Collaborating for effective early childhood education and care: can policy translate to practice?

This paper briefly discusses findings from the first of a two-stage research project examining the impact of a BA (Honours) Early Childhood Studies (ECS) degree curriculum in an English University College. It begins by setting the degree within a framework of policy and demonstrates how, through a mixed methodology, the research attempts to identify the success of the course in converting internationally and nationally desirable policy into effective practice. Since “there have been few specific attempts to measure the effects of staff training” (Fawcett and Calder, 1998:101), this smallscale study has made such an attempt.