This literature review is one part of the Quality by Design project. It reviews the literature on ideas, research, policy and practice vis‐à‐vis quality in ELCC and is as much about what we think as what we know. The literature represented is drawn from three main sources: the relatively small number of Canadian research and policy documents pertinent to quality issues; the empirical research literature which is primarily from the United States and tends to be focused at the individual program level; and the policy analysis literature, much of which comes from western Europe and is for the most part concerned with conceptions of quality and quality at the system level. Thus, while the Quality by Design project focuses on quality at the system‐wide policy level rather than at the level of individual programs, the literature reviewed is concerned both with the individual program level and the system, or policy, level.
