Early Childhood Educators Are Experts Too and We Have a Lot to Say

• In Event: On Listening to What Early Childhood Teachers Say: Reflections on Collaborative Inquiry, Community, and Care

Abstract

Being a teacher is hard. Being an early childhood teacher is harder since our work is undervalued and grossly underpaid. And since our work with young children sets the stage for many of the experiences they will encounter later on, it demands respect. I discovered the teacher as researcher group during the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic and the second year of my doctoral program. Like many of my colleagues, I was stressed out and stretched thin because of the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. Children entered my classroom with trauma each day and I could feel the stress and anxiety of the families taking up space each morning and afternoon at drop-off and pick-up. On top of that, the extra requirements being placed on me and my colleagues due to health restrictions around Covid-19 were often overwhelming. I needed help and it was clear that I would not be able to get the type of help and support that I sought at work. Although I worked at a setting that was committed to equity and justice in theory, my school at the time, like many other schools functioned in the way that it was designed to. The (dys)function of the educational system leads to a pattern of harm, emotional violence, and trauma for children of Color, regardless of how young they are (Ferrette, et al, 2023). Our meetings occurred in the midst of ongoing global displays of anti-Blackness and the “culture wars” in the United States. I needed a place to process all of these issues and threats to my own humanity and I found the teacher-as-researcher group to be the right space for me to meet other educators working towards justice and equity. It was a place to be seen, feel safe, and dream of a world that Black and Brown children deserve. My hope for other teachers and professionals is to find a space (or create their own) where they can connect with like-minded colleagues to discuss issues that concern them and find support as they push equity initiatives forward in their settings. Many early care and early childhood educators work long days and they do not receive the same amount of vacation and paid time off as K-12 teachers. In addition, many early care teachers do not receive adequate pay and other benefits that would allow them to better care for themselves and their families (Interlandi, 2018). Early childhood teachers and professionals need each other. My hope is that every teacher and professional in early care finds ways to connect with other people in the field outside of their setting to see how our concerns are often connected and to see how powerful we can be when we work together. I hope to see the growth of teacher-as-researcher collaborations in early childhood so our voices can be included more in policy decisions and other decisions that affect our work with children and families. We are experts too and we have a lot to say.

Author

• Tara Kirton, Hunter College - CUNY