WHAT CONSTITUTES QUALITY IN
ECE
INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE
• To begin a discussion about “What does
quality in ECD mean for you in your context”
• To explore whether we can come up with a
common conception of what quality ECD
means for the sector
QUALITY
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It is an open-ended concept
It is a complex concept
It is a subjective concepts
Understandings are contested
A contemporary understanding of quality
acknowledges diversity and the notion of
‘both/and’ rather than the more dualistic
‘either/or’ approach
INFLUENCED BY TWO FACTORS
External factors - impinge on teachers
Factors that are internal to the teacherwill frame and influence practice
The teacher factor is probably the most
important factor
EXTERNAL FACTORS
• Administrative arrangements, including
school ethos and management
• Traditional ideologies
• Changing policies
• Availability of resources
• Training opportunities
• Professional activity within the sector
• Influence of parents and the local community
INTERNAL
• Teacher’s ideology
• Commitment and personality which combine
to make up her professional persona
• Teachers’ understandings of children and their
constructions of childhood
• Teachers’ belief systems, attitudes and values
towards teaching and learning will frame and
influence their practice.
WHAT DO WE KNOW
• A developmentally, contextually appropriate
and culturally relevant practice is important
• Children ought to acquire certain learning
characteristics that underpin successful lifelong learning
• A curriculum that foregrounds social justice
and equity is preferable
ASSUMPTIONS WE ARE MAKING
• We assume ECD is birth - 9 for the purposes
of this discussion
GROUP DISCUSSION
• Form 8 groups of approximately 5 people per
group
• Each group to please discuss 2 questions (as
allocated)
• The BRIDGE fact sheet will be handed out to
facilitate the discussions
• In your discussions include suggestions for the
future as far as possible
QUESTIONS
1. What type of support should we provide for pre-service and in-service student
teachers/practitioners and post-graduate students, and how could this be done?
2. How do structured play and informal learning contribute to quality ECD?
3. How does our current concept of curriculum contribute to quality in ECD?
4. What do we mean by quality assessment in ECD?
5. Discuss whether an ECD curriculum that favours/emphasises language, literacy and
mathematics leads to better quality.
6. Discuss what improvements might enable the current M&E systems to better
support quality in ECD.
7. What does partnering with parents contribute to quality in ECD?
8.What place does the children’s voice have in a quality ECD setting?