A Review Of (Organizational) Pedagogical Frameworks Of Child Day Care In Upper Austria

Hascher, Tina; Deibl, Ines (12 September 2013). A Review Of (Organizational) Pedagogical Frameworks Of Child Day Care In Upper Austria (Unpublished). In: European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) - "Creativity and Innovation in Educational Research". Istanbul, Turkey. 10.-13.09.2013.

Previous results of national and international empirical studies show that the quality of day care facilities has a significant impact on the development of children (ECCE-Study Group, 1999). Research confirms that higher quality in child care is generally associated with more desirable child outcomes than child care of poorer quality (Lamb, 2000). Consequently, quality assurance strategies like criteria setting via plans and frameworks for child care are important as they are expected to have sustainable effects on the quality of educational processes by implementing specific measures, e.g. in terms of staff qualification.

Depending on the perspective, there are different demands on such a plan or framework. Hereby it is important to differentiate between the professional’s perspective and the perspective of the organization. While the whole organization relies on a relatively general framework, the framework in terms of educational processes for staff members should be as precise as possible in order to get a conceptual clarity (Bostelmann & Fink, 2007, p.17). Mischo and Fröhlich-Gildhoff (2011) point out that plans and frameworks differ in terms of depth, pedagogical orientations or its binding characters. Thus, research is needed to evaluate the quality of plans and frameworks.

The external evaluation of implemented pedagogical approaches of child day care facilities in Upper Austria is an important first step towards quality assurance and calls for further research. Descriptions as well as evaluation of “visionary statements”, “the use definition of goals and concepts” and “service descriptions” are necessary elements of an effective quality assurance system.

The present study aimed at identifying the quality of pedagogical frameworks composed for the first time by staff of 477 day-care institutions during February and November 2012. In addition, it also aimed at providing feedback on the possibilities and necessities for improvement in terms of quality assurance.

The quality of a pedagogical framework, however, is only one possible indicator of child care quality. As a next step it will be necessary to evaluate the child day care facilities with the same catalogue of criteria. Consequently, questions about the transfer of pedagogical frameworks into practice will be raised.

Method

In order to conduct the evaluation, a set of categories was established along the relevant theoretical approaches and prior findings as well as locally existent frameworks which are obligatory on a professional basis for all day-care facilities. The main focus when selecting the criteria was put on the Early Childhood Rating Scale (ECERS; Harms, Clifford & Cryer, 2005; Tietze & Viernickel, 2007) as well as on the Austrian educational framework (Bildungsrahmenplan 2009), a general framework which sets basic guidelines for the institutions of kindergarten, pre-school day care and after-school care. The established set of criteria takes the physical, emotional, social and intellectual well-being of kids into account. Furthermore, it accounts for the development of the kids in day care and, complementary parents in their educational task based on an educational partnership.
Based on this background 477 written pedagogical frameworks of kindergarten, pre-school day care and after-school care have been analyzed using the software package MAXQDA. Qualitative content analysis of Mayring (2010) was used to evaluate the pedagogical frame-works. Based on 15 categories, we calculated an overall quality score that ranged from 0 to 95 points.

Expected Outcomes

Although the majority of the frameworks describe the status quo of the day care facilities adequately, only a few frameworks mention pedagogical arguments in categories such as »arranged group structure« or »accession arrangements«. In terms of improvement necessity the following categories were identified: »healthcare and nursing care«, »language and communication, »children with special educational needs« and »external openness«; categories such as »the aims of the establishment«, »rooms and equipment« as well as »transitions phases« are represented on a professional level in 65% to 70% of the written frameworks.
Also, the volume and depth of the frameworks differ considerably. While some concepts provide sound descriptions of the kid’s activities and provide in-depth information of the day-care facility, other frameworks just rely on basic technical descriptions of the day-care facility. Considering the overall “quality-score” of the framework, only 7% of the frameworks reach a professional standard, scores 70 points and above. No single framework of pre-school day care institutions could reach a score more than 70 points. Only 8% of the kindergarten and only 9% of the after-school day care facilities are rated as “high-quality” frameworks based on the 15 mentioned criteria.

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