Professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care

International Perspectives

Carmen Dalli, Mathias Urban

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781317987116
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The professionalism of the early childhood sector has gained prominence on the policy agendas of many countries. National pedagogical frameworks or curricula and an upsurge of pathways to gaining or upgrading qualifications has led to a pervasive terminology of professionalism. Yet, despite the pervasiveness of this terminology, the question of what professionalism means in early years contexts remains open to debate.

This book draws together the work of an international group of scholars who have engaged with this question. They ask: How can professionalism be conceptualised in early childhood settings? How might one act professionally in increasingly diverse and changing social and cultural contexts? Do we have a common ground of understanding about these terms? Are there key concepts that can be agreed upon? Drawing on research and experience across a wide range of national contexts, this book seeks an understanding of early childhood professionalism in local contexts that might throw light on the global implications of this term.

This book was published as a special issue in the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.

Introduction

Carmen Dalli^a and Mathias Urban^b

^aVictoria University of Wellington, New Zealand; ^bMartin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenburg, Germany

This book is a collection of work by members of the Special Interest Group on Professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care who met for the first time in a hotel lobby at the annual European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) conference in Malta in 2004. It was first published as a special edition of the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal in 2008.

Gathered from all corners of the globe, a group of early childhood researchers, scholars and tertiary lecturers, discussed a simple question: What does it mean to be ‘professional’ in early childhood education and care? An easy afternoon exercise, one might suppose, given the expertise gathered in the circle. It quickly became apparent that the simple question did not have a simple answer. Instead, it spawned a multitude of questions and an engaged discussion that has continued at each subsequent conference. The discussions stretched out between conferences as members organised pre-conference meetings around the annual EECERA conference, held symposia within the conference, and initiated the cross-national project A day in the life of an early years practitioner which involved researchers from six countries (e.g., see Miller, chapter 10).

In retrospect, setting up this international working group was a very timely move given the unprecedented attention that early childhood education and care is gaining in many countries. Over the last years, many countries have set ambitious policy goals to increase both the quantity and quality of services for young children and their families. In most cases, the strategies to develop the early years’ systems are hooked to a strategy to further develop the workforce, which is increasingly seen as central to achieving policy intentions. As a consequence, the professionalism, and the professionalising, of the early childhood workforce have become key issues not only in multitudinous policy documents but also in scholarly discourses in academic journals and at conferences. Curricula, or national pedagogical frameworks, have been introduced as a means to foster professional practice. Qualifications, in-service training/education and an increasing number of university degrees are contributing to the notion that there is a profession in early childhood and an associated need for ‘professional’ development.

Yet, while the terminology of early childhood professionalism is increasingly pervasive, from our perspective there remains a slight unease. Do we really understand what being professional means in the early childhood work context? How can profession be conceptualised in early childhood settings? How might one act professionally in increasingly diverse and rapidly changing social and cultural contexts? And: Do we have a common ground of understanding about these terms? Do we have key concepts that we can agree on?

The idea of a publication based on the work of the special interest group arose out of discussions that highlighted a common interest in engaging with these questions and seeking an understanding of professionalism in local contexts that might throw light on its global implications. This book addresses these issues.

Approaching the subject from different theoretical and practical perspectives, the various chapters explore professionalism as a conceptual issue, as a policy issue in diverse local contexts, and as a matter that impacts on all aspects of practice, including the practicum component of early childhood teacher preparation courses. From these diverse analytical perspectives, professionalism can be understood as a discourse as much as a phenomenon: as something that is constantly under re-construction.

Aiming to understand professionalism as a process (with many contradictions) rather than a finite construct, then, inevitably draws attention to the actors and to the relationships that link them. Within the special interest group, some key questions that have stood out have included: To what extent should professional autonomy lie at the core of early childhood occupations – and how can this autonomy be achieved? How can critical thinking be introduced and encouraged in professional preparation, practice and reflection? And how can early childhood professionals be encouraged not only to operate from a value-based and ethical perspective, but to contribute to the co-creation of professional ethics and knowledge?

As convenors of the professionalism special interest group, we undertook the editing of this work as the first step in opening up our discussions to a wider audience. The collection in this volume throws light on the range of topics discussed within the group: it does not exhaust them. Most chapters are grounded in a specific local context – but they are by no means exemplars, representing the Finnish or the Australian or any other case. We prefer to see them as individual lenses that focus on the issue of professionalism from their particular vantage point.

Chapters 2, 3 and 4 traverse a range of ideas about the construction of professionalism, professional knowledge, and professional practice. Mathias Urban explores the ways knowledge is produced in hierarchical professional systems and argues for an alternative paradigm where research and practice are linked reciprocally through the hermeneutical concept of creating understandings. Yael Dayan describes her personal journey as an experienced practicum supervisor seeking a democratic and humanistic professionalism that is not merely notional but inherently practical. Carmen Dalli, drawing on practitioners’ voices, adds a ground-up perspective to definitions of professionalism.

The next two chapters introduce students’ perspectives into the picture: In a joint paper, Marja Kuisma and Anette Sandberg trace the different perceptions and interpretations of professionalism of a group of student teachers and their supervising teachers. Kate Adams, reporting on a study carried out with students and recent graduates, investigates the importance of occupational titles and degree-level studies for professional identity; by embedding her discussion in an account of recent policy changes in the Scottish context, Adams highlights the impact of structural changes on individuals’ sense of professional identity, including the potential for newly-emerging identities to be prematurely disrupted.

Situated in the same socio-cultural context, Finland, chapters 7 and 8 address professionalism from two distinct angles and arrive at different but complementary positions. Starting from a model of professionalism as professional expertise, Kirsti Karila discusses professionalism as a multi-level phenomenon impacted by national policies as well as municipal implementation, structural arrangements within work settings, and personal life story. By analysing different definers of professionalism at the different levels against practitioners’ perspectives of their role, Karila highlights some current contradictions. Jarmo Kinos applies a Neo-Weberian-Bourdieuan perspective to the professionalisation of the day care workforce. This enables him to unravel some of the contradictory and conflictual processes that emerge when professional groups struggle for resources and social capital.

Gill McGillivray and Linda Miller both explore the impact of an imposed professionalisation. In chapter 9 McGillivray analyses the changes over time in discourses on professionalism and how they contribute to shaping the professional identities of those who are seldom talked with, but are often talked about. In chapter 10 Linda Miller elaborates on the tensions and challenges that have arisen in the UK with the introduction of the role of the early years professional. While acknowledging the limitations of externally imposed standards, Miller argues that the new role is crucial to raising standards and to the establishment of a new multi-professional role. She suggests that it is possible for training providers and practitioners to challenge regulatory frameworks and to become active in developing a sense of identity even in the face of complex workforce reform.

Chapter 11 raises sobering concerns about the future of professional identity in contexts where the corporatisation of childcare provision is fast taking hold producing an enterprise culture that most early childhood practitioners would not recognise as part of their professional identity. Woodrow argues that the issue is a troubling one especially in the Australian context where early childhood professional identity is also under threat from accountability procedures in teacher education institutions that are privileging school learning and eroding early childhood expertise.

This book provides a collection of starting points of an ongoing discussion in the Special Interest Group on Professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care. Building on what has become a tradition in this group, we end this compilation with some preliminary insights drawn from themes that emerge across the various perspectives included in this book. This leaves us with yet more questions than answers – it is intentionally so.

On behalf of the Special Interest Group on Professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care, we wish to thank EECERA for its support and encouragement and for providing a hospitable and inspiring environment at the annual conferences. We thank the contributors for sharing their thoughts and the members of the Special Interest Group for the discussions that made this publication possible.

Wellington NZ, and London UK, January 2010

Dealing with uncertainty: challenges and possibilities for the early childhood profession

Mathias Urban

Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

ABSTRACT: In many countries, strategies to further develop services and institutions for the education and care of young children are linked to a discourse on professionalism. Ambitious policy goals, it is argued, can only be achieved by a skilled and qualified workforce whose practice is guided by a professional body of knowledge. This article argues that the prevailing conceptualisation of the early childhood professional is constructed out of a particular, hierarchical mode of producing and applying expert knowledge that is not necessarily appropriate to professional practice in the field of early childhood education. However, it is highly effective and contributes to forming a professional habitus that contradicts the relational core of early childhood practice. Drawing on the conceptual framework of hermeneutics, the article explores an alternative paradigm of a relational, systemic professionalism that embraces openness and uncertainty, and encourages co-construction of professional knowledges and practices. Research, in this frame of thinking, is understood as a dialogic activity of asking critical questions and creating understandings across differences, rather than producing evidence to direct practice.

RÉSUMÉ: Dans de nombreux pays, les stratégies pour développer plus avant les services et institutions d’accueil et d’éducation de la petite enfance sont liées à un débat sur le professionnalisme. Une politique ambitieuse, dit-on, ne peut réussir que grâce à une force de travail compétente et qualifiée dont les pratiques sont guidées par un corps de connaissances professionnelles. Cet article défend l’idée que la conception dominante du professionnel de la petite enfance est construite à partir d’un mode de production et d’application de connaissances expertes, particulier et hiérarchique, qui n’est pas obligatoirement approprié à la pratique professionnelle dans le champ de l’éducation préscolaire. Elle est toutefois effective et contribue à former l’habitus professionnel, entrant en contradiction avec la dimension relationnelle centrale de la pratique auprès des jeunes enfants.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: In vielen Ländern werden derzeit Strategien zu Ausbau und Weiterentwicklung der Institutionen und Angebote für die Bildung, Betreuung und Erziehung junger Kinder mit einem Diskurs zur Professionalität in diesem Feld verknüpft. Die anspruchsvollen politischen Ziele können nur verwirklicht werden, so die Argumentation, mithilfe gut ausgebildeter und qualifizierter Fachkräfte, deren Praxis von einer professionellen Wissensbasis geleitet wird. In diesem Beitrag wird argumentiert, dass vorherrschende Konzeptualisierungen des professionellen Frühpädagogen aus einem besonderen, hierarchischen Modus der Erzeugung und Anwendung von Expertenwissen heraus konstruiert sind; einem Modus der dem professionellen Handeln im Feld nicht notwendigerweise angemessen ist. Ungeachtet dessen ist er höchst wirksam und trägt zur Herausbildung eines professionellen Habitus bei, der im Widerspruch zu dem auf wechselseitigen Beziehungen aufgebauten Kern frühpädagogischer Praxis steht. Ausgehend von einem hermeneutischen Denkansatz erörtert der Beitrag ein alternatives Paradigma einer systemischen Professionalität, die Offenheit und Unsicherheit begrüßt, ernst nimmt und zur Ko-Konstruktion von professionellem Wissen und Praktiken ermutigt. Forschung wird in diesem Denkansatz als dialogische Praxis und als zentrales Merkmal einer systemischen Professionalität verstanden. Sie ermöglicht, kritische Fragen zu bearbeiten und trägt dazu bei, Verstehen über Differenz zu erzeugen, statt Faktenwissen für die Anwendung in der Praxis.

RESUMEN: En muchos países, las estrategias para continuar desarrollando los servicios e instituciones para la educación y el cuidado de los niños menores, están enlazadas con un discurso sobre profesionalismo. Metas políticas ambiciosas, se argumenta, pueden ser logradas solamente por una fuerza de trabajo hábil y calificada, cuya práctica es guiada por un cuerpo de conocimiento profesional. Este articulo argumenta que la conceptualizacion prevaleciente de la profesionalización pre-escolar esta construida por un modo particular y jerárquico de producir y aplicar conocimientos de expertos, que no es necesariamente apropiada a las practicas profesionales del campo de la educación preescolar. En todo caso, esta es altamente efectiva y contribuye a formar hábitos que contradicen el corazón relacional de la práctica pre-escolar. Basado en un marco de referencia de hermenéutico, el artículo explora un paradigma alternativo, de un profesionalismo relacional y sistémico que abarca la actitud abierta y la incertidumbre, y que fomenta la co-construcción del conocimiento y de las prácticas profesionales. La investigación, en este marco de pensamiento, es entendida como una actividad dialogica de hacer preguntas criticas y crear comprensiones entre diferencias, más que de producir evidencias directas para la práctica.

Introduction: professionalism: a new paradigm in early childhood?

To begin with, you will be relieved to know that I am not going to tell you what to do. (Winnicott 1987, 15)

The famous introduction to D.W. Winnicott’s classic The Child, the Family and the Outside World appears to be perfect for any attempt to approach the contradictory debates on the early years profession that have gained new prominence in many countries in recent years. Albeit explicitly addressed at non-professionals – Winnicott writes about a young mother’s experience of giving birth to a child – it covers the whole dilemma of adults working in the societal institution set up to educate and care for young children. The dilemma unfolds between the day-to-day experience of having to act concretely, spontaneously and autonomously in ever-changing, uncertain situations which, to a large extent, are determined by factors beyond the practitioners’ control, and the pressure that arises from increasing socio-cultural and socio-economic expectations to produce predetermined outcomes in this complex work context.

Along with an increasing division of labour, modern societies, over the past two centuries, tend to successively extend the responsibility for the upbringing of young children from the family domain to public institutions. Care and early education, which once used to be common social practice, have become specialised tasks for those who are specifically identified as early years practitioners: pre-school teachers, childcare workers, pedagogues, to name only a few. Roles, work contexts, levels of formal qualification, remuneration, and so on, of the early years practitioners always varied widely in different institutions or ‘services’, and in different periods of time. In this...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Abstracts
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Dealing with uncertainty: challenges and possibilities for the early childhood profession
• 3. Towards professionalism in early childhood practicum supervision – a personal journey
• 4. Pedagogy, knowledge and collaboration: towards a ground-up perspective on professionalism
• 5. Preschool teachers’ and student preschool teachers’ thoughts about professionalism in Sweden
• 6. What’s in a name? Seeking professional status through degree studies within the Scottish early years context
• 7. A Finnish viewpoint on professionalism in early childhood education
• 8. Professionalism – a breeding ground for struggle. The example of the Finnish day-care centre
• 9. Nannies, nursery nurses and early years professionals: constructions of professional identity in the early years workforce in England
• 10. Developing professionalism within a regulatory framework in England: challenges and possibilities
• 11. Discourses of professional identity in early childhood: movements in Australia
• 12. Conclusion: Towards new understandings of the early years’ profession: the need for a critical ecology
• Index