‘It's just more in the real world really': how can a local project support early years practitioners from different settings in working and learning together?

Abstract

This article describes how early years practitioners working in different settings, with different experiences and qualifications, can work and learn together. It is a small-scale case study of an eight-month project, with a grass-roots approach, involving early years settings within the reach area of an inner-London Children's Centre. The data collected are primarily from interviews, questionnaires and meeting minutes and the methods aim to replicate the democratic ethos of the project. The findings show that participants found this way of working empowering, drawing on their own and each other's knowledge and developing links for ongoing collaboration. However, the practical issues of staffing, costs and the structures of different types of settings remained significant barriers throughout the project. Further, the range of roles held by the participants, including the participant researcher, allowed power imbalances to operate. The study highlights the issues and opportunities that more local, ongoing forms of professional learning present.