ProPED: Professionalisation of the ECEC centers by pedagogical guidance

Early childhood education and care centers (ECEC centers) nourish and support children from 0 to 6 years old in their overall development. Qualitative ECEC centers are levers for equal rights in our global society. From Belgium to Ecuador, every country is facing this challenge, to create equal rights. (Unicef, 2016). Looking at Latin America, Ecuador spends 3% of its gross national product on education, mostly on basic education (0-12). Continuing professional development of caregivers and teachers in ECEC centeres leads to higher quality of the centers, which leads to better social, emotional and cognitive outcomes of children (Eurofound, 2015). The goal of the project is to set up an expertise center for sustainable and qualitative pedagogical guidance, consisting of 5 ECEC centers of district 8 in Guayaquil as a shared process in co-creation. The quality of these 5 ECEC-centers will be enhanced by pedagogical guidance on the workfloor and by a learning community. To obtain these objectives an expertise-center, consisting of one facilitator, 2 teachers from Universidad Casa Grande (UCG) and 2 delegates of each ECEC center will be created. The entire practice will be enriched by practice-oriented research on the workfloor in the 5 ECEC centers. This will guarantee internal quality control and deliver clear output for the work field that is scientifically proven.