Provider Perspectives on Family Child Care Quality

As excitement around the promise of high-quality early childhood education has burgeoned in recent years, newfound attention is being paid to the millions of individuals who make their living caring for and educating young children every day: the early care and education (ECE) teaching workforce. One of the most popular policy levers aimed at systematically improving the quality of ECE programs has been the incorporation of higher education requirements for early childhood educators. The basic logic is that by regulating “structural quality” (e.g. teachers’ levels of formal educational attainment), policymakers can positively impact “process quality” (e.g. the ways in which early educators interact with young children).  

However, the research evidence to support this theory of change is both ambiguous and incomplete. One particularly pressing gap in the literature is the lack of information about home-based family child care (FCC) providers. This poster will present findings from approximately 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with diverse FCC providers in New York City, New York and Boston, Massachusetts. Giving voice to caregivers and educators themselves, this project augments the current policy discussion by centering the perspectives of those most directly affected by these changes.

While nearly all interviewees held degree attainment in high esteem, most interviewees also shared a deep ambivalence regarding the assumption that a degree is a good indicator of teacher quality. Rather, our interviewees saw higher education as a mechanism through which their existing skills and competencies could be validated. When asked about the most impactful forms of professional development they had engaged in, our respondents talked about alternative forms of education including coaching, workshops, and peer networks.  

The definitions of quality that our interviewees shared with us were less uniform. With additional data collection and analysis, we plan to dig deeper into these differences, paying particular attention to racial and cultural differences. It appears that researchers, policymakers and family child care providers are acting on very different understandings of what comprises quality ECE and the ways in which it can be promoted. These discrepancies highlight the degree to which the nuanced and insightful perspectives of family child care providers themselves have been marginalized. Our interviews highlight that there is much to learn by honoring the expertise of those who do this important work every day.