From Marginalised Student to Marginalised Professional - Identity and the Early Childhood Student
Keywords:
Early Childhood Degrees, Student Identity, Early Childhood Professional, Professional Identity, Tutors as ResearchersAbstract
The Early Childhood sector is one beset with tensions for its workforce. We raise the question of how this will affect the identity of Early Childhood undergraduate students as they work towards careers in the sector. Two cohorts of Early Childhood students were asked about their understanding of the ‘ideal’ student and what is special about Early Childhood students. Responses were thematically analysed with a priori and inductive coding and with particular mind to how author positionality, as both tutors and researchers, might affect the postulated meaning of data. Whilst we conclude that there is a shift in emphasis between student understandings of the ‘ideal’ and the early childhood student from a stronger academic vision to a more vocationally motivated persona, we also find it important to acknowledge our own part in constructing this understanding of our students. The findings have implications for strengthening student identity but also for considering the impact of academic staff perceptions and the positioning of early childhood studies within academia and beyond.
Downloads
References
Ang, C.S., Lee, K.F. and Dipolog-Ubanan, G.F., (2019) Determinants of first-year student identity and satisfaction in higher education: A quantitative case study. Sage Open, 9(2): https://doi.org/10.1177/215824401984668
Archer, N. (2022) Uncovering the discursive ‘borders’ of professional identities in English early childhood workforce reform policy. Policy Futures in Education 0(0) 1–20, DOI: 10.1177/14782103221138013
Bonetti, S. (2019) The early years workforce in England, Education Policy Institute https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-early-years-workforce-in-England_EPI.pdf
Cousin, G. (2005) Case Study Research, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29:3, 421-427, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260500290967
Davies, J. (2023) Why we must recruit more men into the early years — and how we can do it https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/why-we-must-recruit-more-men-early-years-%E2%80%94%C2%A0and-how-we-can-do-it
Dean, J., Furness, P., Verrier, D., Lennon, H. and Bennett, C. (2018) Desert island data: an investigation into researcher positionality, Qualitative Research 18 (3), DOI: 10.1177/1468794117714612
Department for Education (2023) Childcare staff by gender 2022, Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/ed6d8693-4e14-4b11-3985-08db371965b6
Dinther, M., Dochy, F., Segers, M. (2011) Factors affecting students’ self-efficacy in higher education, Educational Research Review, 6 (2) 95-108, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2010.10.003
Dunham, N., (2016) Student Academic Identity and Early Childhood Field-Based Initial Teacher Education. An unpublished thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Education), Unitec Institute of Technology. https://www.researchbank.ac.nz/items/6efd24ab-ea15-4fd0-b619-990d6f9086c5
Foulds, E. (2023) UCAS Points Calculator: a Guide https://www.whatuni.com/advice/ucas-application-guide/new-ucas-tariff-calculator/61068/#:~:text=onto%20the%20course.-,How%20many%20UCAS%20points%20do%20you%20need%3F,vary%20from%20course%20to%20course.
Holmes, A. (2020) Researcher Positionality – A consideration of is influence and place in qualitative research – a new researcher guide. International Journal of Education 8 (4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.34293/ education.v8i4.3232
Huang, R., Zheng, H., Duan, T., Yang, W. & Li, H. (2022) Preparing to be future early childhood teachers: undergraduate students’ perceptions of their identity. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 50:5, 515-533, DOI: 10.1080/1359866X.2022.2066506
Jones, C. E., & Aubrey, C. (2019). ‘I mean, why wouldn’t men be involved?’ The life histories of six male practitioners working within early childhood education and care in England. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 17(4), 279-293. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X19852651
Langford, R., Richardson, B., Albanese, P., Bezanson, K., Prentice, S., & White, J. (2017). Caring about care: Reasserting care as integral to early childhood education and care practice, politics and policies in Canada. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(4), 311-322. DOI: 10.1177/2043610617747978
Li, H. (2014). Compensation of Chinese early childhood teachers: A preliminary study in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Singapore, and Taipei. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 8(1), 1–14.
May, T. (1999) Reflexivity and Sociological Practice. Sociological Research Online, 4 (3) https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.hope.ac.uk/doi/full/10.5153/sro.327
Mitchell, L., Vandenbroek, M., Lehrer, J. (2023) Resisting the alienation of the workforce in (eds) M. Vandenbroeck, J. Lehrer, L. Mitchell The Decommodification of Early Childhood Education and Care. Routledge: London. ISBN: 9781003218104
Peter Moss (2007) Bringing politics into the nursery: early childhood education as a democratic practice. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15:1, 5-20, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13502930601046620
Moyles, J. (2001) Passion, Paradox and Professionalism. Early Years Education 21 (2), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09575140124792
Marks, A., & Mahoney, J. (2014). Researching identity: a Critical Realist approach. Studying Organizations Using Critical Realism. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665525.003.0004
Nicholson, J., Shimpi, P. M. & Rabin, C. (2014) ‘If I am not doing my own playing then I am not able to truly share the gift of play with children’: using poststructuralism and care ethics to examine future early childhood educators' relationships with play in adulthood. Early Child Development and Care, 184:8, 1192-1210, DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2013.856894
Orso, L., O’Reilly, F., Wilcock, R. & Andreis, F. (2024) The missing graduates in England's nurseries. Online https://www.nesta.org.uk/data-visualisation-and-interactive/the-missing-graduates-in-englands-nurseries/#:~:text=Accredited%20graduates%20make%20up%20the,workforce%20have%20accredited%20graduate%20status. Accessed 3.6.24
Robert-Holmes, G. and Moss, P. (2021) Neoliberalism and early childhood education. London: Routledge.
Savolainen, J., Casey, P. J., McBrayer, J. P., & Schwerdtle, P. N. (2023). Positionality and Its Problems: Questioning the Value of Reflexivity Statements in Research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(6), 1331-1338. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221144988
Schaack, D. D., Donovan, C. V., Adejumo, T., & Ortega, M. (2021). To Stay or to Leave: Factors Shaping Early Childhood Teachers’ Turnover and Retention Decisions. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 36(2), 327–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2021.1955779
Seale, C. (2002) ‘Quality issues in qualitative inquiry’. Qualitative Social Work 1, 97–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/147332500200100107
Sims, D. Fineman, S. & Gabriel, Y. (1993) Organising and Organisations: An Introduction. London: Sage
Statham, R., Freedman, S. and Parkes, H. (2022) Delivering a Childcare Guarantee. Institute for Public Policy Research https://www.ippr.org/files/2022-12/delivering-a-childcare-guarantee-dec-22.pdf
Tomkins, L. and Eatough, Virginia (2017) Hermeneutics: interpretation, understanding and sense-making. In: Cassell, C. and Cunliffe, A. and Grandy, G. (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods. London, UK: Sage. ISBN 9781473926622.
Yale, A.T., (2019) The personal tutor–student relationship: student expectations and experiences of personal tutoring in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43(4), pp.533-544. DOI: 10.1080/0309877X.2017.1377164
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
