The divided nature of the ECEC workforce is widely acknowledged. While scholarship has focused primarily on the consequences of the education–care divide, few studies have examined the workforce’s fragmentation from a subnational perspective, particularly in the Global South. This article explores multiple fragmentations in the workforce, drawing on three provincial case studies in Argentina. The study included 17 interviews with national and subnational policy makers and three focus groups with ECEC workers. We explore ECEC workers’ heterogeneous conditions and experiences across three provinces and demonstrate how vertical and horizontal fragmentation combine to create multiple fragmentations. We argue that subnational approaches are critical for better understanding the ECEC workforce’s complexities and, ultimately, ECEC systems.

ECEC 劳动力的分散性已得到广泛认可。虽然学术研究主要关注教育与保健鸿沟的后果，但很少有研究从国家以下的角度审视劳动力的分散，尤其是在全球南方。本文利用阿根廷的三个省级案例研究，探讨了劳动力中的多重碎片化。该研究包括对国家和地方政策制定者的 17 次采访，以及对 ECEC 工作人员的三个焦点小组。我们探讨了 ECEC 工人在三个省份的不同条件和经历，并展示了纵向和横向碎片化如何结合以产生多重碎片化。我们认为，地方方法对于更好地理解 ECEC 劳动力的复杂性以及最终理解 ECEC 系统至关重要。