Value Guided Practice in early childhood education: learning together about what counts.

1. Value Guided Practice in early childhood education: learning together about what counts. Gerry Mulhearn 17th EECERA Conference Prague 2007

2. The ethics of care and justice and the conference themes • How can researchers and practitioners influence policy more effectively? • using the lens of the ethics of care and justice to examine early childhood program design and practice.

3. Presentation Outline • Research contexts and concepts • A framework to examine the ethics of care and justice • Methodology and content for the research • Conclusions

4. The research and its contexts • Doctor of education – joint work • Dual roles as researcher and senior administrator • The policy world • Dilemmas • What’s it got to do with Vygotsky?

5. Concepts • How should we care and for whom? • How can we act justly and ethically? • Ethics: A system of morals, rules of behaviour, Concerned with human character and conduct (Cambridge Dictionary 1998) a concept of justice,(as) a democratic and open opportunity for discussion and more equal access to power. (Tronto p 157) • Care as a species activity that includes everything we do to maintain, continue and repair our "world" so that we can live in it as well as possible. (Tronto p 103) care is both a practice and a disposition" (p 104)

6. Caring about is the phase of recognizing the (correct) need and realizing that care is necessary: Attentiveness Taking care of is the phase which "involves assuming some responsibility for the identified need and determining how to respond to it." : Responsibility Care giving is the phase where the need is met: Competence Care receiving is the phase where "the object of care will respond to the care it receives”: Responsiveness Integrity of Care, requiring "that the four moral elements of care be integrated into an appropriate whole". A framework to examine the ethics of care and justice (Tronto)

7. Using the framework to examine our work Project 1 • Critical incidents • Ethical flashpoints Project 2 • Use of framework and methods from project 1 to develop critical text analysis of key policy documents that drive our work Project 3 • Use of framework to examine the interactions between systemic policies, program development and local practice in relation to Learning Together

8. The Learning Together context • an additional early learning strategy that will have a long-term impact on the improvement of learning outcomes especially for disadvantaged learners • a research and development project located in five communities of socio-economic disadvantage • Programs have developed differently according to local community desire and determination. • All programs feature the dimensions of adult education and support, adult/child interaction and child engagement and learning. • A strategy for longer term policy formation/service model development and resource allocation

9. Aims of Learning Together • Improve early learning opportunities for children • Assist parents to support their child’s early learning and development • Support parents’ own learning and determination • Strengthen communities through interagency collaboration and coordination in the provision of family focussed programs and services • Promote and support positive relationships between families and early childhood services and schools

10. Research questions • What does an ethic of care and justice (as described by Tronto) look like in relation to the Learning Together program? • What are some of the key early childhood curriculum leadership issues in Learning Together? • What are the effects of Learning Together on the key players ie those involved in delivering the program and those who are the recipients of the program? • How are the original intentions of the program and its current operations perceived by the adults involved in the program? • How are the roles of parents in the program perceived by managers and the parents themselves? • How is the role of the manager in the program perceived by parents and the managers themselves?

11. Methodology • Critical phenomenology • phenomena - ethics, care and justice • phenomenology - a determinate method of inquiry, (directed toward) attaining a rigorous and significant description of the world of every day human experience as it is lived and described by specific individuals in specific circumstances (Pollio et al 1997) • The necessity of adopting a critical spirit is essential when following a traditional approach to phenomenology in that our manner of seeing the world and the assumptions we make must be called into question. (Barnacle, 2001)

12. Methodology • Semi structured interviews with individual managers and parent users • Focus groups • Analysis against questions for each of Tronto’s elements • Cross reference with program documentation and artefacts • Meta-analysis with reference to projects 1 and 2

13. Tronto’s framework – one element for analysis • Responsiveness • How is the receiver responding? • How does the object of care recognise the care it is receiving? • To what degree does the object of the care respond? • What are the situational aspects of responsiveness as indicated? • Are there particular aspects of responsibility that evoke greater responsiveness?

14. Sample questions - managers • Can you talk about curriculum leadership in relation to your role as a Learning Together manager? • Whose needs are being met by Learning Together? • How are your needs as a curriculum leader being met in relation to this program? • Can you talk about any ethical dilemmas you have faced in running Learning Together? • How do you think the other adult respond to your leadership in the program? What indicates this? • How do adult participants respond to each other?

15. Sample questions - parents • Whose needs are being met by Learning Together? • Can you talk about leadership in relation to Learning Together? •  Who provides this and how is it provided? What does it look like? • How are your needs as a parent being met in relation to this program? • How are your needs as a learner being met at Learning Together? • Can you talk about the concept of care and what it means to you? What does this look like in relation to your experiences in Learning Together?

16. Early Conclusions • Lessons from the methods in relation to the framework • Framework adds another dimension to program evaluation and development • Conclusions about the ethics of care and justice in program design and practice • Many dilemmas about expectations and tensions between the “tender “and the “tough”

17. A final word (at this point) It’s not about learning apart It’s about learning together

18. References • Aubrey, C. (2000). Early Childhood Educational Research: Issues in Methodology and Ethics. London, Routledge Falmer. • Barnacle, R. (ed) 2001, Phenomenology, Melbourne RMIT University Press • Griffiths, M. (1998) Educational research for social justice: getting off the fence, Buckingham Open University Press • MacNaughton, G., Rolfe, S., Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2001). Doing early childhood research: international perspectives on theory and practice. Sydney, Allen & Unwin • Pollio, H., Henley, T., & Thimpson, C., (1997) The phenomenon of everyday life Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom • Tronto, J. (1993) Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care, New York, Routledge • Tripp, D. (1998) Critical incidents in action inquiry, in J.Smyth & G. Shacklock (Eds) Being reflexive in critical educational and social research, London: Falmer, pp36-49 • Whiteman, P. et al (2007) Learning Together Research: Final Report, Newcastle, The Children and Education Research Centre, The University of Newcastle