Entrepreneurship in Child Care Services

Entrepreneurship in Childcare Services 4 (2+2)

Lesson 12 : Theoretical approaches in management of child care centers

Introduction

Management of child development center requires integration of theories and principles – from child development, from human ecology and from business. Applying appropriate theory will aid entrepreneurs’ work in managing a child development center. A theory is an organized set of related ideas, concepts, and principles that describes a particular area of knowledge. A good theory fulfills three criteria.

1. It is carefully defined in writing.
2. It is published in the public domain so other scholars can evaluate it carefully.
3. It has been tested out by independent scholars and practitioners with the results published in the public domain.

enterprenuers of child development centers will be coordinating information from several areas of knowledge. They will act on this knowledge from one or several theoretical frameworks. This chapter deals with three theoretical frameworks which focus on three aspects involved in maintenance of child care centers.

1. Developmental theory will help entreprenuers focus on the needs of children enrolled in their centers.
2. The ecological systems theory framework helps focus on families and on the interaction of the child development center with the total system.
3. A brief review of management theories utilized by management science is presented.