ECE teachers self-reported pedagogical quality of early childhood education environments of private preschools in Karachi, Pakistan
Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Philosophy in Education
Department
Institute for Educational Development, Karachi
Abstract
The provision of high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) predicts enhanced student learning and development with later success. That said, exposure to poor quality ECE environments has also been associated with long term detrimental effects on the education, health, and wellbeing of children. Though continuous efforts are in place to increase access to ECE, especially in developing contexts like Pakistan, not much is known about the pedagogical quality of those environments. The current study aims to address this gap by exploring the self-reported pedagogical quality of private sector ECE environments in Karachi, Pakistan using IAS, a subscale of TBPS. Using a cross-sectional survey employing online modalities, data was collected from 253 ECE teachers working in private sector preschools across Karachi. Descriptive analysis was carried out to identify emergent trends of DAP and DIP prevalent in these environments. Furthermore, multivariate analysis was employed to identify predictors of overall pedagogical quality. Findings reveal the self-reported ECE pedagogical quality to be moderate (M=3.30) indicating that DAP were carried out at least once a week or more. Descriptive analysis at the construct level further found that both DAP (M=3.69) and DIP (M=3.55) practices were almost equally prevalent in the environments. The multiple regression model reported that the teacher’s teaching experience, engagement in CPD, school tuition fee and number of teachers in the classroom positively impacted the self-reported ECE pedagogical quality, with CPD being the strongest contributor (β=0.28, p<0.0001). Implications for policy and practice of ECE are also identified along with recommendations for future studies.
Recommended Citation
Lakhani, A. (2021). ECE teachers self-reported pedagogical quality of early childhood education environments of private preschools in Karachi, Pakistan (Unpublished master's dissertation). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.