Rethinking ‘Professionalism’ in the Early Years: Perspectives from the United Kingdom

Abstract

This special issue of Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood presents a collection of perspectives on the issue of professionalism in early childhood education from the UK context. As guest editor, I have come to appreciate the work that Sue Grieshaber and Nicola Yelland undertake in preparing each edition of the journal and I thank them for providing me with the opportunity to edit this edition. The impetus for presenting the idea of a special issue to the editors stemmed from a very personal interest in the notion of professionalism in the early years, which I briefly outline. I occupy the enviable position of working solely on research endeavours, located, as I am, in a research institute in London. In wrestling with current issues facing the early years community I overcame a persistent sense of isolation (as a specialist researcher in this field at an institute that covers other education phases and phenomena) by a chance encounter with CIEC whilst searching the Web for publications engaged in critique and theorisation. At about the same time, I was made aware of the Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education (RECE) movement in the early years. These two ‘discoveries’ have opened up vital avenues, bodies of knowledge, networks and friendships. What these occurrences also alerted me to was the insular way in which I was guilty of working. These events and my feminist post-structural commitment to deconstruct and problematise the taken-for-granted prompted me to exercise some agency and conceive of ways in which I might subvert or unsettle the way in which I and others in the early years research community are positioned and actively position ourselves in individualised/insular ways. In addition to my marginal (yet privileged) professional position is the neo-liberal context within which the academy is located in the twenty-first century. The plethora of conservative/traditionalist arenas for publication in the United Kingdom poses a direct challenge to academics wishing to present critiques of that which they research and teach. Taking the risk to present critical ideas can carry a heavy price. This in conjunction with the neo-liberal focus on competition, marketisation, commercialism – critique has become increasingly unpopular and all but banished from public discourse in the academy. But the cost of failing to overtly challenge policy reform agendas (that appear benign and persuasive at first glance) is too high a price to pay if we are, as we so frequently claim to be, committed to social justice. The voice of the early years community (including academics, teacher educators, local policyimplementers and practitioners) is small but the workforce is enormous and continuing to grow. Yet still the United Kingdom is some way behind its international counterparts in terms of early childhood education and care (ECEC). The current climate is widely regarded as a key moment in time for overhauling ECEC in England; as such, the appeal of alternative models of education and care is widespread. However, enthusiasm for these alternative models is tempered by economic rationalism which ensures that only a bastardised version of the many exemplary international pedagogies and approaches will be available in the England. But the rhetoric would have us believe that well-resourced, universal and publicly funded models are attainable in a capitalist market economy; this is the nub of much contestation currently in the United Kingdom. The early years workforce in the United Kingdom is receiving unprecedented attention (from policy makers,