Attendance at high-quality early childhood education and care services can have positive impacts on children’s learning and development, particularly for disadvantaged children. Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory are among the most disadvantaged in Australia and stand to benefit in the short- and long-term from attending high-quality and culturally safe early childhood education and care. Few studies, however, have evaluated how early childhood education and care services can support Aboriginal children’s learning and development, or reported on the challenges of conducting such evaluations. This article reports on an evaluation of the Arrwekele Akaltye-Irretyeke Apmere Centre for Aboriginal children in Alice Springs, Australia, which employed a culturally-adapted Abecedarian approach. The evaluation drew from interviews, classroom observations, document review, and language and developmental assessments to report findings about quality, cultural safety, acceptability to the community and children’s language and development. The findings show that despite the Centre facing challenges during its establishment, by the end of the evaluation children were attending the Centre and receiving high-quality service. The service was overwhelmingly valued by interviewees from families and the community and there were indications of positive outcomes in children’s language and development. Insights for the design of similar evaluations are discussed, such as the need for more rigorous and consistent data collection techniques, a larger sample, and the inclusion of a wider range of perspectives.

参加高质量的幼儿教育和护理服务可能对儿童的学习和发展产生积极影响，特别是对处境不利的儿童。北领地的土著儿童是澳大利亚处境最不利的儿童，他们将从短期和长期受益于接受高质量且文化上安全的幼儿教育和护理。然而，很少有研究评估幼儿教育和护理服务如何支持原住民儿童的学习和发展，或报告了进行此类评估所面临的挑战。本文报道了对Arrwekele Akaltye - Irretyeke Apmere的评估澳大利亚爱丽丝泉的原住民儿童中心，该中心采用了适应文化的Abededarian方法。该评估来自访谈，课堂观察，文件审阅以及语言和发展评估，以报告有关质量，文化安全，对社区的接受程度以及儿童的语言和发展方面的发现。调查结果表明，尽管中心在建立过程中面临挑战，但到评估结束时，儿童仍在参加中心并获得高质量的服务。来自家庭和社区的受访者对这项服务给予了压倒性的重视，并且有迹象表明，儿童的语言和发展取得了积极的成果。讨论了类似评估设计的见解，