Published by the Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education The Gate Lodge, St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 Tel: 353 1 8842110 Fax: 353 1 8842111 Email:
[email protected] Website: www.cecde.ie ISBN: 0954581571 © 2005 The Centre for Early Childhood Development & Education All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Edited by Heino Schonfeld, Sharon O'Brien and Thomas Walsh. Printed by Print Bureau Funded by the Irish Government and part financed by the European Union under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 Questions of Quality Proceedings of a Conference on Defining, Assessing and Supporting Quality in Early Childhood Care and Education Dublin Castle, September 23rd-25th 2004 Edited by Heino Schonfeld, Sharon O'Brien and Thomas Walsh 2 Questions of Quality Table of Contents Page No. Foreword Heino Schonfeld . 6 Minister’s Address Síle de Valera, Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science . 8 Keynote Addresses Structure and Stability of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale Richard Clifford . 12 Questions of Quality: The Contribution of Research Evidence to Definitions of Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care Practice Tricia David . 22 Quality, Autonomy and the Profession Mathias Urban . 30 Defining Quality Rethinking the Computer Culture with Early Learners. Nina Bølgan . 48 Quality: Control or Autonomy? Philomena Donnelly . 55 A Critical Examination of the use of Fairy Tale Literature with Pre-PPrimary Children in Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Education and Care Programs.