Pisani, Lauren;
(2020)
Toward the equitable expansion of early childhood education: Case study from Bhutan.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
For my thesis, I studied the effectiveness and potential scalability of an innovative approach to providing early childhood education to children living in rural communities in Bhutan. My research questions asked whether this approach, locally known as Care for Child Development Plus, was effective for improving children’s early academic skills, whether the program produced outcomes that were comparable to those derived from classroom-based early childhood education services in the country, and whether communities recognized this approach as an acceptable alternative to classroom-based services for their children. My approach to answering these questions used a theory-based impact evaluation framework, and employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. My work built on a randomized control trial that was commissioned by Save the Children and the Ministry of Health in Bhutan. Specifically, I conducted key informant interviews with stakeholders at multiple levels and performed a comparison of the randomized control trial results to those from a previous evaluation of center-based early childhood education services in the country. Results of my analyses demonstrated that the Care for Child Development Plus program significantly improved children’s literacy and numeracy skills as well as overall school readiness. The magnitude of children’s learning gains were comparable to that of center-based early childhood education programs in the country, and the program was perceived to be valuable to participating parents and health workers. Results from this study contribute new evidence about an alternative approach to early childhood education programming at a time when national health and education systems are working toward expanding early childhood development coverage to marginalized communities in order to achieve targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals
Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
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Qualification: | Ph.D |
Title: | Toward the equitable expansion of early childhood education: Case study from Bhutan |
Event: | UCL (University College London) |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10102828 |
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