The Early Childhood profession today
There is a considerable amount of legislation in New Zealand that governs the profession through the early childhood regulations with auditing bodies like the New Zealand Ministry of Education, the Education Review office and the New Zealand Education council. These organisations ‘ keep an eye’ and audit compliance as well as quality in the early childhood sector. In addition to government agencies, important stakeholders are the children, parents, family and the community. The early years profession has undergone numerous changes over the last couple of years. There is an expectation that professional teachers keep abreast of changes, adapt their practice and carry on improving their practice to reach for and maintain quality outcomes and environments for children.
So where does this situate the teacher?
A few questions come to my mind:
Is the teacher a cog in the wheel of an intricate system with a top down approach to handing out directives of quality, best practice?
OR Should teachers be consulted with regards to introducing new regulations, ratios of children to teachers, curriculum requirements and so on?
Is best practice a framework of regulations, policy documents, curriculum frameworks created by a select few (viz., well renowned and well-regarded academics and a cocktail of government key policymakers and other ‘important’ people) to be passed down to the teacher, who is on the floor and working hands-on with children?
OR Should there be an ideal scenario wherein there is a collaborative model between the academics, policy makers and the teachers and authentic (not token) consultation occurs before putting forward a set of regulations, curriculum document that will be implemented in the field by teachers, for the children, and audited by ‘others’; the regulatory bodies as mentioned above.
Who is the professional teacher?
There is more than sufficient research, literature and discussions in professional development workshops and early years discussion groups about the definition of a professional teacher. But the concept of ‘professionalism’ is complicated. Who is a professional teacher in the current scenario is a question with a variety of answers and some conflicting views. These are a few examples from research that I included in the literature review of my thesis on emotional labour…
In New Zealand
Dalli (2008) researched New Zealand early childhood teachers’ self concept of professionalism revealing detailed narratives of what teachers considered as ‘ being a professional’ and vice versa. Dalli (2008) makes a strong case in her research for a ‘ground up view’ for teachers to self define professionalism rather than a top down regulatory prescription for professionalism.
In Belgium
A study of primary school teachers in Belgium, revealed that most teachers felt a strong passion for teaching but felt powerless and stressed when questioned by parents and inspectors (Kelchtermans, 1996).
In UK
Eight pre school teachers were asked to document a reflective journal over a period of two weeks on their experience of stress (Kelly and Berthelsen, 1995). These entries revealed that teachers faced emotional demands and stress caused by time pressures in juggling multiple tasks , complying with regulations, expectations from parents and the school as part of being ‘professional’.
Jane Osgood (2012) in her book’Narratives from the nursery: Negotiating professional identities in early childhood‘ examined the problematic definition of professionalism and the costs to early childhood teachers. Here is one of the narratives from her study of three London nurseries:
It is simply not a profession that you can’t care about. It requires a high level of emotional investment; you need to have a love for the job and a love for what you do and realise that everything that you do in this job has far-reaching consequences’ it can be totally exhausting to invest so much of yourself into this work but if you don’t then you are doing yourself a disservice; yourself, your colleagues, the children and ultimately their families. This is the bedrock to what we do, but I suppose it is kind of hidden from view, its …implicit I guess would be the word.” Natalia (Osgood, 2012. p. 3)
How may we support our teachers? Teachers who have the opportunity to shape future generations, who have the most important job of being a part of the experience of our children during the most critical period of their lives.
Therefore I suggest:
Consider the emotional cost to the teacher. If we want our teachers not tired, not burnt out and not moving on to do other things just because they are overloaded and emotionally drained, then we need to take a hard look at expectations vs reality. Anuja jena-Crottet, 2016
The questions I pose are :
What does it mean to be a ‘professional’ early childhood teacher in today’s scenario? Are teachers getting (over) professionalised? As my research revealed as well as my professional practice and dialogues with colleagues…Take a good hard look at the workload, the job demands, paperwork+On the floor interactions with children+ on the floor photographing of children’s learning + on the floor documenting (also off the floor time allocated as non contact, but allocations vary) + housekeeping jobs+ extra unpaid work + + + etc etc. I recently saw an advertisement posted by a member of an ECE Facebook group to point out the gender bias blatantly obvious. This advert was for a “Head teacher a.k.a Wonder woman” (note gender indicator advertising for a role in a heavily gendered profession… a discussion for another day). What struck me was the reference to’Wonder woman’. So now early childhood teachers are required to possess super powers? Not surprising at all! Adverts in employment websites for early childhood teachers say it all…expectations of work alongside expectations (often unpaid) of emotional labour (in the hidden text/subtext) and so on. Of course the word ‘professional teacher’ wanted crops up unfailingly alongside a shopping list of other qualities deemed desirable for the job.
The point here is not to contest the importance of being a professional teacher but exploring and questioning the concept of and discourses around professionalism and the expectations from teachers in the early childhood sector; so that teachers are supported in their practice to maintain quality environments.
Undoubtedly teaching is ‘emotion work’ (Zapf, 2002; Hargreaves, 1998) and teachers’ emotions are invested within their practice. The experience of the positive aspect of emotions at work may lead to drive, motivation and pride in the profession whereas negative outcomes of high emotional labour may lead to stressed teachers, which ultimately affects quality (from the literature review of my research on emotional labour, 2016).
‘Quality’ conversations in Early Childhood and emotional labour
(from the literature review of my research on emotional labour, 2016)
The notion of quality in a caring profession such as early childhood is heavily dependent on the teacher’s ability to portray the right emotions in all interactions; with children as well as adults (Colley, 2006).
Process quality indicator
Children’s social interactions have been named as the most crucial process quality indicator in the early Childhood setting (Smith, Grima, Gaffney & Powell, 2000). The depiction of warm and responsive interactions is an expected image, identity and disposition of the Early Childhood professional teacher who is expected to be responsible for, and an upholder of quality environments. In the Early Childhood sector quality interactions and relationships would be viewed as a result of the teachers’ active display of caring and nurturing emotions and making every effort to maintain these consistently.
Structural quality indicator
A structural quality indicator in the Early childhood environment is the provision of organisational supports in terms or resources and remuneration (Smith et al. 2000). This indicator may not be the only one sufficient to ensure high quality environments but is an important one (Smith et al, 2000) with spillovers to emotional labour as the employee may perceive high or low leadership support depending on the context.
Emotional labour, a concept first introduced by Hochschild (1983) may be a result of the commercialisation of teachers’ emotions with the focus of some ECE centres on the profit margins and with low organisational support for teachers in terms of ratios, resources and provision of adequate professional development opportunities.
Another question around ‘Professionalisation’ of early childhood teachers may be posed as:
Are we ‘Professionally Vulnerable’ as Teachers?
(from the literature review of my thesis on emotional labour, 2016)
Is this aspect of teaching highlighted in any professional discourse in the field? This is a question that comes to mind while we do get a fair amount of usually top down directives regarding what teachers ‘should’ be doing. All that is very well as long as there is also a parallel support provided to teachers upholding all the professional standards laid out by regulating bodies.
The teacher’s ‘professional vulnerability’ operates at a level of teaching being experienced by the teacher as an extension of self in both the cognitive and emotional domains that are strongly entwined in the act of teaching. Although vulnerability in teaching has been extensively discussed, the concept is not yet clear (Bullough, 2005; Kelchtermans, 1996, 2005; Nias, 1996). But as early childhood teachers we do feel this vulnerability at various times of our professional career. It is important to talk about this, to acknowledge it and value it. Kelchtermans (2005) strongly emphasizes the importance of acknowledging vulnerability, and as a result a parallel can be drawn for valuing and acknowledging the Emotional Labour experienced by early childhood teachers in their daily work.
Kelchtermans (2005) expands this notion and suggests that teachers’ emotions, mediated by a sense of ‘professional vulnerability’, are determined by contextual and temporal factors such as age, experience, school philosophy, management style, and working conditions.
We know from experience that teaching at any level is an emotional experience (Kelchtermans, 1996; Nias, 1996). Teachers’ emotions and teaching practice are inseparable and seamless (Hargreaves (1998).
I think you as early years teachers will relate to this and that is why I have added ‘we’ to my quote below. With more than two decades in this profession and looking back retrospectively I can say this.:
I (We) chose (choose) to be a teacher(s) because I am (we are) emotionally invested. I (we) wake up daily to get to work to see the bright spark in the eyes of the children who greet us with affection, to observe and document their daily progress, to work hard at providing enriching environments, to endeavour to implement all that I (we) learnt during my (our) training , to feel proud of their achievements, to share with parents and caregivers, to aid and help at any cost so that our children have the best possible day ,every day and the best possible future. Anuja Jena-Crottet, 2016
I think that we as teachers cannot stop thinking about the children even when we aren’t working. We are constantly thinking of new ideas, spend hours in garage sales and charity shops out of working hours and also rummaging through our personal belongings to locate resources for taking to work the next day. We spent hours professionally dialoging with our colleagues in online groups, spend hours in workshops as well as spend many hours usually unpaid completing learning stories and other documentation…The list goes on. Teachers do all this and more because of the love for the profession. As teachers we know we are in the right place, the place where our hearts reside, and that is why it is important to value the work that teachers do.And I know this from my experience, from my data and from the dialogues with teachers in various online forums.
This is a call to policy makers, owners, a call to teacher advocates and advocates for children, to sit up and take notice, to work on ways of improving working conditions, implement meaningful policy changes. Meaningful to our early childhood environments. Meaningful to high quality outcomes, meaningful and effective for our children.
A call to policy makers to spend time rethinking the regulations and policies so that you include the teachers in this process.
I am proposing some suggestions below:
Take a look at the centres that have the least teacher turnover, the happiest environment, identify best practice environments
Place those owners and managers and the real leaders, the unsung heroes in the government meetings,take a leaf from their book and appoint them in an advisory role when you plan to have your next policy change Know really well how policies, regulation and curriculum are implemented in centres.Know what is best practice for teachers and how can the government support this. After all isn't this for the children and our communities?
Consultation, authentic consultation is the key to a best practice model all over. Consult the early childhood teaching sector before introducing a major policy changes or changes to a curriculum document. Make that consultation meaningful, respectful and authentic. How? Firstly advertise widely. It is not rocket science to work out where to get a wide reach and audience. Give teachers enough time to dialogue with each other, to think, reflect and submit their views and ideas, genuine feedback and easily accessible consultation meetings are in order. Make it easier for teachers to attend. I suggest that it should also be accessible online via live webinars and surveys so that consultation reaches far and wide and every teacher has a fair opportunity to have a say. In my opinion, anything less than that is just tokenism. And there are no excuses for tokenism- most likely an indication of poor practice,ambiguous agendas and lack of respect for the profession. Back story: The New Zealand bicultural curriculum document is currently under consultation. There has been much discussion on this in the NZ ECE online forums and dissatisfaction expressed by the teaching community over the limited time frame allocated for consultation.
Walk the talk…
the talk, the discourse of ‘professionalism’ not the professionalisation of the early childhood teacher, but really identifying what it means to be a professional teacher and identify strategies to support this a hundred percent and all the way.
As teachers what can we do?
Advocate Advocate Advocate
in our own way
in our own capacity
This is our professional responsibility + Our responsibility to our selves
And most important
For the children and communities we serve
The Professional teacher’s Professional responsibility -who’s is accountable to who?
Accountability to stakeholders…
Children are number 1!
Accountability to the families
Accountability to the regulatory bodies
Accountability to your employers
Accountability to YOU–something that can be easily forgotten
And now consider taking an about turn. Turn accountability to a full circle…360 degrees
Ministers and government, Ministry of Education, auditing bodies, Teacher registration bodies, teacher training providers, teacher professional development providers… yes all those impacting, making policies, training and working in the Early years sector need to be accountable. And with democratic, transparent and collaborative processes. Not token accountabilities that look good on paper, on websites and in your resume. But with parallel accountabilities alongside the teaching communities, with flatter hierarchies… Accountability is not just for teachers. YES It is vitally important for teachers to be accountable. This is a given. We know that; the discourse is loud on this, the blame is also loud. No doubt teachers need really strong processes of accountability , after all they are in direct contact with our most precious Human resource, and the most vulnerable-Our children.
BUT
if this is the only form of accountability, it leads to power imbalance, lack of voice from the teaching profession, lack of a strong and empowered voice. This is visible…and invisible, just depends on the context.
So I am proposing a 360 degree accountability. Try it! Let the teaching profession also tick some boxes, provide feedback and suggestions for improvement on performance of the ones auditing teachers’ professionalism. This is when truly best practice will shine, will thrive, will grow and be nurtured across the board.
And …
As members of our chosen profession, our chosen vocation , as professionals
we need to shake it up, shake up our own comfort zones, shake that of others
in the quest for quality, in the quest for self-development, the upliftment of our profession,
for the well-being of children we need to keep ourselves as teachers feeling motivated, engaged and healthy in emotionally and physically healthy environments, to learn and grow together,
and we should never stop questioning, ourselves and the system,
as critical thinkers,
as professionals who are proud to call ourselves early childhood teachers!
KIA KAHA (stay strong in the Maori language)
References and further reading
Bullough, R. V., Jr. (2005). Teacher vulnerability and teachability: A case study of a mentor and two interns. Teacher Education Quarterly, 32(2), 23-39.
ChildForum. (2015). The Quality of Early Childhood Centres for Children: Teachers’ Views. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/16708966/The_Quality_of_Early_Childhood_Cen tres_for_Children_Teachers_Views
Colley, H. (2006). Learning to labour with feeling: class, gender and emotion in childcare education and training. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1), 15-29. doi:10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.15
Dalli, C. (2008). Pedagogy, knowledge and collaboration: towards a ground-up perspective on professionalism. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 16(2), 171-185. doi:10.1080/13502930802141600
Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional politics of teaching and teacher development: with implications for educational leadership. International Journal of
Leadership in Education, 1(4), 315-336. doi:10.1080/1360312980010401
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling.
Kelchtermans, G. (1996). Teacher vulnerability: Understanding its moral and political roots. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(3), 307-323. doi:10.1080/0305764960260302
Kelchtermans, G. (2005). Teachers’ emotions in educational reforms: Self- understanding, vulnerable commitment and micropolitical literacy. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 995-1006. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2005.06.009
Kelly, A. L., & Berthelsen, D. C. (1995). Preschool teachers’ experiences of stress. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(4), 345-357. doi:10.1016/0742- 051X(94)00038-8
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Mitchell, L., Wylie, C., & Carr, M. (2008). Outcomes of early childhood education: Literature review. New Zealand: Ministry of Education.
Moyle, J. (2010). Passion, paradox and professionalism in early years education. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 21(2), 81-95. doi:10.1080/09575140124792
Nias, J. (1996). Thinking about Feeling: the emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(3), 293-306. doi:10.1080/0305764960260301
Osgood, J. (2012). Narratives from the nursery: Negotiating professional identities in early childhood. Routledge.
Smith, A.B., Grima, G., Gaffney, M., Powell, K., Masse, L. & Barnett, S. (2000). Strategic Research Initiative Literature Review: early childhood education, a report to the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from http://www.taskforce.ece.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ECE- Literature-Review.pdf
Zapf, D. (2002). Emotion work and psychological wellbeing: A review of the literature and some conceptual considerations. Human resource management review, 12(2), 237-268. doi: 10.1016/S1053-4822(02)00048-7
To reference this post: Jena-Crottet, A.(2016,November 28) The 'Professional' teacher: The discourse of 'Professionalisation'. Expectations VS Reality. Retrieved from https://anniejece.wordpress.com/2016/11/28/the-professional-teacher-the-discourse-of-professionalisation-expectations-vs-reality/
Musings - The Early Years blog 