Deconstructing Profesionalism In Early Childhood

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Volume 7, Number 1, 2006

doi: 10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.5

Deconstructing Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: resisting the regulatory gaze
JAYNE OSGOOD London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to problematise the dominant construction of ‘professionalism’ as created and promoted by the United KingdomGovernment through policy. Like other professionals working in education, early years practitioners are subjected to a disempowering, regulatory gaze in the name of higher standards. The preoccupation with satisfying dominant and externally imposed constructions of professionalism leaves little time to engage in meaningful critiques of the status quo, and as a consequence of social engineeringthose working in the early years become constrained by demands for technicist practice . The discourse of rationality is deconstructed to reveal that through its dominance and perpetuation early years practitioners are regulated and controlled in their attempts to satisfy the demands for performativity and technicist practice. This article draws upon and is framed by the work of Foucault, inparticular his concern with ‘disciplinary technologies’ that produce docile bodies as objects that yield to the discourse, and his focus upon rules that govern the discourse – in this case the discourse professionalism. The article concludes with a discussion of the vital and important role that agency plays and it is argued that practitioners are not passively shaped by social structure but that theyare active in challenging, negotiating and reforming the discourses through which they are positioned and defined and therein lies the possibility for resisting the regulatory gaze.

Introduction Quite often ‘professionalism’ is presented as an apolitical and common-sense construct broadly defined by specialist knowledge/qualifications, meeting high standards, self-regulation and a high level ofautonomy (see Penguin English Dictionary, 2000). I want to deconstruct common-sense definitions and to focus attention upon the cultural, historical and political specificity of the concept of professionalism in relation to early childhood education and care (ECEC). Professionalism in ECEC in the United Kingdom is currently a hot topic, attracting much debate and contention in the media, theacademy and in Whitehall (government). There is widespread support for the potentially beneficial consequences of heightened professionalism for practitioners, and for the children and families that they serve. Advocates of the professionalism agenda believe that professionalisation could lead to a strengthened position and increased respect for those who work in ECEC, but concerns abound that a processof professionalisation could be used as a means of control and provide increased domination to those in power. Cannella (1997) is amongst many commentators to highlight the potential of a professionalism discourse to act as a mechanism for control wherein sites of power are created:
the discourses and actions associated with professional institutions and practices have generated disciplinary andregulatory powers over teachers (who are mostly women) and children. Standards have been created through which individuals judge and limit themselves, through which they construct a desire to be ‘good’, ‘normal’ or both. (p. 137)

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Jayne Osgood The ‘Crisis’ in Early Childhood Education and Care In this vein I wish to draw attention to the ECEC situation in the United Kingdom. Aligned tothe concerns above about a desire by the state for regulation; the early years workforce in the UK has attracted significant and increased attention from central government, the most recent and powerful manifestation of which is embodied in two key policy documents: Every Child Matters (Department for Education and Skills [DfES], 2004a, b) and the Ten Year Strategy (HM Treasury, DfES, 2005)....