6.2 The Elements of the ECEC System

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Figure 6.2 The Elements of the ECEC System

ECEC SYSTEM

DIRECT SERVICES (for example, infant and toddler care, nursery, childcare, prekindergarten, kindergarten, early learning programs)

Pillar I Strong policy foundations

Context Policies Engagement

INFRASTRUCTURE

Pillar II Comprehensive services, funding, and governance Services Funding Governance

Pillar III Knowledgeable and supported teachers and families Workforce Leadership Families

Pillar IV Informed, individualized, and continuous pedagogy Pedagogy Individualization Continuity

Pillar V Data to drive improvement

Child data Program data Research

Source: Original figure for this publication adapted from Kagan 2019. Note: ECEC = early childhood education and care.

and states, and have found effective ways to engage populations and smoothly link levels of government.

Second, ECEC systems are built on physical and fiscal structures that ensure the stability and quality of the services; they have specific early childhood governance structures that seek to encourage transparency and coordination among programs and services, thus fostering their collective efficiency and equity. Third, strong ECEC systems provide for their people. The workforce is well trained and justly compensated, thus reducing turnover; leadership is cultivated and prepared; and families are meaningfully engaged in programs and services. Fourth, ECEC systems provide childcentered, individualized pedagogy that promotes continuity of experiences and learning for young children. Finally, strong ECEC systems plan for the collection and use of data to improve direct pedagogical services for children, the quality of programs, and the overall design of services. ECEC systems also boast research capacity that addresses the challenges inherent in delivering diverse services to young children and their families.

The Education System

Unlike ECEC systems, which are still emerging, long-established education systems that plan and deliver educational services to their populations exist

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in all countries. In addition to being well established, education systems are an acknowledged part of the social fabric of nations and regarded as essential to societal advancement and well-being. Education systems enjoy attitudinal supports such that their existence is not questioned. In part, this support may occur because there is a general understanding of the purposes of education, what schools do, how they function, and why they need to be supported. In short, these givens mean that in all countries education systems are accepted realities, underpinned by values and mechanisms that institutionalize them across time and place.

Globally, education systems share similar goals; they exist to expedite and provide educational services that are high in quality, equitably distributed, efficient, and sustained over time. Beyond stated goals that are both transparent and reasonably consistent, education systems are characterized by specified hierarchies, clearly delineated boundaries, and sophisticated infrastructure. Most education systems function with defined governance and administrative hierarchies in which lines of authority are crisp and decision-making powers are clearly distributed. For example, education systems boast defined boards of education that are distinct from their administrative personnel. Individual schools within the education system function primarily under the aegis of the public sector with considerable public fiscal support, although private sector educational services are becoming more widespread.

In addition, most education systems adhere to federal, state, and local regulations that pertain to all schools and consider public input in their governance, with such input carrying considerable sway in many countries. In other words, hierarchies, with their established governance and accountability mechanisms, are clear. Additionally, most education systems delineate different kinds of boundaries. They have specified “catchment” areas where their schools and services are located and for which they have responsibility. They set boundaries regarding the ages of children who are required to attend school. And they clearly delineate boundaries regarding who can be employed in the schools, typically establishing requirements for personnel, salary levels, and common salary schedules. Finally, education systems have sophisticated infrastructure: they have professional pipelines to prepare teachers through institutions of higher education, organized accountability and data procedures, and consistent funding and governance mechanisms.

Important to note, although countries conceptually regard education in general as an essential part of the social infrastructure and share clarity of hierarchies, boundaries, and broad infrastructural elements, the educational services they provide and how they provide them vary considerably. Indeed, they vary on most operational characteristics (for example, ages of compulsory attendance, per student expenditures, number of days that constitute a year, intensity and duration of

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monitoring, and number and range of services for diverse populations). They also vary on the amount of their fiscal commitments to education (OECD 2019) and the ways in which they engage with the private sector and other systems (health, welfare, social services). Indeed, systems and how they change differ in no small measure because they are contextually contoured by their sociocultural (for example, values, beliefs, heritage, religion) and economic-political (for example, demographics, social thinking and movements, government leadership, funding) contexts (see annex 6A).

Comparing ECEC and Education Systems

As noted, ECEC and education systems are quite different, in part because they are centered on different developmental stages, and are regarded somewhat differently by the public. Mature, stable, and deeply embedded in the social fabric of nations, education systems are the bedrock of societies and—in many communities—the center of community life. Their very patterns of being, replete with unique histories, cultures, and belief systems, are well instantiated and sometimes reluctant or impervious to change, as countless scholars have long noted (Lightfoot 1978; Sarason 1971; Wagner 1994) and innumerable practitioners can attest. Moreover, they have well-honed infrastructure that helps foster coherence among schools. By contrast, ECEC systems are still in formation, emerging often without public understanding or public support. Fragile, shifting, and still malleable, ECEC systems are quite porous given that their functions and structures are still being defined. Given these differences, it is both challenging and inaccurate to equate ECEC and education systems.

Despite these differences, ECEC and education systems are both rooted in their contexts. Both are concerned with advancing learning and seek to provide rich educational opportunities that are culturally, developmentally, and contextually appropriate. Moreover, they both rest on infrastructure that needs support. Although operationally manifesting quite differently, the pillars and building blocks applicable to ECEC systems globally and described in figure 6.2 apply to education systems. For example, most education systems include the capacity to monitor and regulate their services and routinely have dedicated entities to collect, process, and use data for instructional or management improvement. How they do this (with what frequency, for which children, using which measures) varies, but education systems develop data to drive improvement (pillar V). Similarly, all education systems seek to engage knowledgeable and supported teachers and families. Although they have diverse requirements for teachers and different approaches to fostering their pedagogical quality, education systems address this pillar (pillar III) as well as the others proffered for

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ECEC systems. Moreover, both ECEC and education systems need public understanding and support to foster their quality and durability in an ideal scenario (pillar I).

In addition to these structural similarities, the two systems share a critical link, notably their efforts to advance children’s quality early learning experiences. Increasingly, they both serve young children, sharing the intention of supporting early learning. They understand that the early years lay the important foundation for later learning, and they retain commitments to advancing children’s “readiness” for and success in school.

The Alignment Challenge

Because ECEC and education systems exist independently from one another, all too frequently they have only modest interactions and limited alignment. Even though they sometimes serve children of the same ages and have a similar focus on learning, ECEC and education systems often have quite distinct philosophies and pedagogies with regard to early learning (Kagan and Tarrant 2010; Pianta, Cox, and Snow 2007; Sameroff and Haith 1996). As noted, they often have personnel who are prepared and compensated differently, and they have different programmatic regulatory requirements and different approaches to and measurements of quality. They are often financed and governed quite differently, with ECEC services sometimes functioning primarily in the market sector and educational services in the public sector. Consequently, these contextual differences pose a major challenge for those concerned with advancing early learning services. The task at hand, then, is not only to build functional ECEC systems that honor developmental theories and methodologies but also to align them with the values and orientations that prevail in the more established education system. Determining how to create continuous early learning opportunities that both transcend and link ECEC and education systems is the issue to which the chapter now turns.

Key Takeaways

• 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.