The publication is entitled State-of-the-art and guiding criteria for the drafting of training and professional development policies of early childhood educators in Latin America and the Caribbean, under the coordination of Marcela Prado, academic from the Universidad de Chile, and with contributions from Cynthia Anderstein from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. A wide group of experts from different countries in the region collaborated on this book, as well as academics, teachers and representatives from the Ministries of Education. Together with the team from the Regional Strategy on Teachers, in 2015 they worked on an in-depth record of the regional reality, the identification of the primary critical issues and on the formation of orientations for early childhood teaching policies.

This new edition from UNESCO is consistent with Target 2 of the new Education 2030 Agenda (E2030) which establishes “to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education,” and with Target 10 of this global road map that indicates we must “increase the supply of qualified teachers.”

In the words of Paz Portales, Coordinator of the UNESCO Regional Strategy on Teachers, this study “places issues on the agenda that have not had enough importance and that are essential to ensuring the right to education in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as policies on teaching careers, initial training, evaluation and institutionalism of the teachers at the pre-primary level. We hope that this is also a contribution to reverse the low social value of teachers and thereby give them the importance they deserve, as well as to open up new research opportunities and specialized production of knowledge in this matter.”

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• Download infographics about Target 2 of the E2030 Agenda: to ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education

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Opinions from Marcela Pardo and Cynthia Anderstein*, researchers from the team that conducted this study

In regards to the regional context of teaching policies in general, and of early childhood in particular, what is the primary contribution of this study?

The study brings together and analyses evidence on early childhood educators that was scattered throughout countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This unparalleled endeavour presents a comparative description between 16 different countries, and it offers a panoramic view of the region.

Secondly, the study provides a perspective for interpreting the development of policies in this area, by comparing and contrasting them with prominent cases in the world, and placing it within the international academic debate to identify breakthroughs and challenges and extract orientations.   Therefore, the study values the ethical and pedagogical importance of early childhood educators as key factors to providing quality at this level of education, along with the political complexity of addressing their historically dismissed and undervalued problems in favour of other levels of education and professions. 

Based on your experience, what are the most critical elements and which should be addressed by the reforms in progress on this issue in Latin America and the Caribbean? 

The study demonstrates that the agendas in Latin America on pre-primary education cannot disregard the development of highly qualified professionals in teaching and learning, placed in a political system that trains them, prepares and empowers them to encourage early childhood development and comprehensive learning. 

Likewise, the study points out the need to systematize and centralize existing data on the subject matter, and to foster more research than what is currently being done, all with the objective of enabling the design and development of policies that are supported by local, reliable evidence.

The study also indicates the need to increase public investment in early childhood education, thereby indicating the role of the State as guarantor and active regulator of the countries’ institutional systems.

* Marcela Pardo holds an M.A. in Developmental and Educational Psychology with a focus in Early Childhood from Boston College, MA, U.S.A. She currently works as a researcher in the Centre for Advanced Research in Education from the Universidad de Chile.

Cynthia Anderstein holds a doctoral degree in Social Sciences from FLACSO in Argentina and a Master’s degree in Educational Management from the Universidad Diego Portales. She is currently working as a professor in the Department of Education Theory and Policy in the Faculty of Education at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.