Factors influencing the implementation of collaborative approaches in early childhood development: comparing the cases of Guyana and Jamaica

• In Event: Collective action towards ECD

Proposal

Collaboration across sectors and stakeholders to support early childhood development is an important topic that has attracted increasing attention from scholars and practitioners in the field. Given the multiple, overlapping areas that support the development of young children, for example, health, education and social protection, countries around the world have adopted institutional arrangements that seek to connect disparate sectors and agencies working on different but related areas of ECD (Britto et al., 2013; Kagan, 1991, 1993; Kagan & Cohen, 1996; Schady et al., 2015; Umayahara, 2004; Vargas-Barón, 2009, 2013, 2015. There are many challenges faced in the efforts to bridge these institutional divides, prompting attention to what factors facilitate or inhibit collaborative interactions between sectors and stakeholders jointly pursuing early childhood development initiatives.

This paper explores factors that influence the implementation of collaborative approaches in early childhood development policy and planning. The paper presents an analytical framework that draws on collaborative management literature and builds on collaboration factors identified to support integrated education planning (Persaud, 2017). It includes contextual factors that frame the emergence of a collaborative approach that also shape how collaboration occurs across sectors, as well as operational factors – structural, technical and relational – that influence stakeholders’ abilities to work together (Persaud, 2022).

In the paper, the analytical framework is applied to two country cases from the Commonwealth Caribbean, Jamaica and Guyana, to explore its relevance and applicability in explaining collaboration experiences among stakeholders at the national policy-making level in early childhood development. The research findings, based on empirical fieldwork in these two countries between 2017-2018, show support for most of the factors hypothesized in the literature and reflected in the analytical framework, but also point to the complexity and interrelationships between these factors in intersectoral and interagency work. The paper argues that building a collaborative approach for ECD policy and planning extends beyond structural and technical elements to include relational factors, as well as the personal experiences, attitudes and abilities of stakeholders.

Key findings included the importance of structural types within which collaboration occurs, support from appropriate leadership; membership, policies and practices; adequate and conducive financing; appropriate resourcing and shared platforms for data and communication; and a shared understanding of the fundamental tenets of collaborative practice including trust, common visions and goals, consensus, recognition of interdependence and collaborative mindsets and skillsets.

References

Britto, P. R., Yoshikawa, H., Van Ravens, J., Ponguta, L. A., Oh, S. S., Dimaya, R., & Seder, R. C. (2013). Understanding Governance of Early Childhood Development and Education Systems and Services in Low-Income countries. New Haven, CT: Yale Child Study Center. http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/iwp_2013_7.pdf
Kagan, S. (1991). United We Stand: Collaboration for Child Care and Early Education Services. Teachers College Press.
Kagan, S. (1993). Integrating services for children and families: Understanding the past to shape the future. Yale University Press.
Kagan, S. L., & Cohen, N. E. (1996). Reinventing Early Care and Education: A Vision for a Quality System. ERIC. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED409121
Persaud, A. (2017). Integrated planning for education and development. European Journal of Education, 52(4), 448-459.
Persaud, A. (2022). Exploring Collaboration in Early Childhood Development: Comparing the Cases of Guyana and Jamaica. Teachers College, Columbia University.
Schady, N., Pérez Expósito, A., López Bóo, F., Kagan, S. L., Jalmovich, A., Hincapie, D., Flabbi, L., Cruz-Aguayo, Y., Cristia, J., & Berlinski, S. (2015). Drawing up an institutional architecture. In N. Schady & S. Berlinski (Eds.), The Early Years: Child Well-being and the Role of Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan. https://publications.iadb.org/handle/11319/7261
Umayahara, M. (2004). Inter-sectoral Co-ordination in Early Childhood Policies and Programmes: A Synthesis of Experiences in Latin America. UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000137510
Vargas-Barón, E. (2009). Going to scale: Early childhood development in Latin America. Washington, DC: The RISE Institute.
Vargas-Barón, E. (2013). Building and strengthening national systems for early childhood development. In P. R. Britto, P. L. Engle, & C. M. Super (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood development research and its impact on global policy (pp. 443–466). Oxford University Press.
Vargas-Barón, E. (2015). Institutional frameworks and governance for early childhood systems: Multisectoral coordination and integration. Investing against Evidence, 269.

Author

• Amlata Persaud, Childhood Education International