Early Education & Development Volume 16, Number 4, October 2005 Quality in Early Childhood Education: An Anthropologist’s Perspective Joseph Tobin Arizona State University I use examples from my ethnographic work on early childhood education and care settings in Japan and France to demonstrate that quality standards are cultural constructs and to question the universality of such core U.S. standards of quality in ECEC as low student-teacher ratios and multicultural curricula. My argument is that quality standards should reflect local values and concerns and not be imposed across cultural divides. In a heterogeneous society such as the U.S., notions of quality should arise out of conversations in local communities among early childhood educators and parents. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joseph Tobin, Arizona State University, College of Education, PO Box 871411, Tempe, AZ 85287 (E-Mail: joseph.tobin@asu.edu; Phone: 480- 965-1451).