The Reflective Early Years Practitioner

Elaine Hallet

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781446290330
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Elementary Education

Shortlisted for the 2013 Nursery World Awards!
?The author offers opportunity to reflect upon experience and brings together reflective practice and work-based learning, aiming to support the professional growth of a reflective early years workforce?
-Karen Ward, Senior Lecturer in Early Years, Birmingham City University

Work-based reflective learning is a key part of the professional development of practitioners working in the early years sector. The Reflective Early Years Practitioner focuses on the practitioner?s role and development within a wide range of contexts in this area.

Informed by empirical research, packed with case studies from a wide range of settings and with points for reflection in each chapter, the author covers:

- developing as an early years practitioner

- reflective vocational progression

- pedagogical examples for continuing professional development

- study skills to begin reflective practice

- professionalism and reflective leadership in the early years

Vital aspects of practice, such as assessing and planning for children?s learning, developing inclusive teaching strategies and integrated practice are highlighted within the chapters.

This is essential reading for students undertaking work-based and academic study in early years and for those working towards post-graduate and professional qualifications. It provides readers with tools to continually practice work-based reflective learning now and in the future.

1

The Developing Early Years Practitioner

Chapter overview

For many years, adults working with babies and young children undertook a caring role. The roles and responsibilities of early years practitioners have broadened across education, health and social services. Professional learning and employment opportunities have enabled the development of a knowledgably confident workforce. The revealing of early years practitioners to a visible workforce with active agency is storied through the chapter. There is opportunity to reflect upon your work-based progression as a developing early years practitioner.

This chapter will:

• Explore the development of early years practitioners’ roles and responsibilities.
• Examine historical, research influences and government policy upon workforce reform.
• Discuss the gender construct of the early years workforce.
• Consider the contribution of practitioners’ professional learning upon setting, school and service provision.
• Consider the development of a graduate-led workforce.

Developing roles and responsibilities

Traditionally, nursery nurses were the main practitioners working with babies and young children. Their role has developed with more responsibilities as they have furthered their engagement with children, families and multi-professionals in a range of early years contexts and integrated services. If you were able to go back in time to a nursery or infant classroom 30 years ago, nursery nurses working there would be quietly washing paint pots and brushes in the sink in the corner of the infant classroom or nursery – one of the many daily routine tasks nursery nurses carried out. These routine tasks also included sharpening pencils, cutting paper, tidying the book corner, washing dirty clothes; all low-graded tasks that, in many cases, the nursery or school teacher preferred not to undertake. However, these were important tasks supporting the work of the teacher, allowing the teacher more time for teaching children. The teacher’s higher qualification and skills as a qualified graduate teacher enabled her or him to teach the class or group of nursery children, which a less qualified nursery nurse was unable to do. Nursery nurses worked under the direction of a teacher with small groups of children. It depended upon the nursery or school they worked in how involved they were in planning activities and attending staff meetings. Some nursery nurses participated in planning meetings and attended staff meetings; some were not allowed in the staffroom. Nursery nurses were considered as non-teaching support staff; the exclusion zones reinforced this view.

In the twenty-first century, nursery nurses are no longer an invisible workforce who are ‘just washing the paint pots’. They are a visible workforce working with babies, young children, practitioners, professionals and agencies in leadership and management roles, and in complementary teaching roles, undertaking diverse roles within integrated practice in a range of services for children and families, in schools and early years settings, children’s centres and integrated children’s services in both the maintained and private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sectors. The invisible workforce has been transformed into a visible workforce through professional learning and new employment opportunities.

The job titles for practitioners other than teachers, working in the early years are varied, at times confusing and often not reflecting the diversity of the role undertaken. Job titles reflect the value of that role to parents and to others. The terminology used around a job can cause misconceptions about the role and responsibilities within it (Adams, 2008). The following array of job titles is used for practitioners and teachers working with young children in nurseries and early years settings, children’s centres, schools and home-based provision (Hallet, 2008b):

• Childminder
• Children’s Centre Teacher
• Classroom Assistant
• Crèche Worker
• Early Years Educator
• Early Years Practitioner
• Early Years Professional
• Early Years Teacher
• Foundation Stage Co-ordinator
• High Level Teaching Assistant
• Learning Support Assistant
• Learning Mentor
• Nanny
• Nursery Nurse
• Nursery Assistant
• Nursery Manager
• Nursery Teacher
• Play Leader
• Pre-school Leader
• Room Leader
• Room Supervisor
• Senior Nursery Nurse
• Teaching Assistant.

The variety of names for various job roles reflects how one suitable title has not been found to describe the complexity of the work of the early years workforce. The term ‘nursery nurse’ is still the common generic term for those working with young children other than teachers (Adams, 2008), while the term ‘teaching assistant’ (TA) has become the common generic term for support staff working in schools, acknowledging their contribution to teaching and learning and pupil achievement (DfEE, 2000). The development of integrated practice highlights the case for a new language referring to those working in children’s services, with emphasis on an integrated pedagogical approach to working practices (Cameron, 2004).

In the care and education of young children there has been a long history of including the word ‘nursery’ in a job title, for example, nursery nurse, nursery assistant and nursery manager, to describe the work of early years practitioners other than teachers. The names derive from the qualification and job role of a nursery nurse, a term from Victorian times, when women worked in children’s nurseries as nurses looking after the physical health of children in their care. The emphasis on children’s health and well-being was promoted by the McMillan sisters (1860–1931). In their open-air nursery schools, children played out on large verandas to breathe in the fresh air associated with robust health – a contrast to the foggy air in the slums of London (MacLeod-Brudenell, 2008). The job title of ‘nursery nurse’ described this health carer’s role well, before education became part of nursery provision (Hallet, 2008b) and continues to be used. Whenever the term ‘nursery nurse’ is used, it misrepresents the valuable and complex role of caring and educating young children, and working with parents, carers and families. Many qualified nursery nurses undertake management and leadership roles, using a range of knowledge and skills developed through experience of working in early years provision, as the following case study shows.

Case study: A morning in the life of a nursery nurse

Edee qualified as a nursery nurse 10 years ago, she works in a large private day nursery. Her working day begins early in the morning, ending late in the evening. Her day begins earlier at home: she gets up her own children, washes, dresses and gives them breakfast, gets them into the car, dropping them off at the childminder’s before arriving at the nursery for her working day to begin.

She is the Deputy Manager but today she is Acting Manager as her manager is out for the day on a course. She is able to sit in her chair and even answer the phone … But responsibility goes with that. She looks in the diary and there are meetings with parents and a staff meeting to organize. Edee usually works in the Toddler Room; she goes there to brief the supply nursery nurse, covering her role for the day, introducing the parents to her replacement.

Her first meeting is with a prospective new parent who wishes to use the nursery for her baby as she returns to work from maternity leave. Edee greets the parent and her 1-year-old baby and, after introductions and giving the parent the nursery’s prospectus, she takes her on a tour of the setting, introducing staff, and explaining the curriculum and provision. On return to her office, she answers the parent’s queries and offers the parent a place for her baby in the nursery, beginning the following week.

Her next meeting is with the nursery’s cook and a parent who has complained about the quality of the food her child had received, while attending nursery. The parent explained her child, Zoe, wouldn’t eat the food provided; she was concerned about the little amount of food she was eating during her time at nursery. The cook explained about the nursery’s healthy eating menu, defending her cooking and the quality of the ingredients she used. Edee acted as a mediator between the cook and the parent during a lengthy discussion. Edee helped a compromise to be reached; the parent providing some of Zoe’s lunch, the cook providing some food Zoe liked. Both left the meeting happier than when they arrived.

There is a staff meeting to plan with a focus on developing the outside as a learning area. Edee had recently been on a course, ‘Taking the inside outside’, so prepared a small PowerPoint presentation about the benefits of learning outdoors. She made an agenda for the meeting, including time for the staff to contribute ideas and about how the nursery’s outdoor area could be developed for learning. Edee wanted staff to develop ideas and produce a development plan for this initiative to progress by the end of the meeting, so it was important to have a focused agenda with ample time for this thinking to take place. She then joined the staff in the staffroom for her sandwich lunch.

The following questions will enable you to reflect upon Edee’s role. She used a range of knowledge and skills as the Acting Nursery Manager in the meetings with the new parent, the cook and the parent, and in planning the staff meeting.

Questions for reflection: Reflecting on Edee’s day

Can you identify when she used the following knowledge and skills during these meetings and activity?

• Effective communication
• Marketing
• Decision-making
• Conflict resolution
• Negotiation
• Planning
• Knowledge transfer
• Collaboration.

Following from this reflection, consider the term ‘nursery nurse’.

• Does the term ‘nursery nurse’ really describe Edee’s complex and varied role?
• Is there a term that would describe her job role more fully?

The term ‘nursery nurse’ promotes the gendered nature of the early years workforce which is now considered.

A female workforce

Traditionally, the early years sector has a predominantly female workforce (Kay, 2005), cultural and social conditioning being responsible for establishing female and male gender roles. Patriarchal systems of society maintain caring for children is naturally women’s work (Roberts-Holmes and Brownhill, 2011). Women as child bearers undertake a mothering and nurturing role in the care of children. Many young girls have responded to their career teacher’s question ‘What do you want to do when you leave school?’ with the reply, ‘I want to work with children’ and have been directed to the local further education college to attend a childcare course.

Females being associated with children are socially constructed through the mothering role, traditionally carried out by women. Women interacting with babies and children in a patient, caring and nurturing way are viewed as having qualities associated with motherhood, therefore in working with children, women will meet babies’ and children’s needs in a caring way (Reynolds, 1996). There is an assumption that caring for young children is an easy job that can be done by anyone who is kind, loving, warm and sensitive, and who likes children. McGillvray (2008) refers to this as the ‘Mary Poppins syndrome’. Browne (2008) describes ‘feminine traits’ of emotions, sensitivity, creativity and care as integral to working in the early years sector. Through gendered perceptions and the socialization of girls and women, working with babies and young children as nursery nurses, teaching assistants, home-based nannies and childminders, seems attractive, therefore producing a predominantly female workforce.

The gender construct that working with children is women’s work, something that women do naturally and are intrinsically better at (Moss, 2003; Peeters, 2007) has influenced the value of the work as of low status. Workforce reform and the development of a graduate-led workforce in the Children’s Workforce Strategy (DfES, 2005) is raising the status of the early years workforce but without the reward of increased level of pay. Early years services are critical for the development of young children. However, the workforce is one of the lowest paid and the least qualified (Cooke and Lawton, 2008). Gender is inextricably part of the workforce (McGillivray, 2008); gender role association, low status, low pay and the high proportion of females in the workforce interact with one another (Cooke and Lawton, 2008). Practitioners working in the early years, who are not qualified as teachers, are seen with less regard, which is reflected in low pay (Kay 2005). Historically, the early years workforce is ‘under qualified, underpaid and overwhelmingly female’ (Miller and Cable, 2008b: 120), a challenge which is beginning to be addressed through government funded higher education and professional awards in raising qualifications, status and professional confidence of the early years workforce (Hadfield et al., 2011).

A smaller number of male practitioners and teachers work with young children mainly in schools, but also in early years settings, children’s centres, children’s services, and in the extended schools service. Although the numbers of men employed in the early years sector is increasing, male workers are regarded as exceptions to the general rule that childcare is work for women (Cameron et al., 1999). Early childcare and education as gendered women’s work, assumes a female workforce reproducing its own patterns of recruitment and training. An examination of gender pedagogy may increase recruitment of men (Peeters, 2007).

Gender is threaded throughout interactions with parents and professionals and within practitioners’ everyday professional practice, whether the prac...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary of Terms
• Introduction
• 1 The Developing Early Years Practitioner
• 2 Being a Reflective Early Years Practitioner
• 3 Work-based Reflective Learning
• 4 Reflective Vocational Progression
• 5 Work-based Reflective Pedagogy
• 6 Being a Reflective Student
• 7 Reflecting upon Professionalism in the Early Years
• 8 Reflective Leadership
• 9 Reflective Learning Journeys
• 10 Continuing Learning Pathways and Future Reflections
• References
• Index