quality of early childhood learning environments. What is the aim of this review? This Campbell systematic review examines the current empirical evidence on the correlation between teacher qualifications and the quality of the early childhood learning environments. The review summarises findings from 48 studies with 82 independent samples. Studies included children from pre‐kindergarten and kindergarteners prior to elementary/primary school and centre‐based providers. What studies are included? Included studies must have examined the relationship between teacher qualification and quality of the ECEC environment from 1980 to 2014, as well as permit the identification of the education program received by the lead teacher and provide a comparison between two or more groups of teachers with different educational qualifications. Furthermore, the studies had to have comparative designs and report either an overall quality scale or an environment rating scale. A total of 48 studies conducted with 82 independent samples were included in the review. What are the main results in this review? Overall, the results show that higher teacher qualifications are significantly correlated with higher quality early childhood education and care. The education level of the teachers or caregivers is positively correlated to overall ECEC qualities measured by the environment rating scale. There is also a positive correlation between teacher qualification and subscale ratings including program structure, language and reasoning. What do the findings in this review mean? The review shows a positive statistically significant association between teacher qualification and the quality of early childhood learning environment. This finding is not dependent on culture and context given that the evidence is from several countries. Mandating qualified teachers, i.e. with tertiary education, may lead to significant improvement for both process and structural quality within centre‐based and home‐based ECEC settings. However, the evidence is from correlational studies, so evidence is needed from studies with designs which can assess causal effects. Further research should also assess what specific knowledge and skills learnt by teachers with higher qualifications enable them to complete their roles effectively. How up to date is this review? The review authors searched for studies published until December 2014. This Campbell systematic review was published in January 2017. What is the Campbell Collaboration? The Campbell Collaboration is an international, voluntary, non‐profit research network that publishes systematic reviews. We summarise and evaluate the quality of evidence for social and economic policy, programmes and practice. Our aim is to help people make better choices and better policy decisions. About this summary This summary was prepared by Ada Chukwudozie and Howard White (Campbell Collaboration) based on the Campbell Systematic Review 2017:1 The relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood education and care environment by Matthew Manning, Susanne Garvis, Christopher Fleming and Gabriel T.W. Wong. The summary was designed, edited and produced by Tanya Kristiansen (Campbell Collaboration). Executive summary/Abstract BACKGROUND The notion that a strong early childhood education and care (ECEC) knowledge base, which involves a set of professional competencies, abilities and specific teaching skills, can lead to high‐quality ECEC and positive child developmental outcomes is yet to be fully determined (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001; Vartuli, 1999). This is due, in some instances, to lack of good data, the quality of the method employed to measure the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood learning environment, and the methods used to aggregate the findings of individual empirical studies. The lack of consensus regarding the direction (positive in this case) and strength of the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood learning environment has made it difficult for policy makers and educational practitioners to form strategies that will ultimately enhance the early learning outcomes of children. OBJECTIVES The objective of this review is to synthesise the extant empirical evidence on the relationship of teacher qualifications to the quality of the early childhood learning environment. Specifically, we address the question: Is there a relationship between the level and type of education of the lead teacher, and the quality of the early childhood learning environment, as measured by the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, the Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale and their revised versions? SEARCH METHODS Studies were identified by exploring a large number of relevant academic journals (e.g., Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Early Childhood Research and Practice, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Child Development, Applied Developmental Science, and the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry) and electronic databases (e.g., Academic Search Premier; CBCA‐Education; Cochrane Controlled Trial Register; Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE); Dissertation Abstracts; EconLit; Education Full Text; Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC); Journal Storage Archive (JSTOR); Medline; Proquest Digital Dissertations; Proquest Direct; Project Muse; PsychInfo; Scopus; SocINDEX with Full Text; and SSRN eLibrary). We also searched the reference list of each eligible study, and reviewed the biographies and publication lists of influential authors in the field of early childhood development and education, to determine if there were any relevant studies not retrieved in the original search. SELECTION CRITERIA Selection criteria are based on both comparative and correlational studies that examine the relationship between teacher qualification and quality of the ECEC environment (as measured by ECERS/ECERS‐R/ITERS/ITERS‐R and any subscales) from 1980 (this was when the ECERS was introduced) to 2014. Eligible studies, therefore, report at least one of the following results: (1) the overall ERS ratings (main outcome); (2) ratings of the seven subscales – program structure (i.e. focusing on the schedule, time for free play, group time and provisions for children with disabilities), activities (i.e. focusing on the provision and quality of activities including fine motor, art, music, dramatic play and math/number), l

This literature review is about the exploration of teachers’ teaching practices of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teachers utilized in different context’. The findings of this study are based on literature published between the years 2000 and 2020. This document is established as a current analysis of teaching practices of ECCE teachers. The limitation of this paper is that the majority of the study is based on Australia, UK, France, Germany, Pakistan Australia, and USA which restricts the results' worldwide application. The results are presented in seven comprehensive themes; Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Importance of Early Childhood Care and Education, Global status of Early Childhood Care and Education, Challenges in Early Childhood Care and Education, Strengthening in Early Childhood Care and Education, best teaching practices in Early Childhood Care and Education and teaching practices utilized by ECCE teachers in different contexts. At the root, all of these themes reveal the practices of ECCE teachers in different context. This study is directly linked to policymakers, educationist, government leaders, community members, researchers and parents who are interested to make early childhood education more effective and appropriate. However from this literature review it is found that ECCE teachers are not much practicing the effective teaching practices in their classrooms just as; collaborative activity, interactive activity, Hands-on or project based activities. Even it is also found that in many contexts in ECCE physical and social environment was not much conducive for children in order to make their learning effective.

Recent years have seen a marked increase in interest in early childhood education and care (ECEC) because of an enhanced recognition of the role of early intervention in the life cycle skill formation and the growth of knowledge based economies. However, formulation of Chinese ECEC policy has been hampered by a paucity of high quality empirical studies of ECEC provision and utilization. Aware of the significant role of empirical studiesin identifying the problemsand developing solutions for addressing ECEC policy and practice, this thesis examines family utilization of ECEC services in Beijing. More specifically, the study clarifieswho utilizes ECEC services in Beijing, how utilization relates to parents’ employment and whether parents are satisfied with the services received. Atotal of 416 questionnaires were gathered and 44 parents were interviewed in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the consumption of ECEC services by relating service utilization to family characteristics, parent employment and satisfaction. Findings indicate that four factors (child age, migrant status, Guanxi, and family income) emerged to influence family utilization of ECEC services at a significant level.Families with children under three, migrant families, low-income families, and families without Guanxi were identified as being disadvantaged in relation to ECEC. Parent employment is found to have divergent impacts on ECEC utilization depending on work conditions (e.g. wage and working hours) and/or service arrangement (e.g. location and fees). The empirical investigation revealed that ECEC utilization can make it possible for parents to work both by providing them with labour time that they can sell in the market place and by enabling them to gain the income they need to pay for ECEC services.It is also shown parents are overwhelmingly satisfied with the services utilized by parents and that quality factors (e.g. class size, teacher qualification, facilities, etc.) rather than practical factors (e.g. price, timetable, location, etc.) are the primary determinant of parents’ satisfaction. It is hoped that the findings derived from this investigation will inform China’s effort to expand ECEC utilization nationwide in five aspects in relation to funding models, service distribution, quality regulations, information system, and data analysis.

There is a deep ambivalence in Western society about caring and loving generally (hooks 2000). Love and care is seen as a largely personal and private matter. This is despite the fact that love, care and solidarity are essential components of human survival and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) practice. In Ireland, the ad hoc nature of the ECCE policy structure, the limited conceptualisations of quality and equality in the sector for both children and adults, as well as increasing demands on ECCE workers draw our attention to the gendered nature of the sector, and to women being essentialised as carers. Recent moves at policy and practice levels to discard care in the naming of the sector in Ireland (replacing ECCE with Early Childhood Education) can be linked to the value placed on care and to the status of ECCE workers versus education and primary teachers. This might explain why some ECCE workers have begun to refer to themselves as early childhood educators. This could be seen as an effort to bring them closer to the dominant discourse, achieve recognition and status in an effort to improve working conditions. This chapter draws on feminist and egalitarian theories to critique the ‘equality of opportunity’ principle that is present in various ECCE policy documents in Ireland. Through a more robust equality framework Equality of condition (Baker et al. 2004) I examine the conditions afforded to the ECCE sector versus the primary school sector. My particular focus is on the dimension of love, care and solidarity (Baker et al. 2004) in ECCE.

Early childhood education and care: Canada's challenges and next steps

Ninety-eight percent of all Danish children between one and six attend an early childhood education and care (ECEC) center. Thirty-eight percent of these children spend eight hours or more a day in an ECEC center. Most Danish ECECs are public and administered by local municipalities. ECEC centers include crèche/nurseries and family day-care providers (zero to three years); kindergartens (three to six years); and the most common, integrated centers (zero to six years). On average, 45 percent of the zero-to-two-year-old children attending an ECEC attend a family day-care provider. Often, ECEC centers are open Monday through Friday from six thirty a.m. to five p.m. Each center varies in size and the manner of its organization, and most are unit based so that every child belongs to a unit with particular adults. Pedagogical approaches also vary, but in general, children spend three to four hours a day outside on a playground. Except for lunch, snacks, and circle times, children take part in adult-initiated or adult-structured activities, typically thirty minutes per day. Otherwise, they are free to choose for themselves with what to play and with whom to play in a child-centered pedagogical environment. The ECEC sector has a high political priority and accounts for a considerable part of municipal budgets since only one-fifth of total costs are financed by parent fees. The ECEC sector is vested with high expectations, which include preventing social problems and providing care, upbringing, and learning opportunities for all children. Danish pedagogues are professionally trained at the bachelor’s level in providing care and supporting development. In an average municipality, 59 percent of the professionals have a degree in pedagogy, while the remaining 41 percent are assistants with some or no pedagogical education. The ratios between adults and children vary between municipalities. In 2018, each professional on average was responsible for 6.2 children, age three to five, or 3.1 children, age zero to two. The early childhood education and care system in Denmark is like other Nordic countries, based on a social pedagogical approach. The sector is closely connected to the development of the Danish welfare state in the 1960s and onward with its tax-financed public health, education, and social system. Another characteristic is that in Denmark most men and women are employed on a full-time basis. In the mid-20th century, legislation regulating the ECEC sector was sparse. It was adopted under the purview of the Ministry of Social Affairs, which reflected the fact that providing day care for preschool children was regarded a social issue rather than an educational issue. A national curriculum of six learning themes became effective in 2004 and has been implemented into a play-based tradition. In 2018, a political initiative was implemented in order to straighten the curriculum framework. One of the aims is to increase the learning environment in Danish ECEC centers and to develop the professionals’ cooperation with parents. In 2019 the Danish parliament introduced initiatives toward a minimum ratio of one adult to three children in nurseries (zero-to-two-year-olds), and one adult to six children in kindergartens (three-to-five-year-olds). The exact model is not negotiated yet, but the implementation is expected to be in place by 2025.

There is increasing pressure on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings to align their practices and values to that of schools, with the notion that a quality education in ECEC consists of providing care whilst also ensuring strong learning outcomes. This paper employs the constructs of structural and process quality to theorise the perceived disparities between ECEC institutions and schools and between ECEC services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiences of 29 Australian ECEC educators provide insight into the differing constructions of quality across ECEC services during the COVID-19 lockdown periods that occurred from May to August 2020 in the state of Victoria. The findings suggest that despite increasing pressure for ECEC programmes to be more like schools, the pandemic amplified society’s positioning of ECEC as a caregiving service, highlighting the perceived differences between ECEC and schools and within the ECEC sector itself. While the findings suggest that ECEC educators were discouraged by the lack of recognition they received for providing quality education during the pandemic, the disruption of the pandemic prompted opportunities for reflection and action, providing more visibility of the quality of care that ECEC educators provide and the importance of their roles within the community.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision is widespread. NAPSACC UK is an intervention in ECECs designed to improve nutrition and physical activity policies, practice and provision through ECEC staff workshops, self-assessment and assistance over one year. It was adapted for the UK from the USA and we tested whether it reduced energy consumption and increased physical activity. Repeated cross-sectional, multicentre, two-arm, single-blind, parallel-group, cluster-randomised controlled trial including ECEC providers in the UK. The randomisation was conducted by a statistician who was blinded to ECEC provider identity, with allocation within each local authority area and by ECEC Index of Multiple Deprivation scores to minimise differences between arms. Participants were not blind to allocation. Co-primary outcomes after 12-months were child average total energy consumed per eating occasion in the ECEC (lunch or snack) and child accelerometer-assessed total physical activity on ECEC days. Secondary outcomes were moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sedentary time, energy served and consumed at lunch and snacks, diet quality, and Body Mass Index z-score. The senior statistician and majority of co-investigators were blinded. Analysis was intention-to-treat. Trial registration is ISRCTN33134697 and is completed. Between 14 March 2022 and 25 March 2024 we enrolled 52 ECEC providers (25 intervention; 27 control) and 835 2-5 year-olds (401 intervention, 434 control). The co-primary outcomes were assessed 12 months after baseline with data provided by 382 children for nutrition and 244 children for physical activity. There was no evidence of a difference in the co-primary outcomes compared to control of average kcal per eating occasion in ECEC (adjusted geometric mean ratio 0.86 (95% CI 0.72-1.03; p = 0.09)) or total physical activity (adjusted mean difference (aMD) -2.13 min (95% CI -10.96 to 6.70; p = 0.64)). There was evidence of lower lunch energy served (aMD -69.1 kcal per occasion (95% CI -116 to -22.2; p = 0.004)) and consumed (aMD -67.7 kcal per occasion (95% CI -118.6 to -18.7, p = 0.009)) with the intervention. There was no evidence of differences in other secondary outcomes. No adverse events were reported. NAPSACC UK did not improve average kcal per eating occasion in ECEC or physical activity. Lower lunch energy servings and consumption closer to recommendations were observed as secondary outcomes. The lower fidelity to the intervention than intended and staffing pressures give insight into interpretation of the null result. Therefore, we recommend that policy-level and statutory changes, which require low agency by individual ECEC settings are research and policy priorities for nutrition and physical activity in ECEC. National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR):127551.

Children's learning and development is shaped by their early experiences and environments. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) is a set of programs and services provided to children from birth to school years that supports their learning and development. Availability of quality ECCE programs is vital for the development of not only children and families but also communities and countries. High quality ECCE programs have certain structural and process characteristics. One of the most important determinants of quality in ECCE programs is the quality of professional workforce serving children and families. In order to increase quality, there should be systems and supports for the training and development of high quality ECCE professionals. This chapter takes a look into Turkey, outlines its preservice education for ECCE teachers, presents a national in-service training project, and offers implications for practice. There need to be effective policies and strategies to cultivate a high-quality workforce in early childhood education and development across the world.

This exploratory study sought to better understand the experiences and resources that pre-service early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers in British Columbia use in their emergent practice. The participants for this study were five female pre-service ECE teachers enrolled at a small British Columbia university. Participants were divided into two groups, the first comprised of 3 students enrolled in a two year diploma program in ECEC and the other comprised of 2 students enrolled in a four year BA program in ECEC. Both groups participated in one 90 minute interview at their university. The interview was semi-structured and posed questions about the experiences and resources participants use in their ECEC practice. Using a variety of qualitative methods, data were coded and analyzed for themes. The results from this study showed that for participants, the experience of being a pre-service teacher in a university education program, which included participating in practicum and reading course materials, was the main factor that was influencing participants‟ emergent ECEC practice. A number of other results emerged from this study as well. These were participants‟ desire for professional community, a perception that ECEC was a temporary career and lastly, several implications of the BA program in ECEC, which was relatively new at the time of this study. The findings from this study suggest that the experiences of pre-service ECEC teachers are crucial to planning and service delivery in ECEC and that more research is needed in this area, particularly in the province of BC. Recommendations were provided for both the BC provincial government and post-secondary institutions with ECEC teacher education programs to consider carefully the needs and experiences of pre-service ECEC teachers.

Growing evidence suggests that children’s participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC), especially center-based services, is associated with positive outcomes, particularly for children over one year of age and children of low socioeconomic backgrounds. This signals an important opportunity for reducing socioeconomic disparities in young children’s development. Many western countries have adopted policies to encourage maternal employment, facilitate ECEC service use, or both, often focusing on disadvantaged families. Yet few studies to date have tested the impact of these policies for reducing socioeconomic selection into ECEC. This study integrates data from five cohorts of children living in different western, high-income countries (UK, USA, Netherlands, Canada, and Norway; total N = 21,437). We compare participation rates and socioeconomic selection into ECEC across the different policy contexts in infancy (5–9 months) and early childhood (36–41 months). Policy environments where parents had access to at least 6 months of paid maternity/parental leave had lower ECEC participation in infancy but higher participation in early childhood. Higher participation rates were also associated with universal ECEC subsidies (i.e., not targeted to low-income families). In general, low income, low maternal education and having more than one child were associated with reduced use of ECEC. Selection effects related to low income and number of children were reduced in countries with universal ECEC subsidies when out-of-pocket fees were income-adjusted or reduced for subsequent children, respectively. Most socioeconomic selection effects were reduced in Norway, the only country to invest more than 1% of its GDP into early childhood. Nevertheless, low maternal education was consistently associated with reduced use of ECEC services across all countries. Among families using services however, there were few selection effects for the type of ECEC setting (center-based vs. non-center-based), particularly in early childhood. In sum, this comparative study suggests wide variations in ECEC participation that can be linked to the policy context, and highlights key policy elements which may reduce socioeconomic disparities in ECEC use.

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to investigate the characteristics of early literacy beliefs held by early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers in Japan by developing a novel scale. We believed that overviewing ECEC teachers’ beliefs about early literacy from ecological perspectives would contribute to understanding the underlying factors influencing the quality of early literacy instruction and involvement in ECEC. To this end, 349 ECEC and 45 primary school teachers were asked to complete a two-part questionnaire dealing with (1) ECEC teachers’ literacy beliefs and (2) teachers’ general pedagogical beliefs. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three sub-categories of literacy belief – Direct instruction, Natural development, and Social interaction – and two sub-categories of general pedagogical belief – Adult-centred and Child-centred – and the relations between these sub-categories and background factors were then discussed. The results implied that considering the ecological perspectives of ECEC teachers affords a better understanding of effective practices to facilitate the early literacy experiences of young children in ECEC settings beyond differences in their educational tradition concerning early literacy. These perspectives include the influence of the educational tradition in each region, how ECEC teachers differ from primary school teachers, and the values shared by a particular ECEC facility.

This study investigates parental roles as the implication for sustainable Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) development in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State. The study employed cross-sectional survey research design method. A sample size of 100 families made of male and female in Kosofe Local Government Area, Lagos State were selected using four multi-stage sampling techniques to participate in the study. The questionnaire used for gathering data was a self-structured questionnaire. A Cronbach-alfa value of 0.88 was obtained from the pilot study carried out on the instrument. The data collected was analysed at univariate using simple percentage and bivariate using chi-square tool for hypothesis testing at the 0.05 level of significance. Finding from the study revealed that non-availability of a parent at home can significantly affect children’s effective learning in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Also, findings revealed that parent supportive roles can influence effective learning in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). Based on the study findings, it was recommended that: parents should devote more of their time to the upholding of their children by providing academic imperative like textbooks, good nutrients, writing materials etc pay less attention to their business or other activities and that government should endeavour to make work-place policies accommodating for a flexible working hours in order to encourage nursing parents to bond with their wards.

Specialized preschool programs can enhance the development of vulnerable young children at risk of special educational needs (SEN). Less is known about the potential of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provided for the general population. This study includes 2,857 children attending 141 ECEC centres in England and 310 with no ECEC. ECEC quality and effectiveness were assessed. Children’s scores on assessments of cognitive development, numeracy, and literacy, and teacher reports of socio-emotional problems at ages 5, 7, 11, and 16 years were used to identify risk of SEN (1 standard deviation beyond the mean). Trend analyses (none vs. low, medium, and high ECEC quality or effectiveness) examined impact of ECEC on risk for cognitive or socio-emotional SEN. Better quality and more effective ECEC reduced risk of cognitive SEN at 5, 11, and 16 years of age, with similar results for socio-emotional SEN. The discussion considers the consistency of the association between children’s ECEC experience and risk for SEN, which is found for alternative measures of ECEC, quality derived from observations and effectiveness derived from progress in child outcomes. These different sources for the ECEC measures add credibility to the results. Also the implications for policy and practice are discussed including the recommendation for universal provision of high quality ECEC and ensuring that the most at-risk populations receive the best ECEC available.

IntroductionLow- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often dedicate limited domestic funds to expand quality early childhood care and education (ECCE), making complementary international donor support potentially important. However, research on the...