Press Room

Family Day Care Training: A Research and Development Project
by Lee Dunster

The Family Day Care Training Project began in the fall of 1996 with an informal discussion by a small group of individuals about caregiver training needs. By January of 1997, six provincial family day care associations, two national associations and a Canadian university had formed a partnership and received funding from Child Care Visions, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) to undertake Phase One of the Family Day Care Training Project. Phase One, the research phase of the project was completed in March, 1998. Phase Two, the development phase commenced in April, 1998 and will conclude in March, 2000.

This project represents important firsts in family child care in Canada. It is the first time that organizations representing both regulated and unregulated home child care have had the opportunity to work together at a national level. It is also the first time that work has been undertaken at a national level to identify and seek to address the training needs of family child care providers in Canada.

From the project’s inception, the sponsoring organizations were committed to ensuring that the project was national in scope, involved key provincial and national organizations, and most importantly, involved caregivers directly in every possible way.

Phase One

Phase One, completed in March of 1998, served as the research phase, allowing us to:
. bring together, synthesize, and critically analyze what we have and what we know about caregiver training;
. identify gaps in training resources and training programs;
. identify effective methods of delivery, guiding principles and core content for caregiver training; and
. identify mechanisms to ensure that all caregivers and communities have access to training that is flexible, innovative and appropriate to individual and community needs.

How We Defined Training

Very early in the planning stages around the research, the steering committee and research team identified an issue that could prove problematic. Training can and does take many shapes and forms and it was important that we define as clearly as possible how we, for the purposes of this research, were defining training. Throughout this project, we have received strong support for the definition we arrived at from caregivers, trainers, researchers and government representatives:

Training includes any opportunity provided to caregivers to learn new skills or enhance existing skills, or to learn information that builds caregivers’ competence, self-confidence, personal empowerment or network of support. We see training as an ongoing process of professional development or lifelong learning. By this definition, training and learning opportunities include a range of activities such as home visits, written or audio-visual resource materials, mentoring, workshops and certificate courses.

How We Sought Information

Over the course of Phase One we conducted focus groups across the country and spoke with 145 family child care providers. Through additional focus groups and key informant interviews we also spoke with more than 150 policy makers, trainers, researchers, advocates and parents who use family child care. The indepth qualitative data was complemented by a national survey of 258 organizations that offer training opportunities to caregivers. A synthesis of our research findings was developed and widely distributed. The research phase culminated in a National Symposium which brought together 60 key people in the family child care and the broader child care community to share and build on our findings from the research phase and determine future directions.

Phase Two

The Issues

Phase One of this project confirmed what we thought to be the most fundamental barrier to caregivers in accessing training. There is relatively little training available in most of Canada, especially for those who are among the majority of caregivers who do not work within the regulated sector. Even when training has been made available, caregivers are often unable to access it. Caregivers report limited time, energy, and financial resources as important barriers to accessing training. Programs and organizations offering training also frequently reported distance, scheduling conflicts and the lack of training resources and qualified trainers as well as limited resources to promote training opportunities as barriers. All these are clearly important barriers that must be addressed.

Yet it is apparent from our research that solutions to these practical barriers must be partnered with action on more fundamental issues. Caregivers did not simply tell us that training needs to be available and inexpensive. They want training opportunities that demonstrate both respect for their profession and an understanding of the meaning of quality care in the same ways they do. Training opportunities that allow them to network with their peers, reflect and build on their knowledge and experience, provide them with better returns on their investment of money, time and energy, and lead to some recognition within the child care community and the broader community.

Our findings made it clear that there is a need for a training program: that can be delivered in a variety of ways, responsive to individual learning styles and needs and to community needs; that builds on caregivers’ existing knowledge and experience and recognizes the unique and specific responsibilities of caregivers’ work; that allows caregivers opportunities to network with their peers; that involves caregivers in development and delivery; and that is recognized by their peers and the broader community. There is also a need for training to prepare experienced, knowledgeable caregivers and program staff to take on the role of trainers. Further, there is a need to build on existing partnerships and forge new partnerships among educational institutions, organizations and associations involved in caregiver training or those with the potential to become involved in caregiver training.

Where Do We Go From Here?

We have now entered the development phase of the project where we intend to develop a family child care training program, a comprehensive resource that:
. covers the basic information and skills necessary to provide quality care in a way that is practical and relevant;
. meets the needs of caregivers in Canada:
. is adaptable and responsive to individual and community needs;
. includes learner needs assessment and prior learning assessment;
. is modular, each module covering a key training area. The module may include detailed content, learning outcomes, examples, exercises, lists of other resources and evaluation tools;
. includes tools to promote implementation through a variety of training models (e.g., distance education, small group, classroom)
. includes train-the-trainer tools;
. is consistent with the Standards of Practice developed through the Partners in Quality Project;
. is consistent with the Guiding Principles for Family Day Care Training;
. is based on the content that emerged from Phase One;
. is developed by the family day care community using a consensus-building process; and
. can be further expanded in the future for specialized or advanced training.

Guidelines Principles for Caregiver Training

Part of the purpose of this project is to develop a framework that will help all those involved in developing and delivering caregiver training to maintain a clear understanding of how they can help caregivers, and in turn how they can improve the quality of family day care. While content guidelines and suggestions for delivery strategies and overcoming barriers to participation are a significant part of our work, it is necessary to go beyond that. To meet caregiver and community needs and to maximize the potential that training opportunities provide, we have begun the important work of developing Guiding Principles for Family Day Care Training.

Truly a collaborative effort and a living document, our guiding principles were first developed by the steering committee based on the research findings, further refined at the National Symposium, and broadly distributed to the family child care community through our Training Connection newsletter for feedback and input. We earnestly encourage you to review these principles and provide feedback to us on your views.

1. All caregivers must have access to high quality learning opportunities that are affordable and appropriate to their needs and that enable them to provide quality care to children.

2. Training must be broadly defined to meet the needs of caregivers, incorporate best practices in adult education, recognize and build on caregivers’ knowledge and experience, and include a range of learning opportunities responsive to the needs of the individual learner.

3. Training must support and enhance the caring, nurturing role of the caregiver.

4. Training must provide opportunities for networking and mutual support.

5. Training must be responsive to community needs, reflect the diversity of the communities served and be inclusive of natural community partnerships.

6. Training must provide opportunities for caregivers to play an active role in the development and implementation of training programs.

7. Training must provide mechanisms for individuals to assess their learning and must provide recognition for achievement.

8. Training must include evaluation of the training program’s effectiveness.

9. Training must provide a vehicle to develop the skills necessary to work towards strengthened professional identity.

National Family Day Care Training

Project Sponsors:
Canadian Child Care Federation
FRP Canada
School of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Community Services, Ryerson Polytechnic University
Alberta Association of Family Child Home Agencies
Family Home Child Care Association of Newfoundland and Labrador
Home Child Care Association of Ontario
Manitoba Child Care Association (recently merged with Family day care Association of Manitoba)
Ontario Network of Home Child Care Provider Groups
Western Canada Family Child Care Association of British Columbia

Principal Researcher:
Andrew Taylor, Centre for Research and Education in Human Services

Project Staff:
Lee Dunster, Project Director
Nancy Disalvo, Support Staff

Further information on the training project:
National Family Day Care Training Project, 2085 Alton Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 1X3.
Phone: (613) 731-1991; fax: (613) 731-7975; e- mail: dunster@sympatico.ca