The aim of the article is to support critical consideration about what quality is and might be in ECEC. It argues that two different quality cultures -- understandings of what quality is, how it may be understood and supported -- intersect and create tensions in relation to the ECEC area in Denmark. One is analyzed as influenced by a transnational quality discourse, a specific regime of truth regarding quality as a phenomenon "out there" that must be defined and assessed to improve. This technical-instrumental quality culture needs to be balanced by a quality culture founded in pedagogy as a distinct perspective foundational for ECEC. Drawing on a continental tradition of pedagogy as a human science discipline the article offers a language and understanding of "pedagogical qualities." Such qualities refer to the attributes of pedagogy and go beyond what is easily disregarded as subjective in the prevailing quality culture. To identify such pedagogic qualities the article revisits empirical data from a narrative research project that explored pedagogic knowledge at play in ECEC professionals' practice. The article argues that a critical quality culture founded in thoughtful consideration and ethical balancing of pedagogical qualities is crucial for the sake of the children and our democratic society.