Thinking Together: Dialogues Beyond Quality in Ontario
Photo Credit: R. Khattar
By Angela Woodburn and Randa Khattar
On April 28, 2026, CAYC Ontario hosted an in-person session as part of the nationwide Thinking Together Series: Dialogues Beyond Quality. The series invites members and colleagues to grapple with difficult questions about quality in early childhood education and care.
These conversations, continuing throughout 2026–2027, are particularly significant in the current Canadian context. The Government of Canada’s Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreements represent a major commitment to building a national early learning and child care system, with substantial public investment to support accessible, high-quality programs.
As this system takes shape, there is a responsibility to ask deeper questions about values, inclusion, democracy, and whose perspectives are centred in early childhood education and care.
The April 28 gathering invited participants to pause, reflect, and think collectively about what we mean when we talk about “quality” in early childhood education. Throughout the day, we considered two propositions. First, early childhood professionals work from intentions and pedagogical commitments—guiding values that shape decisions about what matters and how we respond in everyday practice. Second, early childhood spaces are places where many stories are told, and educators hold power in determining which stories are heard, centred, or silenced. These ideas invite us to consider conditions that support moving beyond dominant definitions of quality.
Our conversations were grounded in two important questions raised by Dalberg, Moss and Pence in their seminal book, Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (2013):
- What kind of world do we want to live in with children?
- What kind of world do we want for young children?
These questions shift our attention beyond narrow measures of evaluation toward ethics, responsibility, and the educational lives we are creating together.
As we reflect on the current conditions of early childhood education (Early Childhood Pedagogy Collaboratory, n.d.), we continue to wonder:
- What might it mean to think beyond quality?
- What does “quality” really mean, and who decides what constitutes “good” education?
- Who and what may be excluded by particular definitions of quality?
CAYC members and colleagues are invited to grapple with these questions through ongoing dialogue, reflection, and collective thinking as we imagine more ethical, responsive, and democratic possibilities for early childhood education. To register for an upcoming Thinking Together Series: Dialogues Beyond Quality session where you are located, please visit our website for more information: Upcoming Events – The Canadian Association for Young Children
References
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2013). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation. Routledge.
Early Childhood Pedagogies Collaboratory (n.d.). Conditions for moving beyond quality in Canadian early childhood education: An occasional paper. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/589376a3440243086b0f5fb9/t/5fc828e413de6e7981501b3e/1606953188610/Pedagogy+Response+to+Throne+Speech_Dec2.pdf
About the Authors
Angela Woodburn, Registered Early Childhood Educator. Angela is the Executive Director at London Bridge Child Care Services Inc. and serves as the national membership chair and Ontario Co-Director of the Canadian Association for Young Children. Angela is a passionate advocate for lifelong learning and is dedicated to supporting and empowering early childhood educators, recognizing the critical role they play in building strong communities.
Randa Khattar, RECE, OCT, PhD. Randa is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University and serves as national president and Ontario Co-Director of the Canadian Association for Young Children. Randa is interested in researching early childhood education cultures and contexts that create pedagogical encounters within complex social, cultural, historical and political systems.