Review of Research on the Issue of Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care

Internationally, many researchers have studied the issue of quality in early childhood education. This paper reviews what the term ""quality"" means, and how it is studied. First, the paper discusses international research trends and suggests two political strategies and two curriculum traditions that have led to two discourses: the discourse of evaluation and that of meaning-making. Then, Japanese research on the issue of quality is reviewed, and the paper clarifies that Japanese research has focused mainly on issues of quality that are related to professional development and what constitutes professional development for early childhood teachers. Finally, research on measuring quality is reviewed; this review shows that internal evaluation is needed and that there are differences between the evaluation performed by outsiders and that undertaken by insiders