ABSTRACT
Current research in early childhood education and care in Chile has increased considerably in the last decade. On the one hand, the authorities have improved the conditions for doing scientific research by supplying grants for international training, knowledge exchange, conference visits, etc. On the other hand, there is increasing concern for issues of education and child care: the recent government policy to improve the coordination of services and benefits for families with young children from pregnancy to school age has been very successful and put the issue of children’s well-being high on the agenda. In the present chapter, two debates are covered. First, the debate about the issue of the quality of childcare centres in Chile, i.e. their current status and the strengths and weaknesses. Second, the debate about the issue of early literacy and the introduction of teaching practices in the preschool years. The new organisation for early childhood education and care (ECEC) created under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education should design a curriculum that provides better details about what learning goals, especially concerning early literacy, are expected to achieve in each level of early childhood education. Moreover, recent research also mentioned the obstacles for better language development that a large number of children in preschool classrooms are confronted with. The latest is probably an important but also a very complicated situation, because of the investment behind any solution. However, the rapid increase in the investment on ECEC in Chile could also take different orientations, not just in the improvement of the quality of the teaching and coverage, but also in some structural arrangements. That future discussions need to include the improvement of the childcare system and especially the increase of its coverage is clearly visible, but additional efforts to improve its quality and to gain better understanding of what children in this context need are also required.
