"Glorified Babysitters": Discursive Constructions of Work in the Early Years

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Discursive Constructions of Early Childhood Education Teachers: Defiance, Commonalities, and Mismatches

Abstract

This paper is a partial account of findings from a larger study in Australia, designed as an inquiry into the professional identities of early childhood teachers. Data was drawn from preservice students, preparing to graduate as qualified early childhood educators. The complexities and tensions around working in childcare as a ‘last resort’ are considered. We base our readings of the data on a postructuralist theoretical framework, and pay close attention to how preservice teachers spoke ‘child care’ and ‘work in child’. We draw on the work of Foucault to consider how childcare is discursively produced in the students’ talk, and how they constitute their ‘professional identities’.

Authors

• Megan Gibson, Queensland University of Technology

• Felicity Anne McArdle, Queensland University of Technology