Problematising policies for workforce reform in early childhood education: A rhetorical analysis of England's Early Years Teacher Status
TLDR
This paper examined workforce reform in early childhood education in England, specifically the policy trajectory that led to implementation of the Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) qualification in 2014, taking a critical perspective on policy analysis, the paper uses rhetorical analysis to make sense of the how EYTS is understood within workforce reform.Abstract:
This paper examines workforce reform in early childhood education in England, specifically the policy trajectory that led to implementation of the Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) qualification in 2014. Taking a critical perspective on policy analysis, the paper uses rhetorical analysis to make sense of the how EYTS is understood within workforce reform. From an assemblage of salient policy documents, we report our critical analysis of two key texts: Foundations for Quality and More Great Childcare. Both documents identify policy levers and drivers for reform, but from markedly different perspectives and with contrasting recommendations. By using rhetorical analysis to examine how these policy texts construct not only problems but also preferred solutions, we illustrate the paradoxical nature of early childhood policy in England as it relates to aspirations to raise the status of the sector and improve quality through the implementation of EYTS.read more
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Mixing State, Market And Network Governance Modes: The Role Of Government In "Crowded" Policy Domains
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that policy and decision-makers need to recognise the difference between these modes, select optimal mixes and their associated components in order to create the space necessary for more meaningful dialogue and interaction to occur between the most favorable elements.
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Educational Leaders and the project of professionalisation in early childhood education in Australia
TL;DR: The authors report the ways in which educational leaders in Australian early childhood education workplaces are interpreting and implementing their mandatory role, and argue the work of educational leaders is primarily oriented towards raising the status and capacity of their colleagues as a pre-requisite for high-quality outcomes, and that concepts of quality operate instead as mediating tools.
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Policy rhetorics and responsibilization in the formation of early childhood Educational Leaders in Australia
TL;DR: In this article, a rhetorical analysis of policy texts illustrating the emergence of the mandatory Educational Leader role in early childhood services in Australia is presented, and the authors argue that policy texts bef...
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Early childhood educators’ qualifications: a framework for change
TL;DR: In the context of an ongoing policy crisis in relation to the qualifications of the early childhood workforce in England, the authors presented a framework for career structure and professional early childhood education qualifications in England.
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‘What works’ and for whom? Bold Beginnings and the construction of the school ready child:
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the dominant discourse in current policy agendas in UK and international contexts, fulfilling a range of goals such as providing children with the "best start in life" by breaking...
References
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How Do they Manage?: A Review of the Research on Leadership in Early Childhood
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a review of literature on leadership in early childhood (EC) and identify a paucity of research, despite a high potential for leadership activity in the early childhood field.
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Mixing state, market and network governance modes: the role of government in "Crowded" policy domains
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the failure of these modes to solve complex public problems has meant that new hybrid arrangements drawing on and mixing the strengths of each mode have come to the fore.
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Childcare Workforce Reform in England and "The Early Years Professional": A Critical Discourse Analysis.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the ways in which nursery workers are constructed through government discourse in England and offer a deconstruction of key policy texts to understand how nursery workers have become fabricated through texts as more or less professional at particular political moments and to what effect.
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Expertise, competence and reflection in the rhetoric of professional development
Richard Edwards,Katherine Nicoll +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the rhetorical work done by discourses of professional development in education is explored, in particular the ways in which the rhetoric of technical expertise, competence and reflective practice are deployed to mobilise professional practices and identities in particular ways and position certain practices and dispositions as specifically professional.