Towards competent systems A critically ecologic perspective on processes of professionalisation of the early childhood workforce in Europe

Towards competent systems

Research conference

University of East London

Docklands, 26th June 2013

EU policy context 1990-2010

a quick reminder

Early Childhood has been on EU policy agendas for some

time (for various reasons):

• Recommendation of the Council of Ministers on Childcare

(1992)

• Quality targets in services for young children (1996)

• Barcelona targets (2002)

• Charter of Fundamental Rights

– Art. 14 (right to education) – Art. 21 (non-discrimination) – Art. 24 (rights of the child)

EU policy context 2011:

Europe in crisis?

Europe faces a moment of

transformation. The crisis has wiped out years of economic and social progress and exposed structural weaknesses in Europe's economy. In the meantime, the world is moving fast and long-term challenges –

globalisation, pressure on resources, ageing – intensify. The EU must now take charge of its future.

EU policy contect 2011

:

• There is ‘a need to increase participation in early childhood

education and care’

• ‘ … particularly acute in the case of those from a disadvantaged

background, who statistically tend to perform significantly less

well against each of the benchmarks.

Only by addressing the

needs of those at risk of social exclusion can the objectives

of the Strategic Framework be properly met

.’

• ‘Participation in high-quality early childhood education and care,

with highly skilled staff and adequate child-to-staff ratios,

produces positive results for all children and has highest

benefits for the most disadvantaged.’

A key role for the early childhood

profession

• Workforce is the key predictor of quality. It is

central for achieving policy goals of increasing

both quantity and quality of provision

(Oberhuemer 2000, 2010; Siraj-Blatchford 2002; OECD, 2001, 2006; Dalli 2003, 2005; Mac Naughton 2005, Urban, 2008, 2009; Dalli & Urban, 2010, 2011;

Eurydice, 2009)

• Most countries face major workforce challenges:

recruitment, retention, gender, qualification …

(OECD, 2006; CORE, 2011, Oberhuemer, 2010)

• Required:

‘…

systemic approaches to professionalism

…’

The problem with ‘competence’

and the ‘highly skilled’ individual

• In the current discourse

competence

as a fully human

attribute, has been reduced to

competencies

- series of

discrete activities that people possess the necessary

skills, knowledge and understanding to engage in

effectively

• The implication here is that behaviour can be objectively

and mechanistically measured. This is a highly

questionable assumption

• In order to measure, things have to be broken down into

smaller and smaller units. The result is often long lists of

trivial skills

Professional judgement vs.

‘possession of competencies’

• This can lead to a focus on the parts rather than

the whole; on the trivial, rather than the significant.

It can lead to an approach to education and

assessment which resembles a shopping list.

When all the items are ticked, the person has

passed the course or has learnt something. The

role of overall judgment is sidelined.

In this there is also an orientation to possessing

and owning attributes (a having mode) rather than

a concern with being.

To have or to be?

While the having persons rely on what they have, the being

persons rely on the fact that they are, that they are alive and

that

something new will be born if only they have

the courage to let go and respond

fully alive in the conversation because they do not stifle themselves by anxious concern with what they have. Their own aliveness is

infectious and often helps the other person to transcend his or her egocentricity.

Thus the conversation ceases to be

an exchange of commodities

status)

and becomes a dialogue

CoRe – project outline

– Review of European and

international literature on

‘competence’, ‘quality’ and

‘professionalism’ – beyond the

limited scope of English language

literature and research

– Survey in 15 European countries

– 7 in-depth case studies

– Professional representation of

most EU member states

Policy recommendations

University of East London / University of Ghent

in collaboration with key professional networks

DECET – ISSA – CiE – Education International

Funded by: European Commission

Directorate General for Education and Culture

A comprehensive study on competence requirements in early

CORE competence survey

• Belgium (Flemish and French speaking

Communities), Croatia, Denmark, France,

Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands,

Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,

United Kingdom (England and Wales)

• Conducted in collaboration with locally based but

internationally experienced researchers.

Aim:

factual information

and

informed

interpretation

CORE competence survey

(cont.)

• Multiple scenarios: competence profiles …

– for both the profession and for professional education/training – only for the profession, not for professional education/training – only for professional education/training but not for the profession – neither for the profession nor for professional education/training

• Multiple issues…

– individual vs. shared responsibility

– responsibility of the labour-market versus responsibility of the training institutions

CORE case studies

• Professional preparation of

Éducateurs Jeunes Enfants (EJE) and apprenticeship for auxiliaires de puériculture

Ecole Santé Social Sud-Est - Lyon, France

• The Integrated Qualifications Framework and the Early Years Professional Status: a shift towards a graduate led workforce

England

• Pedagogical Guidance as pathway to professionalisation

City of Gent, Belgium

• Inter-professional collaboration in Preschool and Primary School contexts

Slovenia

• The Danish Pedagogue Education: principles, understandings and

transformations of a generalist approach to professionalism

Paedagoguddanelsen JYDSK, VIA University College - Denmark

• Origins and evolution of

professionalism in the context of municipal ECEC institutions

City of Pistoia, Italy

• Professional and competence development in the context of the “Where there are no preschools” (WTANP) project

Poland

CoRe findings in a nutshell

•

Competence development is a process:

Professional competence conceptualised as

continuous learning process from entering the

field (as students or untrained workers) to the

end of their career

•

Professionalisation is systemic:

Processes of professionalisation take place at

different, interconnected levels:

Individual

Institutional

Re-conceptualising ‘competence’:

‘competent systems’ needed

• ‘Competence’ is not simply the

result of ‘training’ individuals

• ‘Competence’ develops and

unfolds in relationships between

individuals, teams, institutions and

the wider context of community

and society

• ‘Competence’ relates to working

with children, families, and

communities

• Developing competence requires

joint learning and support systems

EU communication

on ECEC (2011):

‘

Systemic

approaches to

Critical issues for practice, policy and

research

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge

emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

(Freire, 2000, p. 53)

For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge

emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

(Freire, 2000, p. 53)

• How can we provide

stable

frameworks for

democratic

experimentation

and

untested feasibility

?

• How can we build on the

‘capacity of human beings for

intelligent judgement and

action if proper conditions

are furnished’

• … and have ‘faith in the

constructive powers of

ordinary men and women’

Towards competent systems: a critical

ecology

1. A radical shift of perspectives

A shift of perspectives: from the ‘self’ (Deleuze), the individual practitioner to

the professional system and the reciprocal relationships between the various actors at the different layers of the system.

(Urban, Vandenbroeck et al, 2011 / Miller, Dalli & Urban, 2012)

2. Critical questions and dialogue

An ability to encourage and systematically create spaces for dialogue and for asking critical questions – at every layer of the system – and to value the multitude and diversity of answers as a key to creating new

understandings

(‘practice-based evidence’ , Urban, 2010)

3. Transformative practices

Hope, as an ontological need (Paulo Freire): Educational practice is there for

Impacts on local practice:

Quality Framework, City of Utrecht, The Netherlands

Uitgangspunten

De competente medewerker in een

competente organisatie Kopjes veraneren

Een belangrijke bron voor de aanbevelingen op organisatieniveau is het Europese CoRe-onderzoek naar de vereiste competenties van organisaties en professionals in

opvang- en educatievoorzieningen voor jonge kinderen. Het CoRe-onderzoek laat zien dat de kwaliteit van voorzieningen voor jonge kinderen niet primair afhankelijk is van de competentie van de individuele

medewerkers, maar van competente

medewerkers in een competent systeem, het team en de organisatie waarin zij

werken.

Impacts on governance:

‘Ländermonitor frühkindliche Bildungssysteme‘ Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany

Annual report on

developments and

achievements in ECEC

in 16 states ('Länder')

now using CORE system

approach as ‘lens’ for

CoRe report and further reading

CoRe Final Report

• Project outline

• Definition of key terms • Findings

• Policy recommendations

CoRe Research Documents

• Literature review

• Detailed report on Survey

• Detailed report on Case studies • Detailed appendices (data)

http://ec.europa.eu/education/more-information/doc/2011/core_en.pdf http://www.uel.ac.uk/cass/staff/mathiasurban/

Urban, M. (2012). Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe: thinking, searching and re-conceptualising policies and practices. Editorial. European Journal of Education, 47(4), 477-481.

Urban, M. (2012). Researching Early Childhood Policy and Practice. A Critical Ecology. European Journal of Education, 47(4), 494-507.

Thank you!