Early Years Study Final Report

The Early Years Study 3 documents the social, economic and scientific rationale for increased investments in early childhood education. It also introduces the Early Childhood Education Index to monitor the funding, policy, access and quality of early education programming. Early Years Study 3: Making decisions, taking action builds on the work of the first Early Years Study: Reversing the real brain drain (1999). This landmark report became a conversation-changer, sparking widespread interest in how experiences in early childhood shape the architecture and function of the brain, with lifelong consequences for the individual and for society. Early Years Study 2: Putting science into action focused on the policy framework necessary to improve conditions in early childhood, with a view of improving the health of the population. Together, the three Early Years studies argue that if we truly wish to provide our children with an equal opportunity to maximize their potential, it is vital that we do everything we can to enhance their early development. Our survival as a species will depend on our children acquiring the skills they will need to cope with the social and environmental revolutions of the 21st century. Canada's tomorrow depends on our ability to leverage what we know into policies and practices that support families and benefit children today. Now, as never before, knowledge needs to be harnessed to serve not just every individual in our society, but every society around the globe.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

What are the new benchmarks for the future in good early years’ provision? What should children and parents expect from practice given recent research evidence on how young children thrive? Developing and managing early years provision has changed significantly over the last few years. Parental expectations, policy creep, bureaucracy overload, inadequate training, a litigious climate, over-dependence on screens, traffic danger and child protection anxiety are among the many challenges now faced by early years providers. This timely new book explores the key issues faced by settings and what they mean for early years practice. Looking at the real evidence around children’s learning and wellbeing, parental preference and social trends, the book covers: Neuro-scientific research into the way children learn What parents know and expect Children’s wellbeing The indoor and outdoor environment Adult intervention The risk/benefit equation Nutrition, health and exercise Drawing on examples of outstanding practice from a wide range of settings, this exciting new book will help practitioners reach beyond what is expected and provide the very best for the children in their care.

Using case studies and real situations, this book highlights the important contribution that Foucault and other post-structural theorists can make to research and practice in early childhood services.

This book analyzes different figurations of childhood in contemporary culture and politics with a particular focus on interdisciplinary methodologies of critical childhood studies. It argues that while the figure of the child has been traditionally located at the peripheries of academic disciplines, perhaps most notably in history, sociology and literature, the proposed critical discussions of the ideological, symbolic and affective roles that children play in contemporary societies suggest that they are often the locus of larger societal crises, collective psychic tensions, and unspoken prohibitions and taboos. As such, this book brings into focus the prejudices against childhood embedded in our standard approaches to organizing knowledge, and asks: is there a natural disciplinary home for the study of childhood? Or is this field fundamentally interdisciplinary, peripheral or problematic to notions of disciplinary identity? In this respect, does childhood force innovation in thinking about disciplinarity? For instance, how does the analysis of childhood affect how we think about methodology? What role do understandings of childhood play in delimiting how we conceive of our society, our future, and ourselves? How does thinking about childhood affect how we think about culture, history, and politics? This book brings together researchers working broadly in critical child studies, but from various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences (including philosophy, literary studies, sociology, cultural studies and history), in order to stage a conversation between these diverse perspectives on the disciplinary or (interdisciplinary) character of ‘the child’ as an object of research. Such conversation builds on the assumption that childhood, far from being marginal, is a topic that is hidden in plain sight. That is to say, while the child is always a presence in culture, history, literature and philosophy—and is often even a highly charged figure within those fields—its operation and effects are rarely theoretically scrutinized, but rather are more likely drawn upon, surreptitiously, for another purpose.

This review of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in twenty OECD countries describes the social, economic, conceptual and research factors that influence early childhood policy.