Highlighted Session: Results from a regional study on early childhood education policy and its implementation in Central America and the Dominican Republic

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Early childhood education is crucial for the cognitive, emotional, and social development of individuals (Shonkoff, 2015). It is known to have a positive impact on the first years of a child´s life since it is a period of extensive growth and development, in part because of the many changes that occur at the cortical level (Conti & Heckman, 2012). Evidence reveals that high quality educational programs are those that help children develop fundamental skills for lifelong learning (Ferrer, 2019; Llach, 2017). Therefore, investing in strong early childhood programs is a fundamental base for anchoring human development policies. Access to quality educational opportunities for young children contributes to improving social equity and closing inequality gaps, especially for the most disadvantaged. In this study, early childhood education is defined as programs of formal and non-formal education offered to children from birth up to primary school.

The Central American and Caribbean Early Literacy Network (RedLEI) is made up of seven Central American Universities based at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG). RedLEI’s purpose is to produce and promote research that influences public policies focused on improving education in Early Grade Literacy (EGL) in the LAC region. The organizations that have joined UVG as RedLEI founding members are the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán in Honduras; the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua; the Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas" in El Salvador; the Universidad de Costa Rica; Universidad Especializada de la América in Panama; the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic, , and the Central American Education and Cultural Coordination within the Central American Integration System.

This regional study, conducted by RedLEI between August 2020 and October 2021 analyzes early childhood education policies, their implementation, and their alignment with research evidence. The study characterized the policies of six countries in the region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. This study answered the following four research questions:

1. What does the evidence say about best practices in early childhood education?
2. What are the characteristics of early childhood education policy in the region?
3. What are the characteristics of the implementation of early childhood education in the region?
4. What is the alignment between the evidence on quality early childhood education with the region's education policy and its implementation?

The first step was a literature review on best practices in early childhood education. Next, we conducted a document analysis to identify ECE policies in each of the countries of study. These were then reviewed against the best practices to determine if and to what extent they were aligned. To answer the research questions, we triangulated the data collected from the analysis of the relevant literature, a documental analysis of policies and their implementation, and interviews with key stakeholders in each country. This qualitative, document review-based methodology was designed in part due to the limitations of conducting fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data collection was conducted following the ethical principles of human subject's research. The Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala reviewed the research protocol and gave its approval in November 2020. Verbal informed consent was requested from each person interviewed. The data collected was stored in a digital file available to RedLEI for future research.

The purpose of this panel is to provide an overview of the state of early childhood education and emergent literacy in the region. In addition, we will share the evidence framework we developed based on best practices to analyze the region’s ECE policies. Next, we will present the methodology of the study and the instruments used to collect data, and finally we will share the study results and implications for future research. The panel will be divided into four presentations covering the following topics:

● State of Early Childhood Education and Emergent Literacy in Central America and the Dominican Republic
● Evidence framework of best practices for ECE
● ECE regional study methodology and instruments
● ECE regional study findings and implications

Each of the four presentations will last up to 15 minutes. The remaining 30 minutes will be open for discussion with the audience. Questions and comments will be encouraged from the audience during this time.

Sub Unit

• Global Literacy SIG

Chair

• Rebecca Stone, Creative Associates International

Individual Presentations

• Context of Early Childhood Education Policy and Emergent Literacy - Lourdes Natalia Guzmán, Red para la Lectoescritura Inicial de Centroamérica y El Caribe (RedLEI)/Universidad del Valle de Gu

• The Conceptual Framework and Methodology for Early Childhood Education Policy - Ingrid Nanne, Universidad Del Valle De Guatemala

• Study findings and implications from Early Childhood Education in Central America and the Dominican Republic - Sandra Zuñiga, Universidad Del Valle De Guatemala

Discussant

• Maria Josefina Vijil, Juarez