Explore:
Inequities in early childhood education and care (ECEC), formal education and youth training.
Test:
Novel solutions to known problems, collaborating with stakeholders.
Create:
Knowledge mobilization tools, including evidence-informed policy.
We draw on multidisciplinary insights from many fields, including economics, applied psychology and human development, and political science. We work with researchers across Canada and abroad to answer questions, develop interventions and mobilize information.
Featured Insight…
Improving young children’s peer collaboration in early educational settings
Peer collaboration is a foundational skill that emerges in early childhood. Children spend significant time in early educational settings, making it an important setting where young children can learn how to collaborate with peers. However, research on how to support children’s collaboration effectively is limited and findings in this area have been inconsistent.
Quantitative Analysis and Methods
Parental Employment Effects of Switching from Half-Day to Full-Day Kindergarten: Evidence from Ontario’s French Schools
Full-day kindergarten programs are expanding across North America, driven by a policy focus on early childhood development. These programs also affect parents’ budget sets and may lead to changes in labour market outcomes. We examine parents’ labour supply response to...
Better public child care is the engine we need for recovery post-coronavirus
On June 12, 2020, child-care centres in Ontario reopened following a lengthy period of lockdowns. This commentary article urges government action to better support this sector in recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Child-care centres are doing their part to support...
Full-Day Kindergarten: Effects on Maternal Labor Supply
We examine the effects of offering full-day kindergarten as a replacement for half-day kindergarten on mothers’ labor supply using the rollout of full-day kindergarten in Ontario, Canada. We find no effect on the extensive margin but found an effect on the intensive...
Intervention Creation and Testing
Beyond the mask: Decoding children’s mental health patterns amidst COVID-19 and the role of parenting
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on children and families worldwide. Children’s mental health has been at the forefront of pandemic research, with several observational studies documenting its decline. Limited person-centred research exists, however,...
Improving young children’s peer collaboration in early educational settings
Peer collaboration is a foundational skill that emerges in early childhood. Children spend significant time in early educational settings, making it an important setting where young children can learn how to collaborate with peers. However, research on how to support children’s collaboration effectively is limited and findings in this area have been inconsistent.
Teaching home-visitors to support responsive caregiving
Home-visiting programs are a common and effective public health approach to promoting parent and child well-being, including in low- and middle-income
countries. The World Health Organization and UNICEF have identified responsive caregiving as one key component of the nurturing care children need to survive and thrive.
Nonetheless, the importance of responsive caregiving and how to coach it is often overlooked in trainings for staff in home-visiting programs.
Designing Effective Policy Responses
Understanding early childhood education and care utilization in Canada
This study examined early childhood education and care (ECEC) utilization in Canada, focusing on use of unlicensed home child care (HCC) from an equity perspective. Data from the 2011 cycle of the General Social Survey (GSS) were used. Across Canada, parent responses reveal that 16.6% of children between the age of 12 months and entry to school were in unlicensed HCC. Another 24% of working parents reported having no regular form of non-parental childcare. Families with higher incomes were more likely to report using center-based care.
Training and Skills Development Policy Options for the Changing World of Work
This article offers a critical assessment of empirical knowledge regarding labour market training and skills development in an era of technological disruption. Although exactly which skills and jobs will become obsolete is not known, technological change may cause unemployment to spike and increase the need for retraining.
The Role of Reflexive Learning in Universal Pre-kindergarten (UPK) Policy Formulation in Canada and the USA”
Building on theories of social learning and policy change, this article argues that reflexive learning provides a causal mechanism for how public engagement in policy formulation can trigger policy innovation. Reflexive learning is a mode of learning that takes place during policy formulation and is most likely to occur in policy areas marked by considerable uncertainty and complexity (low problem tractability) and the participation of a wide range of actors (low actor certification).
Mailing Address
Department of Management
University of Toronto Scarborough
UTSC Instructional Centre
1095 Military Trail
Toronto, ON M1C 1A4
