About Canada: Childcare

Martha Friendly, Susan Prentice

In Canada, early childhood education and care includes childcare programs, kindergartens and nursery schools. When these programs are well-designed, they support children’s development and accommodate parents who work or study. About Canada: Childcare answers questions about early childhood education and childcare (ECEC) in Canada. Why doesn’t Canada have an ECEC system, even though other countries do? Why is ECEC so important? What is missing in Canada’s ECEC landscape and why? Can ECEC programs be designed as wonderful environments for young children or are they merely necessary but not particularly desirable places to keep children safe while mothers are at work? Is ECEC primarily a public good, a private family responsibility or an opportunity for profit-making? Early childhood education and childcare is a political issue, the authors argue, and Canada needs an integrated system of services. The absence of a universal publicly funded ECEC system is detrimental to families, women and children and Canada’s future. 

”This accessible and engaging book should be required reading for all early childhood education students. Students will get the ‘big picture’ of ECEC issues, politics and policy in Canada and learn what should be done to build a well-designed publicly funded universal system–there isn’t another book that does this.”–Dr. Rachel Langford, Director of the School of Early Childhood Education, Ryerson University.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: Why is Early Childhood Education and Childcare Important? What We Know
• Chapter Two: Taking Stock of Early Childhood Education and Childcare in Canada: What We Do
• Chapter Three: Early Childhood Education and Childcare: What’s Missing in Canada?
• Chapter Four: How did We get Where We Are? A History of Child Care and Early Childhood Education in Canada.
• Chapter Five: Politics and Policies: Explaining Childhood Education and Care in Canada
• Chapter Six: The Great Childcare Debates
• Chapter Seven: How Canada can Do Better: Moving from Vision to Action

About the Authors

Martha Friendly was educated in the United States, majoring in psychology as an undergraduate, and studying social psychology at the graduate level at the University of Connecticut. Before moving to Canada in 1971, she became involved in child care/early childhood education as a researcher studying the American Head Start program at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Following her immigration to Canada, she worked on child care research at the Social Planning Council of Metropolitan Toronto. She became a research coordinator at the University of Toronto’s Child in the City program (at the Centre for Urban & Community Studies) in 1978.  Martha founded and is currently coordinator of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit. She has authored numerous articles, chapters and reports on child care and a book on child care policy, and participates in several child care advocacy groups.

Susan Prentice is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Manitoba, where she specializes in family, gender and public policy. Her most recent book is Changing Childcare: Five Decades of Child Care Advocacy and Policy in Canada (2001, Fernwood Publishing) She is a long-time childcare advocate and works closely with community groups.

Excerpt

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