Reducing Inequalities by Investing in Early Childhood Education and Care

This report is the main output of “Translating Research into Policies for Quality and Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)”, a project guided by the OECD Network on ECEC and carried out by the OECD Secretariat throughout the 2023-24 biennium. The report is the eighth instalment of the OECD Starting Strong series of policy reviews in the ECEC space.

In line with previous OECD work on ECEC, the project provided research-based policy advice to help countries promote access to high-quality, equitable and inclusive ECEC. The project findings bring an international perspective on the strengths of different policy approaches to achieve these goals across a range of cultural and institutional contexts that reflect the diversity of OECD member countries.

From a methodological standpoint, the project focused on supporting the process of translating research into policies. The notion that policies should build on robust scientific evidence has gained prominence among education policymakers and is already widely subscribed to in ECEC. However, this does not imply that fit-for-purpose evidence is available to address all ECEC policy questions nor that, when available, evidence can be mechanically translated into policies. Research findings can call into question existing policies and practices and lead to new interrogations, but the highly contextual nature of education policies means that outcomes depend strongly on how they are implemented under specific conditions and constraints.

This chapter describes the efforts of the project to translate recent research into policies that promote high-quality, equitable and inclusive ECEC. The chapter is divided into three sections, which examine the project objectives, methodology and milestones of the knowledge mobilisation process.

Countries aim for ECEC systems that lead to positive developmental, learning and well-being outcomes for all children, as part of a broader landscape of policies to support young children and their families and reduce inequalities in the early years. Evidence-based policies are crucial to advance in this direction. Over the last two decades, significant scientific progress has been made in understanding the factors that shape early child development, learning and well-being, fuelled primarily by advancements in neuroscience but benefiting also from the growing attention that education and social sciences pay to early childhood. Different disciplines offer complementary knowledge on how children develop and learn, on the interactions and practices that can best support children in their early years, and on the contexts in which these occur. This knowledge holds promise for policies that set strong foundations for life-long learning and socio-emotional well-being and resilience. However, translating research into policies is a complex endeavour. One reason for this is that research is often focused on determining the success or failure of a policy initiative but less so on identifying the conditions and design features that can explain these results, which is crucial information for deriving policy implications (Gormley, 2011[1]) (Donovan, 2013[2]). Further, the elements and processes required for implementing and scaling-up successful interventions, particularly in different contexts, are rarely well understood (Britto et al., 2018[3]). Without strong connections between researchers and policymakers, the potential for research to be meaningful for policies is reduced.

The main goal of the project was to build on recent research on child development, learning and well-being to identify areas strengthening ECEC policies while considering countries’ specific contexts and needs, as well as challenges related to policy implementation. A core element of the approach was to facilitate repeated and structured exchanges between a multidisciplinary group of expert researchers on the principles and contexts influencing child development, learning and well-being and representatives of governments involved in the design of ECEC policies (the OECD ECEC Network), with the two groups engaging in a collaborative review of evidence that could inform directions for improving ECEC policies. From its inception, the goals and methodology of the project were developed in close co-operation with country representatives from the OECD ECEC Network.

The project built on knowledge developed by past reviews of the Starting Strong series. It continued to investigate policies in the five dimensions of the Starting Strong analytical framework: i) curriculum and pedagogy, ii) workforce development, iii) quality standards, governance and financing, iv) family and community engagement, and v) assessment and monitoring. The project provided a meaningful opportunity to explore the topic of family engagement in greater depth than past ECEC policy reviews. Further, the project investigated the alignment of ECEC policies with a broader range of policies and services targeted at families with young children.

Another goal of the project was to identify key policy indicators that could be regularly collected and make first strides towards the design of an international database of ECEC policies that would enable a mapping of ECEC systems in OECD countries on features promoting quality and equity in ECEC. It did so by reviewing available indicators from multiple data collection initiatives co-ordinated by the OECD, including previous instalments of the Starting Strong policy reviews, the international survey of the ECEC workforce survey (Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) Starting Strong), and data collected in the context of the Informal Working Group on ECEC for the Indicators of Education Systems (INES), as well as by reviewing indicators available from sources external to the OECD.

The methodology adopted by the project built on established practice for OECD policy reviews on ECEC, which involves a close collaboration between countries and the OECD Secretariat. It combined desk-based analysis, involvement of ECEC experts and peer-learning activities as inputs to strengthen a collective understanding of the features of high-quality, equitable and inclusive ECEC systems. However, the methodology was adapted to specifically address the challenge of translating research into policies through a collaborative process.

Conceptually, the methodology aligned with a knowledge mobilisation framework. More extensive and effective “knowledge mobilisation” – defined as “intentional efforts to increase the use of research evidence […] in policy and practice at multiple levels of the education sector” (Cooper, 2014, p. 29[4]) – and ”knowledge mediation” – understood as “connections between evidence production and use with the overt purpose of bringing together producers and users of evidence” (Gough et al., 2011, p. 23[5]) – have been on the agenda of many governments and organisations including the OECD, where the “Strengthening the Impact of Education Research” project represents the most visible initiative (Box 2.1).

Perspectives on knowledge mobilisation have moved away from linear research transmission towards a relationship model and, more recently, a systems approach (Best and Holmes, 2010[6]). This gradual shift is motivated by evidence showing that making research findings accessible and disseminating them to policymakers and practitioners, as well as building relationships between different communities through partnerships and networks, are both necessary but not sufficient conditions for effective research uptake (OECD, 2022[7]). Recent perspectives emphasise that education stakeholders are embedded in complex systems, and the whole system needs to be activated to establish connections among its various components. To date, however, most knowledge mobilisation initiatives have fallen short of establishing consistent systemic models (OECD, 2022[7]).

In alignment with linear and relationship models of knowledge mobilisation, the project promoted a collaborative translation of research into ECEC policies through a structured process called ‘evidence-informed deliberative stakeholder engagement’. This derives from a family of approaches for structuring conversations between stakeholders to discuss and appraise available evidence with the aim of informing policy making in a controlled way on an identified topic. These approaches have been adapted for education policy making building on their original development and application in the healthcare sector (OECD, 2023[8]).

In the evidence-informed deliberative stakeholder engagement approaches, relevant evidence is understood to include both “hard” evidence from professional research activities as well as “colloquial” evidence that derives from context-specific professional knowledge. Research evidence is thus expected to inform rather than dictate policy discussions and there is an acknowledgement of the need to combine and reconcile evidence and values. In turn, deliberative stakeholder engagement refers to iterative and structured dialogues leading to informed decision-making based on facts, in which representatives of various stakeholder groups take part (see Annex A, Workshop 2). In this context, a quality evidence use in education can be defined as “…critical engagement with the research evidence, shared deliberation about its meaning and effective integration of aspects of the evidence within practice” (Rickinson et al., 2022[9]).

With respect to their impact on decision-making, evidence-informed deliberative activities have been found to support ethical and accountable policy decisions in highly politicised policy areas; to enhance the legitimacy of policy design based on deliberation that identifies how values can be combined with evidence to arrive at a decision; and to facilitate discussions of evidence between stakeholders on high-stakes topics. Positive impacts on participants have also been documented, including the acquisition of new knowledge and a stronger culture of research use within organisations; and improved stakeholder involvement and satisfaction with strategic planning processes (OECD, 2023[8]).

The “Translating Research into Policies for Quality and Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care” project was organised around three distinct but interrelated stages:

• Stage 1: Identification of policy questions and advancements in research. The first stage unfolded over the first half of 2023 and pursued two parallel objectives. The first was to identify ECEC areas or challenges where policymakers perceived a need for additional or updated research evidence to inform policy directions in their countries. The second was identify, across multiple disciplines, recent research advancements leading to the emergence of novel perspectives on the drivers and contexts that matter for child development, learning and well-being, as well as results that could be mobilised to inform some aspects of ECEC policies. Stage 1 started with a consultation to members of the ECEC Network to identify countries’ policy priorities and derive a list of topics and questions for discussion throughout the project. The outcomes of this consultation were discussed by the ECEC Network in March 2023 alongside other aspects of the project, such as the criteria for the composition of the multidisciplinary expert group and potential formats and approaches to organise exchanges between the two groups, collect inputs and prepare the conclusions of each meeting. Stage 1 also included a first workshop with experts, wherein research developments on the principles and contexts for healthy child development were discussed.

• Stage 2: Implications for ECEC policies. The second stage overlapped with the last months of Stage 1 and spanned throughout the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024. The objective of this second stage was to derive implications for ECEC policies from recent research evidence, looking particularly at the areas and challenges of major interest countries (as identified during the initial consultation) where new and meaningful research developments had been identified. This connected to questions on the specific policy levers that would need to be adjusted, on the obstacles and unintended possible negative consequences of policy changes, and on the general directions for strengthening ECEC policies, recognising context dependencies. Discussions during Stage 2 focused on evidence-informed policy strategies and approaches of potential relevance across countries, without delving into country-specific considerations. The main activities carried out in Stage 2 were four project workshops addressing specific policy areas and challenges.

• Stage 3: Directions for updating ECEC policies at a country level. The objective of the third stage was to build on the findings from the previous stages of the project to examine policy questions of particular relevance to the five countries that engaged in the policy review in greater depth: Australia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Japan and Korea. The goal was to investigate how the ECEC policies of these countries could be adapted in the future to better align with recent research evidence, taking into account their contexts and policy priorities. Stage 3 aimed also to extend discussions on the parameters for implementation of potential policy changes. Activities undertaken in Stage 3 included in-depth consultations with the five participant countries and two additional project workshops addressing policy questions emerging from these consultations.

Two major actors were involved in the process of translating research into ECEC policies: the OECD Network on ECEC and a multidisciplinary expert group established for the project. The OECD Secretariat supported the collaboration between these two actors.

The OECD Network is a unique knowledge-sharing platform for policymakers working on developing ECEC policies. Members of the Network include representatives from countries’ ECEC policymaking agencies, typically Ministries of Education or other institutions in charge of ECEC policies. The expertise of the ECEC Network, a long-standing body of the OECD, helped identify areas of current ECEC policy for which inputs from the latest research developments could be particularly relevant. Across the different activities of the project, 14 presentations of recent policy developments were provided by members of the Network representing Canada, Finland, France, Germany (2), Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and Portugal, as well as by invited representatives from Singapore. The list of topics and policy initiatives covered in these contributions and the names and affiliations of presenters can be found in Annex A.

Members of the multidisciplinary expert group were selected on the basis on their fundamental and policy-oriented expertise in areas deemed of relevance for the project, but also with the goal to cover a broad range of scientific disciplines (see Annex A). This included their research contributions to areas related to child development, learning and well-being as well as their past engagement in ECEC or broader education policy discussions. Experts were expected to provide inputs from specific fields of research and to establish a dialogue with members of the ECEC Network and other experts with an interdisciplinary perspective.

The size of the multidisciplinary expert group was not predetermined, and the project followed a mixed approach regarding the contributions of experts, inviting the majority of them to become involved on an occasional basis and a smaller number to remain involved in the work more regularly. Overall, this served to engage a larger and more diverse set of experts, thereby expanding the breath of expertise and the range of cultures and approaches to child development represented in the group, while also supporting analytical consistency across the project stages and activities through the more stable involvement of a subset of experts. Consideration was also given to including experts who could engage in meaningful discussion with the five countries that participated more actively in Stage 3 of the project.

Across its multiple activities, the project secured contributions from 28 expert researchers working across 13 OECD countries (Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and international organisations (International Labour Organisation). The names and affiliations of the experts and the research topics addressed in their contributions can be found in Annex A.

The project promoted regular and structured exchanges between the ECEC Network and the expert group to ensure the relevance of research insights for policymaking. A core element of the methodology consisted in exploiting complementarities between the two groups, ensuring that contributions from the expert group addressed policy priorities identified by the ECEC Network and provided meaningful input for the design and implementation of ECEC policies. The roles adopted by the two groups across different stages of the project were as follows:

• In Stage 1, the ECEC Network indicated areas where input from experts on recent research evidence was sought. Additionally, three experts presented recent developments on the principles and contexts for healthy child development to the ECEC Network.

• In Stage 2, the ECEC Network and the multidisciplinary expert group discussed implications of new research for ECEC policies. These discussions took place during various project workshops.

• In Stage 3, the expertise of the ECEC Network was sought for peer-learning discussions on how ECEC policies could be updated in specific countries and jurisdictions in light of recent research evidence. The two groups discussed how barriers to change could be overcome, building on experts’ inputs and on the concrete experience of members of ECEC Networks on policy design and implementation.

The collaborative process for translating research into ECEC policies embraced by the project resulted in three major outcomes: i) the identification of key policy priorities for the policy review, ii) the organisation of project workshops, and iii) work with the five countries that engaged in the policy review in greater depth as part of Stage 3.

The first stage of the project started with a consultation to the ECEC Network to identify countries’ policy priorities and derive a list of topics and questions for discussion. The OECD Secretariat distributed a questionnaire in February 2023 to gather input from countries, jurisdictions and key partners on their ECEC policy priorities and areas of research interest.

The Secretariat received 26 responses to the consultation questionnaire. The responses came from 22 different countries and two partner organisations. Of these, 16 responses related to the entire ECEC sector in the corresponding countries, six responses were specific to pre-primary education (ISCED 02), two responses were specific to ECEC for children under age 3, and two responses did not specify.

Countries were asked to answer two main questions:

• What are the high-priority ECEC policy areas for which you would like to engage with the multidisciplinary group of experts to review, revisit, update or develop policies in your country or jurisdiction?

• What are the main research areas on children’s development, learning, and well-being that you would like to learn about in order to review, revisit, update or develop ECEC policies in your country or jurisdiction?

The questionnaire included examples of potential policy and research areas, which were intended to give an idea of the type of responses countries could provide, while allowing respondents to also provide responses not included in these lists. Countries were encouraged to note their own priority areas for both policy and research. Responses to the questionnaire included a mix of new suggestions and support for the examples provided for both policy and research areas.

Results from the consultation phase underscored the high priority that countries and jurisdictions represented at the OECD ECEC Network place on ensuring more equal opportunities and inclusion through ECEC. Promoting equity is a long-standing goal of policies and investments related to ECEC. Equity and inclusion are also high-level goals that require policy action on various fronts to achieve. In light of these results, the Secretariat proposed to adopt equity and inclusion as the overarching priority and theme for the Starting Strong VIII policy review.

To support this high-level priority, results from the consultation phase also indicated two main policy directions to be considered: i) quality of ECEC for all children, particularly those from vulnerable families; and ii) co-ordinated systems and services, including supports for families. Results of the consultation also served to identify a number of policy levers where recent research evidence could be considered within each of these policy directions that are reflected in the themes covered in the chapters of this report.

A series of seven project workshops were organised throughout 2023-24 to promote regular and structured exchanges between a multidisciplinary group of researchers and members of the Network on the theme of achieving equity and inclusion through ECEC. All workshops involved representatives of both the ECEC Network and the multidisciplinary expert group, and were designed to provide opportunities for direct interaction, alternating between online and hybrid formats and taking place between and during regular meetings of the ECEC Network, respectively. Besides providing opportunities for evidence-informed policy discussions, the workshops were also designed to showcase examples of relevant policy initiatives describing specific contexts and implementation challenges.

The full list of project workshops can be found in Annex A. A brief description of the first five workshops, corresponding to project Stages 1 and 2, is as follows:

• The first workshop (Stage 1) was held as a webinar in June 2023, under the title “Achieving equity and inclusion through ECEC: What research can bring to policies”. It discussed the potential of recent research developments in various disciplines to inform more effective policies for promoting equity and inclusion through ECEC.

• The second workshop (Stage 2) was held in October 2023 in hybrid format as part of the 32nd Meeting of the ECEC Network, under the title “Understanding and addressing gaps in participation and quality in ECEC”. It discussed the measurement, evolution and major drivers of those gaps, as well as policies to reduce them by addressing structural and indirect barriers to both access and high-quality ECEC services.

• The third workshop (Stage 2) was held as a webinar in December 2023, under the title “Co-ordinating services and organising ECEC provision”. It explored the interplay of ECEC with other support systems for young children and families, as well as how to situate ECEC within the landscape of policies to tackle early childhood inequalities.

• A fourth workshop (Stage 2) took place in hybrid format in April 2024 as part the 33rd meeting of the ECEC Network. The theme of the workshop was “Supporting inclusion in ECEC settings: Addressing children’s needs through pedagogical and organisational practices”. It discussed curriculum, pedagogical and monitoring practices that can support equity and inclusion policies in ECEC through their implementation at the setting level, as well as their implications in terms of professional development and the composition of staff teams.

• The fifth workshop (Stage 2) was held as a webinar in May 2024. It explored the theme of “Long-term equity and inclusion in ECEC: Lasting effects and sustainable provision models” by looking at the conditions for ensuring that impact of participation in and quality of ECEC are sustained over time, in particular for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Topics for discussions included evidence of and mechanisms behind long-lasting effects of ECEC, sustainable funding models and related monitoring processes.

Informed by the knowledge mobilisation framework discussed previously in this chapter, the project implemented a collective evidence appraisal methodology to structure exchanges between members of the ECEC Network and members of the expert group. An example of “evidence-informed deliberative stakeholder engagement” (OECD, 2023[8]), this approach was implemented in collaboration with the “Strengthening the Impact of Education Research” project (Box 2.1) The collective evidence appraisal methodology invited participants in hybrid project workshops to address questions on the generalisability of the data and findings presented by experts, as well as on the extent to which the evidence was fit-for-purpose for policy needs (Box 2.2).

The aim of Stage 3 was to apply the lessons learned from Stages 1 and 2 to investigate directions and conditions for updating existing or introducing new ECEC policies in individual countries, focusing on their national contexts to provide a tailored assessment rooted in research and attending to their specific policy goals and constraints.

Work in Stage 3 mostly focused on the five countries that engaged more actively in the policy review, namely Australia, Bulgaria, Ireland, Japan and Korea, but was purposefully designed to also benefit OECD members and accession countries at large given that initial consultations revealed some common ground between the policy priorities and some contextual aspects of these five countries and those of other members of the ECEC Network.

Following a virtual meeting in January 2024, in-depth bilateral consultations took place between the OECD Secretariat and each of the five countries participating in Stage 3. The objective of these exchanges was to discuss the key challenges faced by these countries’ ECEC systems and their current policy priorities and initiatives in the ECEC space. Building on this consultation exercise, the OECD Secretariat identified areas of convergence for policy priorities and made a proposal to participating countries regarding potential thematic foci for subsequent Stage 3 activities.

Work in Stage 3 continued with the organisation of two dedicated virtual workshops, which took place in June and October 2024 respectively. The format and focus of these Stage 3-specific workshops was determined in consultation with participating countries. The workshops included contributions from experts selected based on their areas of expertise or knowledge of national contexts, some of whom were already part of the multidisciplinary group of academics involved in project Stages 1 and 2. Other countries represented in the ECEC Network were also invited to provide presentations or take an active role in the discussions, and attendance remained open to all members of the Network.

A brief description of the two Stage 3 workshops, which built on previous project workshops, is as follows (see Annex A):

• The sixth workshop (first workshop of Stage 3) took place in June 2024 as a webinar addressing the theme of “Organising and funding ECEC systems and services for equal opportunities”. It included sessions on approaches for integrating and co-ordinating ECEC services, on funding models supporting equity in participation and access to quality services, and on collaboration between different government sectors and agencies.

• The seventh workshop (second workshop of Stage 3) was held, also as a webinar, in October 2024. It explored the theme of “Supporting inclusion and diversity in ECEC services” with a dual focus on policies to support children with special educational needs and policies to support social, cultural and linguistic diversity across ECEC settings.

A tailored policy note was subsequently prepared for each of the five countries participating in Stage 3, describing their context and policy priorities, taking stock of discussions during workshops, and providing policy pointers relating to the countries’ main policy priorities.

[6] Best, A. and B. Holmes (2010), “Systems thinking, knowledge and action: towards better models and methods”, Evidence & Policy, Vol. 6/2, pp. 145-159, https://doi.org/10.1332/174426410x502284.

[3] Britto, P. et al. (2018), “What implementation evidence matters: scaling-up nurturing interventions that promote early childhood development”, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1419/1, pp. 5-16, https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13720.

[4] Cooper, A. (2014), “Knowledge mobilisation in education across Canada: a cross-case analysis of 44 research brokering organisations”, Evidence & Policy, Vol. 10/1, pp. 29-59, https://doi.org/10.1332/174426413x662806.

[2] Donovan, M. (2013), “Generating Improvement Through Research and Development in Education Systems”, Science, Vol. 340/6130, pp. 317-319, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1236180.

[1] Gormley, W. (2011), “From Science to Policy in Early Childhood Education”, Science, Vol. 333/6045, pp. 978-981, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1206150.

[10] Gough, D. (2021), “Appraising Evidence Claims”, Review of Research in Education, Vol. 45/1, pp. 1-26, https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732x20985072.

[5] Gough, D. et al. (2011), Evidence Informed Policy in Education in Europe: EIPEE final project report.

[8] OECD (2023), Who Really Cares about Using Education Research in Policy and Practice?: Developing a Culture of Research Engagement, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/bc641427-en.

[7] OECD (2022), Who Cares about Using Education Research in Policy and Practice?: Strengthening Research Engagement, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d7ff793d-en.

[9] Rickinson, M. et al. (2022), “A framework for understanding the quality of evidence use in education”, Educational Research, Vol. 64/2, pp. 133-158, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2022.2054452.