Is the Care–Education Dichotomy Behind Us?: Should It Be?

Abstract

England FOR OVER A DECADE WE have talked about the care-education dichotomy as being false and irrelevant given that care is considered to be a part of education, not separate from it. A generation of early childhood professionals have grown up in services where care is seen as part of education. As a nation, Australia is now pursuing professionalisation of early childhood through the education discourse. As with any decision, there are positive and negative consequences. In this article I report on a research project that explores early childhood professionals' perspectives of the care-education dichotomy, and the role it plays in early childhood today. I argue that, in order to understand the unintentional consequences of pursuing an educational pathway towards professionalisation, we need to keep the issues relating to care in the front of our minds.

What Discourses Relating to the Purpose of Early Childhood Are Shaping the Work of Early Childhood Practitioners in Three Different Contexts: UK, Bhutan and Fiji?

“…Part of this is embedding early childhood work in the fluid relationships early childhood educators build with individual children at every moment they share experiences. Relationships are never static and can change from moment to moment and relationship work requires ongoing adjustments, the antithesis of standardisation, and the loss of this from the education discourse (Sims, 2014;Sims & Pedey, 2015;Sims & Tausere Tiko, in press;Sims, Waniganayake, & Hadley, 2017) represents to us a major risk that the early childhood sector will be modified by neoliberalism. This fear was expressed by research participant Bell in Stover (2013, p. 7): I just don't think you can tread with heavy boots on early childhood.…”

“…Data was collected via an online survey. The survey was developed as part of a larger study (Sims, 2014;Sims & Pedey, 2015;) and questions were customised to context. For example, names of EC qualifications were country-specific.…”

A narrative exploration of how curricula for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties shape and are shaped by the practices of their teachers

“…All of the teachers investigated displayed a very high degree of individuality and conceptualised their work not straightforwardly as teaching the curriculum, but rather as being the curriculum‐in‐action, with their practice lying alongside and only obliquely cognisant of their school's espoused provision. The narratives revealed creative practices and unique understandings and interactions with their learners, interpreted as highly responsive and caring pedagogies (O’Connor, 2008; Sims, 2014). The narratives disclosed ongoing conflict with school leaders interpreted as a threat to their pedagogic practices as well as their professionalism.…”

Young children’s citizenship membership and participation: comparing discourses in early childhood curricula of Australia, New Zealand and the United States

“…'Freedom of speech, once considered the bastion of education, is now positioned as one of the greatest threats to the state, resulting in increasing compliance enforcement throughout the education sector' (Sims 2017, 3). Further, more academic subjects are increasingly being introduced and assessed in the early childhood sector (Sims 2014). For example, the New Zealand early childhood framework, Te Whāriki, was critiqued for not providing sufficient guidance to address children's literacy and numeracy learning (e.g.…”