How do early childhood education leaders navigate ethical dilemmas within the context of marketised provision in England?

Abstract

Early childhood education (ECE) settings can be understood as public forums (Dahlberg, Moss and Pence, 2013) where adults and children engage together in the implementation of national policy.We reflect on ethical dilemmas for leaders in early childhood education arising from the implementation of national policy. Dilemmas can be problematic in the sense that they are unresolved or routine-like as they pervade practice (Denzin, 1989). Inspired by Shapiro and Stefkovich's (2016) framework of multiple ethical paradigms, we analyse complex dilemmas arising for leaders in ECE as they implement national policy in the micro-system with children, families and the community. We position leaders in these contexts as principally concerned with the positive exploration of ethical dilemmas. Our analysis gives visibility to the ways in which leaders may draw on theory and experience in the ECE setting to navigate ethical dilemmas within a marketised system. Knowledge of ethics and practice may be partial and incomplete; however, fragments are pieced together as ethical praxis.Key words: early childhood education, policy, praxis, everyday practice, vignettes, ethical dilemmas 2014, p.1). Policy implementation in the micro system is not restricted to the literal reading of the written text; it is also the practice that emerges through the interpretation of text.Our study aims to examine the ways in which leaders of ECE navigate ethical dilemmas in their practice arising from the implementation of national policy within a mixed economy and market of early education providers in England. This present study emanates from an earlier empirical study (Robson, 2018) examining how leaders of pedagogy in ECE in England implemented the statutory requirement to promote Fundamental British Values (FBV) as part of the governments' counter-terrorism strategy in England (Great Britain, HM Government, 2015). We report on findings specifically in relation to the ways in which leaders of ECE navigate ethical dilemmas in practice.This study is guided by the following research question and sub-questions:How do leaders in ECE address ethical dilemmas arising from the implementation of government policy in England? What dilemmas emerge for leaders of ECE as they implement national policy in the context of marketised provision? How does existing knowledge support an understanding of leadership in ECE practice in this context? How might leadership of ECE be re-imagined in the context of marketised provision? Policy contextThis study, conducted in the English context, is situated within a system of a mixed economy of state, private-for-profit and private-not-for profit ECE providers, where parents choose provision on behalf of their children (Lloyd, 2012). There has been an evolution in government policy for ECE in England since 1997 (Fitzgerald & Kay, 2016) leading to a complex range of universal and conditional entitlements to free early education in England for children aged 2-5 (Great Britain, Department for Education, 2017a). In England policym...

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