Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway
ABSTRACTThis article sheds light on governance mechanisms at work when decentralised implementation of national educational and welfare policies encounters a heterogeneous sector of private service provider organisations. It illuminates how isomorphic pressure plays out at the interface between loca...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Education Inquiry |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004508.2023.2280291 |
| _version_ | 1827386990065090560 |
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| author | Anne Sigrid Haugset Håkon Finne |
| author_facet | Anne Sigrid Haugset Håkon Finne |
| author_sort | Anne Sigrid Haugset |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACTThis article sheds light on governance mechanisms at work when decentralised implementation of national educational and welfare policies encounters a heterogeneous sector of private service provider organisations. It illuminates how isomorphic pressure plays out at the interface between local governance and private providers’ organisational strategies for quality development in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Key informant interviews are employed to investigate the function of local non-mandatory quality and competence-developing networks (QCDNs) as a locus for these interactions. Findings indicate that QCDNs contribute to shaping private ECEC providers’ quality development efforts, and that coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphic pressures become intertwined in this process. Most private provider organisations choose to participate in these non-mandatory networks. However, ECEC corporations and small private providers assign different meanings to their participation, and the networks thus appear to spur different organisational strategies. While small private providers harmoniously align their ECEC quality development strategies with institutionalised municipal practice, the provider corporations, while in formal compliance, exploit the resulting inter-municipal variation as one argument among many for more stringent national governmental standardisation. We demonstrate how isomorphic pressure may create and enable an impetus for endogenous and gradual institutional change agency. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T15:55:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3535d1347a624cd588cb5535afefa2e7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2000-4508 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T15:55:22Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Inquiry |
| spelling | doaj.art-3535d1347a624cd588cb5535afefa2e72024-01-08T20:56:04ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEducation Inquiry2000-45082024-01-011518510310.1080/20004508.2023.2280291Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in NorwayAnne Sigrid Haugset0Håkon Finne1Department of Technology Management, SINTEF Digital. SINTEF AS, Steinkjer, NorwayDepartment of Technology Management, SINTEF Digital, SINTEF AS, Trondheim, NorwayABSTRACTThis article sheds light on governance mechanisms at work when decentralised implementation of national educational and welfare policies encounters a heterogeneous sector of private service provider organisations. It illuminates how isomorphic pressure plays out at the interface between local governance and private providers’ organisational strategies for quality development in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Key informant interviews are employed to investigate the function of local non-mandatory quality and competence-developing networks (QCDNs) as a locus for these interactions. Findings indicate that QCDNs contribute to shaping private ECEC providers’ quality development efforts, and that coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphic pressures become intertwined in this process. Most private provider organisations choose to participate in these non-mandatory networks. However, ECEC corporations and small private providers assign different meanings to their participation, and the networks thus appear to spur different organisational strategies. While small private providers harmoniously align their ECEC quality development strategies with institutionalised municipal practice, the provider corporations, while in formal compliance, exploit the resulting inter-municipal variation as one argument among many for more stringent national governmental standardisation. We demonstrate how isomorphic pressure may create and enable an impetus for endogenous and gradual institutional change agency.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004508.2023.2280291Isomorphic pressureearly childhood education and carequality developmentcooperative networkspublic-private partnership |
| spellingShingle | Anne Sigrid Haugset Håkon Finne Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway Education Inquiry Isomorphic pressure early childhood education and care quality development cooperative networks public-private partnership |
| title | Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway |
| title_full | Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway |
| title_fullStr | Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway |
| title_full_unstemmed | Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway |
| title_short | Governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ECEC providers in Norway |
| title_sort | governing early childhood education and care quality development among diverse private ecec providers in norway |
| topic | Isomorphic pressure early childhood education and care quality development cooperative networks public-private partnership |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/20004508.2023.2280291 |
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