Conditions for Moving Beyond “Quality” in Canadian Early Childhood Education

“Service narratives of quality preclude possibilities for early childhood spaces that welcome diversity, plurality, inclusion, democracy and the experimentation necessary for today’s complex conditions (Moss, 2017). Pedagogy and curriculum become marginalized by conversations focused on profit and efficiency (Dahlberg, et al., 2013; Moss, 2019). A service model of early childhood education (ECE) sees parents as consumers purchasing a commodity in a childcare marketplace; it values business principles above educational intentions (Moss, 2019). It relies on universal, measurable indicators of quality such as child/caregiver ratios, educator qualifications, the presence or absence of particular classroom materials, and adherence to routines and practices understood as developmentally appropriate” 

- Early Childhood Pedagogies Collaboratory ().

Read Conditions for Moving Beyond “Quality” in Canadian Early Childhood Education, an occasional paper co-written by Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (n.d.), from the Early Childhood Pedagogies Collaboratory.

After reading the paper, take some time to reflect and capture your reflections in your journal: 

  • In what ways will you foster environments that address the challenges outlined? 

  • How will you respond to the conditions outlined for deepening pedagogical work in early childhood education spaces? 

References

Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2013). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (3rd ed.). Routledge. 

Moss, P. (2017). Power and resistance in early childhood education: From dominant discourse to democratic experimentalism. Journal of Pedagogy, 8(1), 11–32. https://doi.org/10.1515/jped-2017-0001

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Taylor, A., & Blaise, M. (n.d.). Weaving pedagogy in early childhood education: On openings and their foreclosure.
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