Quality assurance in practice: developing a framework

This paper reviews some of the ambiguities and tensions surrounding the concept of "quality" in early childhood settings. This leads to a consideration of the links between theoretical understandings concerning how children learn and grow, and observable practice, giving the background to the development of an early childhood descriptive framework that can begin to operationalise quality in a more readily articulated set of parameters. This framework and its potential use in practice are described and early findings are reported.