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staff members who do not have specific training (Doherty, Lero, Goelman, LaGrange, &,
Tougas, 2000). No province in Canada requires all child care staff to have a postsecondary
credential in early childhood education. In fact, in some jurisdictions only a
minority of staff are required to have early childhood education specific training
(Friendly & Beach, 2005).
A child care teacher can be defined as “a person who has primary responsibility
for a group of children. This person may also have supervisory responsibilities for
assistant teachers” (Doherty et al., 2000, p. 78). The study, You Bet I Care! (2000)
compared child care teachers to other fields that involve similar responsibilities and
found a correlation with kindergarten teaching and pediatric nursing. All Canadian
jurisdictions require a university degree of three or four years before a person can work
as a kindergarten teacher. In many provinces, there is a requirement of additional
specialized training. The minimum requirement to become a registered nurse in Canada is
a three-year diploma and successful completion of a national credentialing examination
(Doherty et al., 2000). In contrast to the training requirements of these occupations, there
isn’t one Canadian jurisdiction that requires child care staff to have university level
training (Friendly & Beach, 2005).
Under the Constitution of Canada, province or territorial jurisdictions have the
authority to establish standards for post secondary early childhood education training
(CCCF, 1995). Across Canada, the length of training required for staff in child care
centres and nursery schools ranges from no training to a community college certificate or
a diploma (Friendly & Beach, 2005). According to You Bet I Care (2000), 70.8% of
teaching staff surveyed across Canada in 1998 were holders of a one-, two- or three-year