ERIC Number: EJ1451183
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0957-5146
EISSN: EISSN-1472-4421
Available Date: N/A
Participation Profiles in Chilean ECE Professional Associations and Unions: Assemblages of Agency and Professional Field Orientation
Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development, v44 n5 p1062-1078 2024
This article explains how early childhood education (ECE) teachers in Chile participate in ECE teachers' Professional Associations and Unions (ECEPAUs), building professionalism amid a constraining context composed of an entirely feminized workforce, and educational policies influenced by neoliberalism. Following the Constructivist-Grounded Theory (CGT) abductive approach, this is a single holistic case study with a sample of ECE teachers participating in ECEPAUs. Data collection drew on individual in-depth interviews and discussion groups; the analysis was developed through Constant Comparison coding. Findings show an assemblage of four ECE teachers' participation profiles in ECEPAUs; each one is shaped by the crossing of two axes: "Agency" and "ECE field." These profiles are termed Communalist, Representativist, Field-centered, and Child-centered. To conclude, we discuss how these profiles, despite having some trappings of the definitions of professionalism usually described in the literature, do not have a one-to-one correspondence with the latter. This implies that these four profiles show that ECE teachers' participation in ECEPAUs is not tied to the monolithic approach toward professionalism imposed by standardization and accountability. Optimistically, this loose-connectedness of teachers' participation among ECEPAUs assembles an alternative ecosystem to navigate the constraining context but also may reflect the fragility of professionalism in the ECE field caused by fragmentation.
Descriptors: Early Childhood Education, Unions, Professional Autonomy, Professional Education, Foreign Countries, Early Childhood Teachers, Professionalism, Educational Policy, Teacher Attitudes, Teacher Participation, Teacher Associations
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Chile
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A