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…
Puzzling through a pandemic: theorizing the effect of public puzzling on policy decision making and public trust
To what degree do mass publics learn, such that they can engage in the substantive debates of policy design? And how does the nature of that learning relate to public trust? These questions are both relevant to policy makers and central to the literature on learning,...
Quantitative Analysis and Methods
Equity in Education Research Digest
In this first issue of our Research Digest, we highlight three different articles and two progress notes, that intersect in the area of education and public policies. For our Research in Progress notes, Mark Ariba describes work he did with Dr. Phil Triadafilopoulos...
The Economics of Age at School Entry: Insights from Evidence and Methods
This article reviews the growing literature on age at school entry and its effects over the life course. Age at school entry affects a broad range of outcomes, including education, labor-market performance, health, social relationships, and family formation. We...
Economic Gains from Early Childhood Education and Care: The Role of Workforce Participation
The benefits of high-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children, such as increased cognitive and social-emotional development, are well-known and documented. However, ECEC also provides economic benefits for caregivers and society by supporting...
Intervention Creation and Testing
The Role of AI in Early Educational Settings : A Systematic Review with a Methodological Exploration of an AI-Assisted Review Workflow
This review looks at how artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in early educational settings to support young children’s development. We found a small but growing body of studies using AI-based activities such as speech recognition systems, robots, adaptive...
Equity in Education Research Digest
In this first issue of our Research Digest, we highlight three different articles and two progress notes, that intersect in the area of education and public policies. For our Research in Progress notes, Mark Ariba describes work he did with Dr. Phil Triadafilopoulos...
Teaching Interpersonal Problem-Solving Skills to Young Children in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Settings: An Integration of Evidence
Problem-solving has been identified as a critical 21st-century skill. This review integrated evidence on the effectiveness of existing approaches to teaching and assessing problem-solving in an interpersonal context (IPS) for children from birth to age six, in early...
Designing Effective Policy Responses
Income Inequality and Parent Education Spending in Canada
Comparative research documents substantial education- and income-based class gaps in parent spending on children’s education, with important repercussions for the perpetuation of intergenerational (dis)advantage. Spurred by higher levels of income inequality and...
Policy Design, Instrument Choice, and Policy Feedback Effects of Institutional Business Power: Child Care Investments in Australia, Canada, and Germany
Recent research examining the policy feedback effects of delegated governance note that private actors accumulate institutional business power—distinct from structural and instrumental power typical of businesses—through such mechanisms as delegation, deregulation,...
Transformative Change in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) or More of the Same? Child Care in the Canadian Federation
This chapter provides an examination and assessment of the changes to early childhood education and care (ECEC) policies and programs since the 2006-15 federal Harper era (Friendly and White 2012). This chapter begins by reviewing the set of policies in place during...
Mailing Address
Department of Management
University of Toronto Scarborough
UTSC Instructional Centre
1095 Military Trail
Toronto, ON M1C 1A4








