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Taylor, A. R., Dunster, L., & Pollard, J. (1999). ... And this helps me how? Family child care providers discuss training. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 14(3), 285-312.
This article featured findings from a survey of caregivers, stakeholders, and provider organizations to determine perspectives on availability, accessibility, motivation, content, and recognition.
The Study
- A key challenge for family child care providers is the development of effective and accessible training.
- While family child care is considered more personalized it is also more difficult to regulate. This in turn often leaves caregivers and their advocates out of the loop in reference to policy development.
- The biggest debates are around definitions of “quality.”
- Some argue that one problem with advancing family care professionally is the “ideology of motherhood” meaning that being a parent is the only needed qualification to deliver good care to other children.
- Three barriers to caregiver training included:
- Inconsistent research,
- Poor attendance at workshops, and
- Relevance of trainings.
The Methods
- For this study 298 Canadians involved in family child care were interviewed and written information was obtained from 258 organizations who offer family child care training.
The Findings
- Barriers to training included:
- Availability to family providers was inconsistence or nonexistent,
- Accessibility was a problem because many providers did not have a car,
- Training often does not equal better pay, and
- Recognition of family providers is often lower than for center providers.
- Caregivers wanted more respect and recognition from participating in trainings.
- Networking proved to be an invaluable tool to isolated family providers.
- Providers want to play an integral role in the development of pathways to professional development.
R2P Evaluation
Although this study was compiled in Canada there are still implications for U.S. audiences. Items to note were lack of availability, accessibility, and feelings of empowerment.
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