270 | Quality Early Learning
Creating early learning services that are guided by systems thinking and systems alignment is not for the faint of heart. Nor is this work for those who want instant success. Rather, this work needs patient, recurrent longterm vision, support, and scholarship. In the long run, understanding the potency of systems thinking to advance early learning services is among the most pressing needs and the greatest opportunities. Table 6.1 reviews the takeaways presented in this chapter.
Table 6.1 Chapter 6: Summary of Key Takeaways Background and challenges: A systems imperative • Early learning services need and rest on an essential infrastructure that entails seven elements: financing, governance, regulation and accountability, workforce capacity, data collection and use, family and community engagement, and links with other services. • All seven elements of infrastructure combine with early learning services to form a system. All elements need to work in harmony with the service to deliver quality early learning. • Understanding how diverse system elements interact with one another to support quality early learning is a prerequisite for its advancement and scalability.
Systems that frame early learning services • Although many systems affect young children, both the ECEC system and the education system are crucial for the delivery of early learning services. • Alignment between the ECEC and education systems is limited, but critical for delivering quality early learning services. • To achieve alignment and to scale early learning services, elements of the infrastructure in both systems, such as compensation, training, pedagogy, regulatory requirements, and measures of quality, must be aligned.
A systemic approach to aligning and delivering early learning • Early learning is the bridge that links the ECEC and education systems; it must be considered a part of both, even if its position in each of these two host systems varies across time and context. • Systemic fragmentation between the ECEC and education systems remains a reality. • Systems thinking is essential to advancing early learning: it can lead to institutional reforms, reduce challenges of transitions for children, and boost efficiency and quality of learning.
Implementing quality early learning by addressing complex systems • To implement quality early learning services, it is important to structure those services to suit the context, prioritize continuity among institutions and systems, and sustain capacity at the provider and leader levels. • The benefits of institutional linkages for young children should be stressed to underlie implementation efforts. Source: Original table for this publication. Note: ECEC = early childhood education and care.
