Building an Effective Early Childhood Education Workforce | 155
Table 3.2 Chapter 3: Summary of Key Takeaways A valued, trained, and supported workforce is key for ECE quality • Early childhood educators have a critical role to play in creating positive physical and psychological environments for learning. They can help shape children’s educational outcomes and attitudes toward education through their skills and by motivating children. • The quality and capacity of the ECE educator are among the most important predictors of educationally rich classrooms and of overall ECE quality. • To be effective, ECE educators need to have a unique set of professional and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions that equip them with the motivation and drive to deliver high-quality educational experiences to young children.
ECE educators in low- and middle-income countries face unique challenges • Increasing professionalization can boost the quality of ECE educators, overcoming the current challenges in many countries of high informality and low qualifications, status, and pay. • Many ECE educators today are working in very challenging environments, which affects their own well-being and capacity to foster quality early learning. • Many countries need to address a severe shortage of ECE educators in rural areas to raise overall standards.
Principle 1: Attracting ECE educators to the profession • Recruitment of high-quality, committed candidates with adequate qualifications and desired dispositions is essential to the development of a thriving workforce. • Attracting ECE educators willing to learn and innovate should be a priority. • A set of minimum standards for compensation and recognition is required so that ECE educators feel valued and committed. • Well-established state support and consistent commitment to a shared vision for education contribute to a well-recognized, well-supported, and high-quality ECE workforce.
Principle 2: Professional preparation • To ensure that educators are adequately prepared to teach, they need appropriate preservice training and opportunities for in-service career development. • Short preservice training alone is unlikely to provide sufficient skills to equip ECE educators with the confidence and competence to deliver sustained quality. Ensuring educators have access to opportunities for ongoing support to nurture appropriate and relevant skills, competencies, and dispositions through in-service training is critical to quality.
Principle 3: Supporting ECE educators • Effective support systems are key to a thriving, high-quality workforce and should focus on valuing and supporting, not surveillance. • ECE educators need ongoing support; low-cost communities of learning backed by coaching of educators can help raise quality. continued next page
