![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
There has been extensive research and analysis of the professionalization of early childhood educators/teachers. The recent promotion of a teacher-led workforce in England has further focused discussions on the modelling of early years teachers as professionals. In this article, the author develops an alternative analysis using the concepts of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to explore professionalization as a process of becoming. English policy focus has been on constituting early years teachers as reflective and rational subjects, and moving towards a narrower view of professional identity where school-ready discourses are prevalent. The author’s research with early years teachers reveals a complex negotiation and interchange with the demands of professional identity. This is analysed through Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of segmentation to refer to the forms of power which order early years teachers’ professional identity, and stuttering to develop the forms of resistance and negotiation that suggest a more fluid model of becoming. In particular, the analysis focuses on how stuttering opens up beyond the limits of a discourse analysis to suggest embodied and material forms of practice that are central to early years teaching. This methodology allows a move beyond the binary nature of humanist thought which posits mind-matter and culture-nature, towards a politics of possibility in which emerging early years teachers are engaged with an embodied and material world.
References
Section:
|
Anderson, EM (2014) Transforming early childhood education through critical reflection. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 15(1): 81–82. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Baugh, B (2010) Body. In: Parr, A (ed.) The Deleuze Dictionary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 35–37. Google Scholar | |
|
Bonta, M, Protevi, J (2004) Deleuze and Geophilosophy: A Guide and Glossary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Braidotti, R (2002) Metamorphosis: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming. Cambridge: Polity. Google Scholar | |
|
Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) (2008) Handbook for Candidates: A Guide to the Gateway Review and Assessment Process. London: CWDC. Google Scholar | |
|
Colley, H (2006) Learning to labour with feeling: Class, gender and emotion in childcare education and training. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 7(1): 15–29. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Conley, T (2010) Molecular. In: Parr, A (ed.) The Deleuze Dictionary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 177–179. Google Scholar | |
|
Coole, DH, Frost, S (eds) (2010) New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Crook, D (2008) Some historical perspectives on professionalism. In: Cunningham, B (ed.) Exploring Professionalism. London: Institute of Education, pp. 10–27. Google Scholar | |
|
Cumming, T (2015) Early childhood educators’ experiences in their work environments: Shaping (im)possible ways of being an educator? Complicity 12(1): 52–66. Google Scholar | |
|
Dahlberg, G, Moss, P (2005) Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education. Abingdon: RoutledgeFalmer. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Deleuze, G (1990) The Logic of Sense. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G (1992) Postscript on the societies of control. October 59: 3–7. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G (1994) Difference and Repetition. London: Athlone Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G (1997) Essays Critical and Clinical. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G, Guattari, F (1983) Anti-Oedipus. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Google Scholar | |
|
Deleuze, G, Guattari, F (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Google Scholar | |
|
Department for Education (2013) More great childcare: Raising quality and giving parents more choice. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/219660/More_20Great_20Childcare_20v2.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
Department for Education (2014) Statutory framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Available at: https://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2014/07/EYFS_framework_from_1_September_2014__with_clarification_note.pdf. Google Scholar | |
|
Department for Education (2015) Early years initial teacher training requirements: Supporting advice. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/591303/EYITT_Requirements_Supporting_Advice_2017-18.pdf. Google Scholar | |
|
Gibson, BE (2006) Disability, connectivity and transgressing the autonomous body. Journal of Medical Humanities 27(3): 531–546. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Goodchild, P (1996) Deleuze and Guattari: An Introduction to the Politics of Desire. London: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Grieshaber, S, Cannella, GS (eds) (2001) Embracing Identities in Early Childhood Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Hickey-Moody, A, Malins, P (2007) Introduction: Gilles Deleuze and four movements in social thought. In: Hickey-Moody, A, Malins, P (eds) Deleuzian Encounters: Studies in Contemporary Social Issues. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–26. Google Scholar | |
|
Lave, J, Wenger, E (1991) Situated Learning: Limited Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
McGillivray, G (2011) Constructions of professional identity. In: Miller, L, Cable, C (eds) Professionalisation, Leadership and Management in the Early Years. London: SAGE, pp. 93–106. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
MacLure, M (2010) Qualitative inquiry: Where are the ruins? In: New Zealand Association for Research in Education conference, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 6–9 December 2010. Google Scholar | |
|
MacLure, M (2013) Researching without representation? Language and materiality in post-qualitative methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 26(6): 658–667. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Mathers, S, Sylva, K, Joshi, H (2007) Quality of childcare settings in the Millennium Cohort Study. Sure Start Research Report SSU/2007/FR/025. Nottingham: Department for Education and Skills. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Miller, L (2008) Developing professionalism within a regulatory framework in England: Challenges and possibilities. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 16(2): 255–268. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
National College for Teaching and Leadership (2013) Teachers’ standards (early years). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/211646/Early_Years_Teachers__Standards.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
Nutbrown, C (2012) Foundations for quality: The independent review of early education and childcare qualifications. Final report, June. London: Department for Education. Google Scholar | |
|
Osgood, J (2006) Deconstructing professionalism in the early years: Resisting the regulatory gaze. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 7(1): 5–14. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Osgood, J (2009) Childcare workforce reform in England and ‘the early years professional’: A critical discourse analysis. Journal of Education Policy 24(6): 733–751. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Osgood, J (2010) Reconstructing professionalism in ECEC: The case for the ‘critically reflective emotional professional’. Early Years 30(2): 119–133. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Osgood, J (2012) Narratives from the Nursery: Negotiating Professional Identities in Early Childhood. Abingdon: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Payler, JK, Locke, R (2013) Disrupting communities of practice? How ‘reluctant’ practitioners view early years workforce reform in England. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 21(1): 125–137. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Semetsky, I (2006) Deleuze, Education and Becoming. Rotterdam: Sense. Google Scholar | |
|
Siraj, I, Kingston, D, Melhuish, E (2015) Assessing Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care: Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW). London: Trentham Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Smith, DW (1997) Introduction. In: Deleuze, G Essays Critical and Clinical. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. xi–liii. Google Scholar | |
|
St Pierre, EA (2004) Deleuzian concepts for education: The subject undone. Educational Philosophy and Theory 36(3): 283–296. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Stagoll, C (2010) Difference. In: Parr, A (ed.) The Deleuze Dictionary. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 74–76. Google Scholar | |
|
Sylva, K, Melhuish, E, Sammons, P. (2004) The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project: Final report. Nottingham: Department for Education and Skills. Google Scholar | |
|
Urban, M (2010a) Dealing with uncertainty: Challenges and possibilities for the early childhood profession. In: Dalli, C, Urban, M (eds) Professionalism and Early Childhood Education and Care: International Perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 4–21. Google Scholar | |
|
Urban, M (2010b) Rethinking professionalism in early childhood: Untested feasibilities and critical ecologies. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 11(1): 2–7. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals |
