Creating dialogues: Exploring the ‘good early childhood educator’ in Chile

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the different ways in which a number of Chilean stakeholders conceptualise the 'good early childhood educator' in Chile. In a context where new foreign narratives are increasingly dominating the field and the recent standardisation of the educators' professional role is being implemented, this research constitutes a critical and alternative viewpoint, analysing the situation as a whole and creating dialogues between key actors in order to open possibilities to new understandings. Twenty-three participants, including early childhood educators, teacher educators and key informants from national providers of early childhood education, were interviewed. Adopting a postmodern approach to grounded theory (situational analysis), the participants' discourses were analysed and compared, together with a diversity of identified elements and human and non-human actors. Shared meanings, conflicts, tensions and local understandings were identified in the data and cartographic tools were used to illustrate them. The article concludes with some reflections on the new possibilities these findings can bring to the future of structures and discourses within the early childhood profession in Chile and worldwide.

Resisting schoolification from the classroom. Exploring the professional identity of early childhood teachers in Chile / Resistiendo la escolarización desde el aula. Explorando la identidad profesional de las docentes de primera infancia en Chile

“…In concordance with the previous evidence in Chile, the findings obtained show that early childhood teachers perceive that their professional identity is contravened to a significant degree by other actors in the field (Castillo, 2017;Viviani, 2016), with particular emphasis given to the perception of schoolification as a threat to their professional identity (Pardo & Woodrow, 2014). It is interesting to observe that these findings do not appear to be singular to Chile, since other countries in Latin America and Europe report schoolification and government policies as challenges to the professional identity of early childhood teachers (Dalli, 2017;López, 2013;Sarceda Gorgoso, 2017).…”

“…In Chile, Viviani (2016) found that early childhood teachers understood their professional role, contradicting the view of representatives of the provider institutions. Specifically, while the representatives show that early childhood teachers lack specialized knowledge, they consider themselves capable or suitably qualified despite this.…”

“…Para Chile, Viviani (2016) encontró que las docentes de primera infancia comprendían su rol profesional contradiciendo la visión de los representantes de las instituciones proveedoras. Específicamente, mientras estos últimos manifestaban que las docentes de primera infancia carecían de conocimientos especializados, éstas se consideraban capaces o adecuadamente preparadas.…”

“…Concordando con la evidencia previa para Chile, los hallazgos obtenidos muestran que las docentes de primera infancia perciben que su identidad profesional es contravenida en importante grado por otros actores del campo (Castillo, 2017; Viviani, 2016), reiterando, en particular, la percepción de la escolarización como una amenaza a su identidad profesional (Pardo & Woodrow, 2014). Es interesante notar que estos hallazgos no parecen ser singulares para Chile, pues tanto en otros países de América Latina como de Europa la escolarización y las políticas han sido reportados como desafíos a la identidad profesional de las docentes de primera infancia (Dalli, 2017; López, 2013; Sarceda Gorgoso, 2017).…”

“Caballito blanco, ¡vuelve pa’ tu pueblo!”: Troubling and reclaiming the historical foundations of Chilean early childhood education

“…For Viviani (2016), female practitioners are expected to have a strong vocation, to always be joyful and love their children. Love and joy can be linked to Froebel’s philosophy (Peralta, 2012), in which female practitioners’ essence is assumed to be closer to nature and therefore also to children.…”