Résultats de recherche

1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The Early Years Project was organized around four goals: To document the changes and their impact in communities on the four provinces that have made changes to both kindergarten and child care since 1990; to investigate how kindergarten and child care combine to meet the needs of children and families; to document similarities and diferences in kindergarten and child care; to obtain the views of parents, teachers, child care staff and key informants on current early childhood education and prospects for the future. » (p. 1)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« The findings in the study are based on information gathered via: surveys of 275 parents and 122 practitioners; face-to-face interviews with practitioners: 20 kindergarten teachers and 19 child care staff; focus grops with parents (45 participants); program observations in 21 kindergartens and 19 child care programs; key informant interviews (28) with policy-makers from four levels of government and representatives from the early childhood education community. » (p. 2)

Instruments :
- Questionnaire téléphonique structuré comportant des question ouvertes et fermées;
- Focus groups.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

« The Early Years Project is an invesitigation of early childhood education programs for kindergarten-age children in four Canadian provinces. Supported by Human Resources Development Canada and sponsored by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, it is the first study of its kind to investigate how kindergarten and childcare combine to meet the needs of children and families in communities in four provinces. It is the first study to describe recent changes in early childhood policies and programs, and to explore possibilities for future action. It is the only early childhood education research in Canada that combines qualitative and quantitative data as well as the results of program observations to describe and analyze current situations, the impacts of the changes and prospects for the future. Research took place in communities in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. Because the provinces are very different from one another in the way they implement early childhood education, they provide the project with ready-made laboratory for examining contemporary early childhood education issues. » (p. 1)