Towards circles of care and education: Exploring understandings of quality in early childhood development

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Towards circles of care and education: Exploring understandings of quality in early childhood development
 
Creator O'Keeffe, Lucy R. Southwood, Susan L. Hayes, Nicci
 
Subject — early childhood development; quality; social constructionism; participatory; polyphonic; appreciative; circles of care and education
Description Background: Early childhood development (ECD) is increasingly being recognised as vital for the care and education of our children, particularly in countries such as South Africa where vast social disparities have a significant influence on development and well-being.Aim: This study aimed to explore and develop understandings of quality in early childhood care and education in a particular setting.Setting: The setting of this community research project is a small rural town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The project is facilitated by a non-governmental organisation affiliated with a university in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, working with participants from two neighbourhood hubs. This study coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: Located in a social constructionist paradigm, the research methodology may be described as participatory, polyphonic and appreciative. Responses from simple, positively constructed questions, framed by dimensions of an ecological systems model, were interrogated through a multilayered process of content analysis.Results: Analysis of the data led to a range of themes and evidence of significant role players, around quality ECD. These were developed into two simple frameworks, capturing conceptual and contextual aspects of quality ECD: ‘Quality Early Childhood Development’ and ‘Circles of Care and Education’.Conclusion: The juxtaposition of the conceptual and contextual frames is offered as a simple, yet comprehensive, tool to scaffold ongoing research and support further development of quality ECD practice.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-05-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Appreciative inquiry
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v12i1.1061
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 12, No 1 (2022); 13 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1061/2102 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1061/2103 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1061/2104 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/1061/2105
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Lucy R. O’Keeffe, Susan L. Southwood, Nicci Hayes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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