Increasing the Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Through Organizational Development and Professional Learning

High-quality early childhood education and care environments are particularly important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Indeed, high-quality environments in terms of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provide children with greater opportunities for development, which is fundamental to fostering equal opportunities. Providing high-quality ECEC where it matters the most is, therefore, a key issue for both policymakers and practitioners. This chapter explores two cases concerning the development of high-quality ECEC in areas with high numbers of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. To determine how the organization of the two cases influenced the quality of the ECEC provided, the chapter examines why projects with the same goals (i.e. to provide children with better opportunities) can have different outcomes based on the utilised organizational development and professional learning processes.