Ingunn Størksen, Ragnhild Lenes, Dieuwer ten Braak, Megan McClelland, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
{"title":"Quality in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care: Progress, Persistent Challenges, and Recommendations for the Future","authors":"Ingunn Størksen, Ragnhild Lenes, Dieuwer ten Braak, Megan McClelland, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff","doi":"10.1007/s10643-024-01770-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>In Norway, children aged one to five years can attend subsidized and publicly regulated Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers. These centers focus on holistic child development through play, care, and learning. Therefore, Norway should be capable of providing young children with the best possible ECEC environment, thereby laying a solid foundation for their future school success. However, Norwegian 15-year-old students score at or below the average in mathematics, reading, and science compared to students in other OECD countries, and average scores are declining OECD (PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The state of learning and equity in education, 2023). Several factors may contribute to Norwegian students’ average or below-average school performance, e.g., pedagogical weaknesses that were present even before school, in ECEC. An OECD report from 2015 pointed out several challenges in the Norwegian ECEC quality (Early childhood education and care policy review Norway, 2015), related to factors such as structural standards, monitoring of process quality, lack of independence of inspections, lack of understanding regarding monitoring, and insufficient monitoring practices. In this paper, we present: (1) Norwegian policy initiatives implemented in response to the OECD report, and (2) Research conducted after the OECD report on the quality levels of Norwegian ECEC, along with findings from interventions designed to improve quality. Based on this, we discuss the progress since the 2015 OECD report and highlight continuing challenges and important next steps to secure high ECEC quality in Norway for all children. We find that several policy initiatives have been implemented but observed ECEC quality levels after the 2015 report are still in the medium to low range.</p>","PeriodicalId":47818,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Education Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Early Childhood Education Journal","FirstCategoryId":"95","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01770-1","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In Norway, children aged one to five years can attend subsidized and publicly regulated Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers. These centers focus on holistic child development through play, care, and learning. Therefore, Norway should be capable of providing young children with the best possible ECEC environment, thereby laying a solid foundation for their future school success. However, Norwegian 15-year-old students score at or below the average in mathematics, reading, and science compared to students in other OECD countries, and average scores are declining OECD (PISA 2022 Results (Volume I): The state of learning and equity in education, 2023). Several factors may contribute to Norwegian students’ average or below-average school performance, e.g., pedagogical weaknesses that were present even before school, in ECEC. An OECD report from 2015 pointed out several challenges in the Norwegian ECEC quality (Early childhood education and care policy review Norway, 2015), related to factors such as structural standards, monitoring of process quality, lack of independence of inspections, lack of understanding regarding monitoring, and insufficient monitoring practices. In this paper, we present: (1) Norwegian policy initiatives implemented in response to the OECD report, and (2) Research conducted after the OECD report on the quality levels of Norwegian ECEC, along with findings from interventions designed to improve quality. Based on this, we discuss the progress since the 2015 OECD report and highlight continuing challenges and important next steps to secure high ECEC quality in Norway for all children. We find that several policy initiatives have been implemented but observed ECEC quality levels after the 2015 report are still in the medium to low range.
期刊介绍:
Early Childhood Education Journal is a professional publication of original peer-reviewed articles that reflect exemplary practices in the field of contemporary early childhood education. Articles cover the social, physical, emotional, and intellectual development of children age birth through 8, analyzing issues, trends, and practices from an educational perspective. The journal publishes feature-length articles that skillfully blend 1) theory, research, and practice, 2) descriptions of outstanding early childhood programs worldwide, and 3) quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research. Early Childhood Education Journal is of interest not only to classroom teachers, child care providers, college and university faculty, and administrators, but also to other professionals in psychology, health care, family relations, and social services dedicated to the care of young children.
Areas of Emphasis:
International studies;
Educational programs in diverse settings;
Early learning across multiple domains;
Projects demonstrating inter-professional collaboration;
Qualitative and quantitative research and case studies;
Best practices in early childhood teacher education;
Theory, research, and practice relating to professional development;
Family, school, and community relationships;
Investigations related to curriculum and instruction;
Articles that link theory and best practices;
Reviews of research with well-articulated connections to the field