Researcher's and parents' perspectives on quality of care and education

• Published in: Early child development and care 2013-02, Vol.183 (2), p.294-307
• Main Authors: Rentzou, Konstantina, Sakellariou, Maria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: assessment of quality; Child Care; Classrooms; Correlation; early child care and education; Early Childhood Education; Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (Revised); Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale - Parent Questionnaire (ECERS-PQ); Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale - Revised (ECERS-R); Educational Quality; Foreign Countries; Greece; Greek day care centres; Infant Toddler Environment Rating Scale; Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS); Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale - Parent Questionnaire (ITERS-PQ); Katz's model; Parent Attitudes; Parents; Preschool Education; Preschools; Program Evaluation; Quality of care; Questionnaires; Researchers; Stakeholders; Student Attitudes; Teacher Attitudes; top-down and outside-inside perspectives of quality
• ISSN: 0300-4430; 1476-8275
• DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2012.673486

Based on arguments according to which the concept of quality is multifaceted, difficult to be defined and defined differently by various stakeholders, it has been suggested that the quality of care and education be evaluated from different perspectives if one aims to create a global picture of the early childhood education and care programmes. The present study aimed to examine the level of quality and care provided by Greek preschool programmes from the researcher's and parents' perspectives and verify whether they evaluated using the same mechanism. Correlation analysis indicated that the parents rated the quality of care and education provided by their child's classrooms higher compared with the researcher. The age and level of education were found to correlate with the parents' ratings. Thus, the type of setting was found to correlate both with the researcher's and parents' ratings. The research results suggest that the quality of care and education is a relative concept and, substantiating the previous research results, highlight the need to take into account the perspectives of all those involved (parents, children and educators) when attempts are being made to define and evaluate the quality.