Perlman - universality of quality

So the question of the universality of quality is a really interesting one. We don’t have a tonne of research that has gone in depth into doing that cross-cultural validation, cross-cultural analysis. Typically we’ve got different measures of quality used in different contexts. And then it’s hard to compare.  

There are some universal aspects of experiences that we know matter for all kids, whether they are in Downtown Toronto or in rural China or wherever that may be. And I would say the most universal aspect is the responsivity of the caregiving. And so we know that from lots of research on parenting and so on. And that’s true for early childhood education and care as well. And so I think measures that try and tap into that, and definitions, can be applied cross-culturally.  

They still need to be adapted. We can’t take a measure that I develop here in Downtown Toronto and plop it in rural China. We need to do a very systematic, intensive amount of work to make sure that the right items reflect the right construct for that environment. And I’ve done some of that work in childcare and some of the parenting as well of that cross-cultural validation.  

So you have to be really careful not to impose the same standards in settings where they might have different meanings, on the one hand, but at the same time recognize that there are aspects of caregiving that are important across the board.