Family, friend and neighbor (FFN) child caregivers represent a significant proportion of caregivers for young children. Yet, these caregivers receive little support for their services. In 2003, the First 5 California Children and Families Commission (First 5 California) began a study to determine the work-related needs of FFN caregivers in…

Today we often hear that early care and education is becoming or should become a profession. In this article, the authors discuss what it means to be a profession, and a professional and consider how these characteristics apply to the field of early care and education now and in the future. Professionals possess specialized knowledge and…

The FAAIR Coalition was created to address the growing career development movement and its impact on family day care. FAAIR is an acronym for Flexibility, Attainability, Affordability, Inclusiveness, and Respect for others. The coalition was founded in 1992 in response to a draft Professional Development Model for family day care providers…

This study sought to determine if family child care providers and center caregivers: (1) seek training for different reasons; (2) hold varying opinions regarding the best source of training according to content area; (3) demonstrate differences in training content obtained; and (4) use different training sources for a variety of training topics.…

This article is concerned with the continuing staff shortages in Australian long day care services. To expand possibilities for addressing this ongoing problem, the article advocates the use of discourse as a theoretical and practical tool for reframing discussions about staff shortages. Drawing on discourses of crisis and professionalism as…

As part of the Child Care Aware initiative's 5-year process evaluation, this report describes the findings of a survey of 2,095 family child care providers, concerning the type of training they received through the initiative and issues related to accreditation and professionalism. Child Care Aware was sponsored in community sites, promoting the…

Noting that in many areas, family child care providers lack both available training to enhance their professional skills and an organized professional network for continual support, this practicum project implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of a curriculum to prepare family child care providers for state certification through a community…

Serving as a vehicle for raising the profile of and thereby gaining recognition for the important research and development work being conducted in Canada in support of children and families, the "Research Connections Canada" series compiles research and/or development papers as well as background papers, analytical literature reviews,…

Describes the development and features of an innovative field experience program, in the form of an internship, for early childhood student teachers, as part of a four-year Bachelor of Education Degree at Australia's University of Newcastle. Discusses participants' perceptions of the internship as a professionalizing experience. (HTH)

High quality training is necessary to ensure that early childhood and child care practitioners are equipped to meet the diverse needs of the children and families they serve. This book presents the professional development partnership model of The Center for Career Development in Early Care and Education, a strategy to build a comprehensive career…

The principal aims of the Tipton Childminding Project, begun in 1994, were to increase access to and quality of training and support for childminders and caregivers in England's Tipton Challenge area, to increase the number of childminders and child caregivers from all sections of the community, to promote interagency initiatives to develop links…

This report presents information collected at a pre-conference roundtable on various aspects of mentoring programs which are seen as a potential solution to the staffing crisis in early childhood education. Part 1 defines the terms "mentoring" and "mentoring programs." It describes the nature of the relationship between mentors…

This final report describes the activities and outcomes of Project TIES (Towards Inclusion in Early Education), a federally funded demonstration model training program designed to enhance the abilities of child care providers and trainers to include young children, birth to five, with disabilities in developmentally appropriate child care…

Used focus group discussions to determine child care providers' opinions about the content of training necessary for providing quality care and providers' beliefs about the level of training and education required for child care workers. Examined findings in terms of providers' perceptions of professional worth and the design of educational and…

Project REACH is a specialized 2-year training program building on the strengths and addressing the limitations of rural Missouri child care providers. The mission of the project was to improve the quality of rural child care and children's cognitive and social development by providing child care providers with local training, support,…