State of the art and policy guidelines on the training and professional development of early childhood teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean

This document presents the state of the art with regard to policies for the training and professional development of early childhood teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean and a set of guidelines for public policy-making in that regard. The study was conducted within the framework of the Regional Strategy on Teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean, which, in turn, is part of the global UNESCO Teachers for Education for All (EFA) initiative.

Sixteen countries - Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela - participated in this study in various ways. This study seeks to demonstrate that the training and professional development of early childhood teachers is a complex issue by analysing the various responses to the challenges of ECE in the region and, based on that comparison, proposing new guidelines for public policy in this area. Far from calling for homogenization, this document recognizes and welcomes the significant social, cultural and policy diversity in ECE in the region. It attempts to identify broad trends in the development of early childhood teaching by preserving the richness of these frameworks and pathways and, in so doing, to move forward on common paths that will strengthen the profession.

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