Table 1 ECEC challenges and qualitative research

Creating coordinated national agendas for early childhood development that bring together education, health, family and community policies and programs, at national, provincial and local levels

Best/good practice studies, identifying

i. key drivers of policy and program reform

ii. the role of advocates, government ministers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

iii. organisational structures that support joined up action (national, provincial and local)

Building parent and community engagement in ECEC/ECD including increasing parental awareness the importance of ECEC and parents’ role

Studies of

i. successful/unsuccessful communication with parents and communities

ii. community liaison infrastructure

iii. parent perspectives, and how they can be influenced, including the role of parenting programs.

iv. Financing arrangements, legal instruments

Finding lower cost ways of supporting highly disadvantaged children

Studies of the best mix of universal and targeted services

Strategies and action focused on ethnic minority children

Studies focusing on successful and unsuccessful programs (including meta studies) for

i. building public servant and professional capacity

ii. building community member leadership capacity

iii. outreach

iv. ethnic minority teachers and teaching assistants

v. bilingual approaches

vi. cultural acknowledgement

vii. remote service delivery/mobile approaches

Enhancing workforce quality

Studies on the impact of working conditions on ECEC quality, and which conditions matter most for child outcomes

Persuading governments to invest in the more “invisible” components of quality

Cross country studies of

i. successful advocacy and leadership and

ii. where/why quantitative data has been effective in driving government commitment

Driving a radical change in the way health/education/family service professions and their agencies understand each other and to work together

Trials of

i. changes to initial training and professional development for professions, including multi-disciplinary elements

ii. coordinating infrastructure at local level

Parenting programs — identifying effective ones and linking to ECEC service delivery

Research on

i. extent to which high variability in outcomes is linked to implementation variability

ii. Enriching nurse or health worker delivered services with education messages/support for parents, especially for the 0–3s

iii. how to link formal delivery with informal/in home parenting support

Scaling up from successful trials

Studies that identify key elements of successful and unsuccessful scaling up including:

i. government/management oversight structures ii. timeframe and resourcing

ii. timeframe and resourcing

iii. local flexibility versus national prescription

iv. workforce development and working conditions