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Towards a critical ecology of the profession

Towards a critical ecology of the profession. Systematic approaches to policies, practices and understandings of professionalism and professionalisation in early childhood. Carmen Dalli Institute for Early Childhood Studies

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Towards a critical ecology of the profession

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  1. Towards a critical ecology of the profession Systematic approaches to policies, practices and understandings of professionalism and professionalisation in early childhood Carmen Dalli Institute for Early Childhood Studies Victoria University of Wellington

  2. Critical implies an injunction to: Be alert to differences in • Contexts (history; policy; values; ways of working; qualifications) • Experiences (individually/collectively) And thus also to differences in: • Perspectives about what it means to be/act professionally; to be part of a profession

  3. Discussions have been about: • Do we have/want a common ground of understanding about these terms? • Do we have/want key concepts that we agree on? • What do we mean when we say that the macro and the micro aspects of professionalism are inseparable?

  4. Key Concepts • Professionalism as an ecological concept that is globally referenced to ‘quality provision’ and locally defined and determined through specific socio-historical dynamics in which people are active participants;( Dalli; Dayan; Kinos; Miller;Urban; Oberhuemer;) • Professionalism as a marker of individual identity, a self-identification that enables individual practitioners to take on behaviour that they identify as high quality effective practice ( Adams; Dalli; Peeters) • Professionalism as expertise that accretes from knowledge, dispositions, attitudes and experience on an ongoing basis (Karila; Kuisma & Sandberg; Oberhuemer; Peeters)

  5. Key concepts continued • Professionalism as mandated by regulations and standards of practice that are externally monitored ( Dalli; Miller); • Professionalism as openness to learning and to critique, and as an outgrowth of reflective practices (Peeters; Kuisma & Sandberg) • Professionalism as a quality embedded in practice and in relationships with children, colleagues, parents and management (Adams; Dalli; Dayan; Oberhuemer) • Professionalism as a marker of social status and as a distinguishing characteristic for an occupational group (Adams; Kinos)

  6. Is professionalism a unitary notion anyway? Why do we want to know it anyway? If we define some as professionals, whom do we exclude? Should we stay away from structural frameworks for defining the profession as they may not be the frameworks we want? A structural definition is legitimate if you can differentiate between different types of work: expert/ professional/mother. Do we need to find out the mode of “professional work”; the hard core of professional work The term “new professional” in England seems to assume we know what one is – but do we? In Ireland, ECE as a sector can’t even name itself but is struggling to define itself. Is it a service provider, is it education? What would be mean to be one thing or the other? In France, the real professional is the “educateur jeunesse enfance” and part of their job is to include the ones who are not professionals Some current discussion points:

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