ABSTRACT
This Introduction chapter will present an overview of three trend areas: competencies, credentials, and curriculum, through a conversation with one of the leaders in the field, Ellen Gannett. Ellen is Director of the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. As the director of NIOST, Ms. Gannett ensures that research bridges the fields of child care, education, and youth development in order to promote programming that addresses the development of the whole child. She has contributed to the writing and development of ASQ: Assessing School-Age Child Care Quality, School Age and Youth Development Credential (SAYD) as well as the Afterschool Program Assessment System (APAS), and is currently working with the National Afterschool Association (NAA) on a set of core competencies for staff . Here I introduce the workforce trends in conversation with Ellen. The original interview took place on January 29, 2010 and was conducted over the telephone. The chapter was produced collaboratively by editing the transcript to correct and elaborate on the content. Content was again updated closer to the publishing of this volume. Dana Fusco served as the interviewer guiding the questions in relation to the framework of the book, around Current Trends and Critical Questions. The decision to begin the book “in conversation” is intentional in helping to frame the book in both content and style as dialogic and participatory.
