Education & Care

Resisting Neoliberalism: Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education and Care focuses on the professionalization of early childhood in Australia, Chile, England, Germany, Ireland and the United States.

The Wanda method: overview and steps forward  report is the result of an ISSA Peer Learning Activity and involved several members of the ISSA network.

WANDA is a method developed in 2010 in order to support professional group reflection, with specific attention to valuing each other, with respect towards the child, the family, the colleagues, the community. WANDA aims to improve quality in ECEC for children and families.

The specific objectives of the PLA were:

In many countries around the world, the early childhood workforce often experiences poor recognition for their work which translates to lower wages and qualifications, fewer opportunities for career development and inadequate professional development, in comparison with other professionals working to support older children and adults.

The early years workforce in England from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) compares conditions and characteristics of childcare workers with those in occupations that are often regarded as career alternatives.

The report highlights several key findings:

The brief entitled, California’s ECE Workforce: What We Know Now and the Data Deficit That Remains,takes a look at three recent resources centered on the early childhood workforce in California. These include:

1) local workforce data sources from three counties;
2) annual federal data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; and
3) California-specific data drawn from the 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education

Innovative approaches to continuous professional development (CPD) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Europe: Findings from a comparative review explores innovation as an aspect of in-service continuous professional development in ECEC.

Early Childhood Care and Education in Five Asian Countries seeks to consolidate early childhood developments in Asia as a basis for The Head Foundations further research and advocacy in this area.

A general overview of the ECCE landscape in the Asia-Pacific region is introduced by this resource. Country profiles are included as a way to share data on individual countries. These country profiles are presented through five aspects:

The Working in Early Care and Education in North Carolina workforce study provides comprehensive data on teachers, assistant teachers and directors in early care and education centers and on the licensed early care and education programs in which they work.

Data is provided from statewide surveys of the workforce from September 2012 through February 2013.

Other workforce studies can be found via the website listed below.

The 2018 Fostering Effective Early Learning (FEEL) study focuses on the importance of quality, and how to strengthen it in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. Extensive research demonstrates that the benefits of ECEC for children are increased when the service provider and educators are highly skilled and participate in professional development (PD), and the service is of high quality.