'All parents want caregivers to protect and love their children': perceptions of childcare workers, trainers, and government officials in Vietnam

Access to high-quality childcare can have multi-generational impacts, including improved employment opportunities for women and improved child outcomes. Despite an increasing number of women entering the workforce in low- and middle-income countries, the definition of ‘quality’ childcare stems largely from westernised, high-income, countries. This qualitative study aimed to understand how childcare quality is conceptualised by key stakeholders in informal childcare settings in the industrialised zones of Da Nang and Quang Nam Provinces in Vietnam. Twenty-nine stakeholders were interviewed including, childcare center trainers (n = 6), government stakeholders (n = 6), childcare center providers (n = 8), and parents (n = 9) through in-depth interviews conducted in December 2019 and June to July of 2020. We found that our stakeholders’ perspectives could be categorised into two themes, structural quality, including the learning environment and childcare-provider interactions, and process quality, including childcare-provider interactions and other aspects that promote early child development. Although our broad theme findings are consistent with the exiting literature, stakeholders emphasised context-specific markers of quality, such as children’s obedience and happiness, as essential outcomes of care. These insights provide a culturally grounded understanding of quality in Vietnam’s informal childcare sector, with implications for future policy and programming.