Choice of early childhood education: hearing the voices of parents

Abstract

Dr Karen Noble is Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Faculty of Education at University of Southern Queensland, Australia. She is also the Program Co-ordinator for Early Childhood. Her scholarly and professional interests lie in the use of innovative conceptual, theoretical, methodological, pedagogical, and collaborative approaches to address enduring challenges in education. This book details the phenomenographic and grounded theory investigation aimed at generating new knowledge of parental choice of early childhood education and care services. Given the complexity and range of choice of early childhood services, and the diversity of family situations, research eliciting parent conceptions of their choices of early childhood services is both necessary and timely. Understanding multiple perspectives in this way may inform early childhood professionals by expanding their awareness of the variation that exists in the way that parents conceptualise early childhood services and make choices for young children.