Research Connections Canada: Supporting Children and Families, Number 4.

Serving as a vehicle for raising the profile of and thereby gaining recognition for the important research and development work being conducted in Canada in support of children and families, the "Research Connections Canada" series compiles research and/or development papers as well as background papers, analytical literature reviews, and essays. This issue of the series focuses on promoting quality in early childhood care and education (ECCE). The papers are as follows: (1) "Credentialing as a Strategy for Promoting Quality in Child Care" (Gillian Doherty), discussing the strengths and weaknesses of three types of child-care credentialing in North America and concluding that each type meets different needs and has different potential for promoting quality; (2) "Accreditation as a Strategy for Promoting Quality in Child Care Programs" (Gillian Doherty), discussing the pros and cons of the accreditation systems of several U.S. and Canadian early childhood and child care professional associations and reviewing evaluation studies completed on several of the processes; (3) "Mentoring as a Strategy for Promoting Quality in Child Care" (Gillian Doherty), on the use and effectiveness of mentoring in child care in North America, and requirements for successful mentoring programs; (4) "The Emergency Child Care Research Project: Action Research to Strengthen Community-Based Child Care and Work/Life Initiatives" (Susan Howe and Heather Swail), outlining a 2-year study into emergency child care, its impact, effectiveness, and features; (5) "Early Childhood Care and Education Learning Outcomes" (Malcolm Read), describing learning outcomes that may be reasonably expected of a graduate from a postsecondary ECCE practitioner preparation program; and (6) "Infants and Toddlers in Canadian Multi-Age, Childcare Settings: Age, Ability and Linguistic Inclusion" (Judith Bernhard and others), presenting research in the ECCE field regarding factors that enable or restrict the inclusion of infants and toddlers in multi-age grouping in licensed child care centers in Canada. Each paper contains references. (HTH)