![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
In this brief colloquium, the authors consider a reconfiguring of quality and how this has impacted on practice in an early years setting. They demonstrate how their move from a formal quantitative strategic plan for the setting to their current narrative version, known as ‘Violet’s Story’, contributes to the academic debate of quality framed by post-humanist theory and narrative methods. The authors explain how this shift reflects a ‘qualia’ understanding of quality and, in doing so, show how the narrative strategies and techniques deployed embody post-humanist sympathies, taking the reader beyond the subjective to reveal some of the complexities of entanglement that make up a shifting, contextualised understanding of quality. Finally, the authors illustrate the theoretical by representing one practitioner’s reflection on what it can be like to work within a fluid, contextualised understanding of quality. They conclude that further studies should follow this line of inquiry for a better understanding of the real impact that such a reconfiguration of quality has on early years settings, the experiences of practitioners, and children and their families.
References
|
Dahlberg, G, Moss, P, Pence, A (2007) Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Hanh, TN (2010) You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment. Boston, MA: Shambala. Google Scholar | |
|
Moyles, J (2012) Foreword. In: Unhurried Pathways: A New Framework for Early Childhood. Winchester: Early Childhood Action, pp. 5–6. Google Scholar | |
|
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (2010) The Red House Children’s Centre: Inspection report for early years provision. Available at: http://www.Ofsted.co.uk Google Scholar | |
|
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (2012) The Red House Children’s Centre: Inspection report for early years provision. Available at: http://www.Ofsted.co.uk Google Scholar | |
|
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (2014) The Red House Children’s Centre: Inspection report for early years provision. Available at: http://www.Ofsted.co.uk Google Scholar | |
|
Osgood, J (2015) Recofiguring quality: Beyond discourses and subjectivities to matter, bodies and becomings in early childhood education. TACTYC Conference, Birmingham, 30 October 2015. Google Scholar | |
|
Osgood, J, Scarlet, RR (2015) Reconfiguring quality: Beyond discourses and subjectivities to matter, bodies and becomings in early childhood education. In: Cannella, GS, Salazar Perez, M, Lee, I-F (eds) Critical Examinations of Quality in Early Education and Care. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang. Google Scholar | |
|
Riessman, CK (2008) Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Shuman, A (2005) Other People’s Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Wolfe, C (2010) What Is Posthumanism? Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar |
Author biography
The Red House Children’s Centre is an independent, fifty three place Nursery for children aged two to five years. There are currently one hundred and five families on roll. Opened in 1988 the Nursery has always worked in an open plan environment supporting collaborative team teaching where the process of working within and beyond critical pedagogies is openly contested and supported through on-going debate. This piece of work has arisen from all aspects of the collaborative work/practice at The Red House, drawing its inspiration form conversation, experience, critical reflections, ethos and organisational culture, which in turn is supported by the appointment of the current in house research associate. The Red House would welcome contact from other academic researchers who are interested in working collaboratively with those deeply immersed in Early Years practice.
