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Table 3.1 S ummary of Strategies for Building an Effective ECE Workforce Principles
Principles for good practice
Considerations for ECE workforce in low-resource settings
Attract
• Enhance status of ECE and ECE workforce through public engagement and communication. • Emphasize recruitment of high-quality, committed candidates with appropriate entry requirements (including educational, experiential, and dispositional requirements).
• Identify strong leaders in the field to enhance status and attract candidates (also see chapter 5). • Develop entry requirements to suit specific needs and contexts (that is, skills in linguistic diversity or working in emergency situations may be required in some contexts and not others) and then update or revise entry requirements as workforce becomes increasingly skilled.
Prepare
• Implement a range of certified and recognized pathways for training in ECE. • Equip ECE educators with appropriate and relevant contextually responsive skills, knowledge, dispositions, and competencies for working specifically in communityoriented ECE settings.
• Ensure ECE training is adequate for delivery of ECE curriculum. Use hands-on approaches that provide opportunities for experiential learning. • Ensure widespread availability to educators through flexible modes of training and professional development that respond to unique needs (geographical access and transport; diverse training contexts, including ECE in hard-to-reach communities or emergency situations; linguistic diversity). • Ensure training includes content on inclusive practices that address unique diversity in LMIC contexts (that is, children in slum areas; children of migrant workers; children in remote, ethnically and linguistically diverse communities). • Emphasize dispositions and skills that enable ECE educators to cope and respond (creativity in developing materials; advocacy for ECE; building community and multisectoral partnerships). • Ensure that attendance at training is rewarded and recognized. continued next page
