Valuing Child Care Labor: Presumed Professionals or Capable Workers?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Who in the World Are We? Deconstructing Identities in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Researchers concerned about the value of childcare work have invested heavily in the idea that staff should become professionalised. Despite two decades of such efforts, little seems to have changed for staff except the rhetoric. I argue that this discourse of professionalism has become a disciplinary tool, expecting more, and more sophisticated, work from staff without any comparable compensation.
Drawing on semi-structured interviews with childcare staff this research shows how they have developed their own measure of value – the capable worker – and invest in this rather than abstract notions of professionalism. Using a feminist Bourdieusian framework, I show that this functions as a form of subcultural capital, providing a high use-value, and significant internal goods.

Author

• Yarrow Andrew, Flinders University