Non-parental arrangements for young children serve a dual function as supports for parental activities and educational inputs for children. However, arrangements that are suited to meet families’ specific needs and preferences are sometimes in tension with experts’ definitions of “quality.” Researchers and policymakers increasingly emphasize that educational goals cannot be met until this tension is reconciled. I offer new institutionalism as a conceptual framework for these emerging conversations and propose two ideal-typical institutional logics: the logic of the family and the logic of education. This perspective emphasizes that different expectations and goals are related to individuals’ differing social and institutional locations. Secondary analyses of the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) data offer preliminary empirical evidence.
AdamsG.RohacekM. (2002). More than a work support? Issues around integrating child development goals into the child care subsidy system. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(4), 418–440.
2.
BattilanaJ.LecaB.BoxenbaumE. (2009). How actors change institutions: Towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship. The Academy of Management Annals, 3(1), 65–107.
3.
BeattyB. (1995). Preschool education in America: The culture of young children from the colonial era to the present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
4.
BergerP. L.LuckmannT. (1967). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
5.
BlochM. N. (1987). Become scientific and professional: An historical perspective on the aims and effects of early education. In PopkewitzT. S. (Ed.), The formation of school subjects: The struggle for creating an American institution (pp. 25–62). London: Falmer Press.
6.
BromerJ.HenlyJ. R. (2004). Child care as family support: Caregiving practices across child care provides. Children and Youth Services Review, 26(10), 941–964.
7.
BromerJ.HenlyJ. R. (2009). The work-family support roles of child care providers across settings. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(3), 271–288.
Brown-LyonsM.RobertsonA.LayzerJ. (2001). Kith and kin-informal child care: Highlights from recent research. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty.
Clarke-StewartA.AllhusenV. D. (2005). What we know about childcare. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
Clarke-StewartA. K.Lowe VandellD.BurchinalM.O’BrienM.McCartneyK. (2002). Do regulable features of child-care homes affect children’s development?Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(1), 52–86.
13.
DiMaggioP.PowellW. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Collective rationality and institutional isomorphism in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–60.
14.
DunnM. B.JonesC. (2010). Institutional logics and institutional pluralism: The contestation of care and science logics in medical education, 1967–2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55(1), 114–149.
15.
DurstA. (2005). “Of women, by women, and for women”: The day nursery movement in the progressive-era United States. Journal of Social History, 39(1), 141–159.
16.
FligsteinN. (2001). Social skill and the theory of fields. Sociological Theory, 19(2), 105–125.
17.
FligsteinN.McAdamD. (2012). A theory of fields. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
18.
ForryN.BromerJ.ChrislerA.RothenbergL.SimkinS.DaneriP. (2012). Family-provider relationship quality: Review of conceptual and empirical literature of family-provider relationships (OPRE Report No. 2012-46). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
19.
FreidlandR.AlfordR. R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In PowellW. W.DiMaggioP. J. (Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 232–263). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
20.
GordonR. A. (2010). Regression analysis for the social sciences. New York, NY: Routledge.
21.
GordonR.ColanerA.UsdanskyM.MelgarC. (2013). Beyond an “either-or” approach to home-and center-based child care: Comparing children and families who combine care types with those who use just one. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(4), 918–935.
22.
GranovetterM. (1985). Economic action and social structure—The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 481–510.
23.
GreenS. E.Jr.BabbM.AlpaslanC.M. (2008). Institutional field dynamics and the competition between institutional logics—The role of rhetoric in the evolving control of the modern corporation. Management Communication Quarterly, 22(1), 40–73.
24.
GreenwoodR.RaynardM.KodeihF.MicelottaE. R.LounsburyM. (2011). Institutional complexity and organizational responses. The Academy of Management Journals, 5(1), 317–371.
25.
HarmsT.CliffordR. M.CryerD. (2005). Early childhood environment rating scale (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
26.
HarmsT.CryerD.CliffordR. M. (2007). Family child care environment rating scale revised edition (FCCERS-R). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
27.
HavemanH. A.RaoH. (1997). Structuring a theory of moral sentiments: Institutional and organizational coevolution in the early thrift industry. The American Journal of Sociology102(6), 1606–1651.
28.
HelburnS. W.BergmannB. R. (2002). America’s child care problem: The way out. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
29.
Im-BolterN.ZadehZ. Y.LingD. (2013). Early parenting beliefs and academic achievement: The mediating role of language. Early Child Development and Care, 183(12), 1811–1826.
30.
JusticeL. M.MashburnA. J.HamreB. K.PiantaR. C. (2008). Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23(1), 51–68.
31.
KahnA. J.KamermanS. B. (1987). Child care: Facing the hard choices. Dover, MA: Auburn House Pub.
32.
KimK.PorterT.AtkinsonV.RuiN.RamosM.BrownE.. . . NordC. (2014). Family and provider/teacher relationship quality measures: User’s manual. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
33.
LahtiM.SabolT.StarrR.LangillC.ToutK. (2013). Validation of quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS): Examples from four states (Research-to-Policy, Research-to-Practice Brief OPRE 2013-036). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
34.
LaughlinL. (2013). Who’s minding the kids? Child care arrangements: Spring 2011 (Current Population Reports, P70-135). Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
35.
LayzerJ. I.GoodsonB. D. (2006). The “quality” of early care and education settings: Definitional and measurement issues. Evaluation Review, 30(5), 556–576.
36.
MacdonaldC. L. (2010). Shadow mothers. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
37.
MashburnA. J.PiantaR. C.HamreB. K.DownerJ. T.BarbarinO. A.BryantD.. . . HowesC. (2008). Measures of classroom quality in prekindergarten and children’s development of academic, language, and social skills. Child Development, 79(3), 732–749.
38.
MeyerJ. W.RowanB. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340–363.
39.
MeyerR. E.HammerschmidG. (2006). Changing institutional logics and executive identities—A managerial challenge to public administration in Austria. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(7), 1000–1014.
40.
MichelS. (1999). Children’s interests/mother’s rights: The shaping of America’s child care policy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
41.
MohrJ. W.Guerra-PearsonF. (2010). The duality of niche and form: The differentiation of institutional space in New York City, 1888–1917. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 31, 321–368.
42.
MorrisseyT. W. (2007). Family child care in the United States. Prepared for child care & early education research connections. New York, NY: National Center for Children in Poverty, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
43.
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). Our mission and strategic direction. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/about/mission
44.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. (1997). Analytic data—birth to three years introduction. Bethesda, MD: Author.
45.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. (1999). Enrollment process technical note 204. Bethesda, MD: Author.
46.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. (n.d.). Phase II instrument documentation. Bethesda, MD: Author.
47.
National Survey of Early Care and Education Project Team. (2014). Household search for and perceptions of early care and education: Fact sheet from the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE) (OPRE Report No. 2014-55b). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
48.
NelsonM. K. (1990). Negotiated care: The experience of family day care providers. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
49.
PaulsellD.MekosD.Del GrossoP.RowandC.BanghartP. (2006). Strategies for supporting quality in kith and kin child care: Findings from the Early Head Start enhanced home visiting pilot evaluation (Final report). Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
50.
PorterT. (1998). Neighborhood child care: Family, friends, and neighbors talk about caring for other people’s children. New York, NY: Bank Street College of Education.
51.
RaoH.MoninP.DurandR. (2003). Institutional change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle cuisine as an identity movement in French gastronomy. American Journal of Sociology, 108(4), 795–843.
52.
RappG. S.LloydS. A. (1989). The role of “home as haven” ideology in child care use. Family Relations, 38(4), 426–430.
53.
RoseK. K.ElickerJ. (2008). Parental decision making about child care. Journal of Family Issues, 29(9), 1161–1184.
54.
RussellJ. L. (2011). From child’s garden to academic press: The role of shifting institutional logics in redefining kindergarten education. American Education Research Journal, 48(2), 236–267.
55.
RutterJ.EvansB. (2011). Informal childcare: Choice or chance. A literature review. London: Daycare Trust.
56.
SchaeferE. S.EdgertonM. (1985). Parent and child correlates of parental modernity. In SigelI. E. (Ed.), Parental belief systems: The psychological consequences for children (pp. 287–318). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
57.
ScottW. R. (2013). Institutions and organizations: Ideas, interests, and identities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
58.
ScottW. R.DavisG. F. (2007). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural, and open system perspectives. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
59.
SosinskyL.HalleT.Susman-StillmanA.ClevelandJ.LiW. (2015). Parents’ and providers’ views of important aspects of child care quality (Publication No. 2015-13). Bethesda, MD: Child Trends.
60.
SteinfelsM. (1973). Who’s minding the children? The history and politics of day care in America. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
ThomasJ.BollerK.JohnsonC. J.YoungM.HuM. (2015). Setting the stage: The importance of informal child care in California (Issue brief). Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.
63.
ThorntonP. H. (2004). Markets from culture: Institutional logics and organizational decisions in higher education publishing. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
64.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW. (1999). Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958–1990. American Journal of Sociology, 105(3), 801–864.
65.
ToutK.StarrR.SoliM.MoodieS.KirbyG.BollerK. (2010). Compendium of quality rating systems and evaluations (OPRE Report). Washington, DC: U.S. Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.
66.
TuominenM. C. (2003). We are not babysitters: Family child care providers redefine work and care. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
67.
Watkins-LewisK. M.HamreB. K. (2012). African-American parenting characteristics and their association with children’s cognitive and academic school readiness. Journal of African American Studies, 16(3), 390–405.
68.
WoolridgeJ. M. (2009). Introductory econometrics: A modern approach. Mason, OH: South-Western.
69.
WrigleyJ. (1995). Other people’s children. New York: Basic Books.
70.
VeselyC. K. (2013). Low-income African and Latina immigrant mothers’ selection of early childhood care and education (ECCE): Considering the complexity of cultural and structural influences. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 28(3), 470–486.
71.
ZaslowM.ToutK.Martinez-BeckI. (2010). Measuring the quality of early care and education programs at the intersection of research, policy, and practice (OPRE Research-to-Policy, Research-to-Practice Brief OPRE 2011-10a). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, and US Department of Health and Human Services.
72.
ZinsserC. (1991). Raised in East Urban: Child care changes in a working class community. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
