Higher education qualifications for early childhood development educators : conditions for successful policy implementation

Abstract

Improving the qualifications of ECD practitioners is recognised by education specialists and researchers in the field as one of the measures to improve the quality of ECD programmes in general, and the educational preparation of preschool children more specifically. It is against a background of increasing focus on well-educated, well-trained professionals that the Policy on Minimum Requirements for Programmes leading to Qualifications in Higher Education for Early Childhood Development Educators (MRQECDE) (DHET, 2017), was developed. The problem addressed in the study is that the MRQECDE policy is being introduced in a dynamic, evolving and multi-layered system of different interrelated contexts. Factors within, or absent from, this multifarious system have the potential to impact, through their presence or absence, the successful implementation of the policy. The primary research question that guides this research is: What conditions need to be in place to enable and/or promote the successful implementation of the MRQECDE policy? The study is conducted within the pragmatic paradigm, using an explanatory sequential mixed method research (MMR) design. Complexity theory provides a theoretical lens for viewing, and the conceptual tools for analysing, inherent and contextual factors that might enable or militate against the aims of the MRQECDE policy. This study contributes to the knowledge base relative to policy-driven educational reform. Policy makers and those involved in policy implementation should be able to use the recommendations based on this research in planning the implementation of early childhood education policies, or education policies in other sub-systems of education. The research shows that the MRQECDE policy can be a lever for change, but this will require meaningful intervention at every possible level and a readiness to recognise, acknowledge and take seriously emergent initiatives and other developments that were not foreseen by the policy makers.