Examining Child Care Through A Child-Centred Lens

Despite the wide recognition of early childhood development as 
a key social determinant of health, and the protection of early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a child’s right, through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, child care continues to be portrayed in today’s Canadian discourse as, at worse, a threat to traditional family values and parental choice and, at best, a labour support issue for working parents (namely, mothers). Seldom are child-centred considerations factored into the discussion, including the negative effects of poor-quality child care on children’s development, and the potential of child care as a social justice equalizer that ameliorates systemic issues of inequity that many children endure.

This article was originally published in Interaction, Spring 2016. You can download it here