“Our quality is a little bit different”: How family childcare providers who participate in a Quality Rating and Improvement System and receive childcare subsidy define quality

This research uses focus group methodology to examine how a specific subset of family childcare providers—those participating in a voluntary quality rating and improvement system and serving a high percentage of children receiving childcare subsidy—define quality. The study builds on the limited existing research about family childcare quality, especially research focused on understanding quality from the perspective of the childcare provider. A total of 28 family childcare providers participated in three focus groups where they were asked to define quality and to describe high- and low-quality programs. Qualitative analysis revealed four themes: relationships, supporting children’s learning, the physical and temporal environment, and personal professionalism. These results can inform how quality improvement initiatives and professional development systems support and engage family childcare providers.

Parents’ and teachers’ perspectives on changes in childcare quality in the United States, Russia and Finland

<p>This article reports on the findings of a follow-up study, which examined parents’ and teachers’ perspectives regarding the quality of childcare for 3- to 5-year-old children in the United States, Russia and Finland between 1991 and 2011. The study aims to address a gap in early childhood education (ECE) research by examining how the quality of ECE has changed in international settings over the past decades, thus expanding comprehension of the diversity within the ECE phenomena and its culture-specific nature. With a focus on the quality of ECE, this study examines the parents’ and teachers’ perspectives on key elements of the implementation of ECE in childcare centres: programme structure, curriculum goals, the role of parents and teachers as partners in children’s lives, as well as children’s satisfaction with their childcare. The results indicate that there have been differences in ECE quality between the studied societies both in structural aspects as well as in process and effect factors in all data collection cohorts. It seems that ECE quality and the changes within it may be connected to ECE policy based on the societal values. The results suggest that to understand ECE and its pedagogy, one has to be aware of the value-laden cultural contexts in a society</p>

Conducta de exploración, bienestar emocional y calidad del cuidado en educación infantil

<p>The aim of this study was to examine the relation between the process and the structural childcare quality and children exploration behaviour in infant centres. The study also examines how the quality affects the relation between children´s wellbeing and exploration. 206 children of 40 classrooms of 20 day care centres were included in the sample together with the teacher of each classroom. The children´s age range was between 37 and 64 months (<em>M </em>= 50.96, <em>SD</em> = 6.54). Results indicated that children with more sensitive teachers showed higher exploration. However, there was no moderate effect of the sensitivity concerning the positive relation between exploration and well-being. Finally, although to a lesser extent, some factors associated to structural quality also influenced exploration.</p>