Developing Professional Early Childhood Educators in England and Hungary: Where Has All the Love Gone?

Abstract

European education agendas have emphasized the importance of early childhood education in providing the foundations for lifelong learning. Central to the success of early childhood education is the quality of provision, with the workforce being key. While qualifications levels are frequently cited as important for the quality of provision here we ask questions of the attitudinal competences required to work in early childhood in two countries: England and Hungary. This paper presents a mixed-method study that considers the attitudinal competences perceived as needed by early childhood students and how these are acquired. We focus on the role of love in early childhood education and the contrasting perceptions and experiences in England and Hungary. In Hungary love is spoken about freely, but in England managerialist and entrepreneurial discourses are creating tensions with more emotional dispositions of being caring, supportive, and empathic that early childhood practitioners uphold. In Hungary, early childhood educators are given relative autonomy in their professional roles and love is a key characteristic. We consider historical, philosophical, and political developments in the two countries to shed light on how English and Hungarian perspectives have diverged, while exploring opportunities that comparing perspectives offers for the further professional development of early childhood educators.