Working under the gaze of others: An interactional skill?
This article seeks to offer a better understanding of the real work of early childhood educators by showing how the topic of required or mobilized competencies is not circumscribed by the qualification systems and public policies in the field of child education in an institutional context. Based on the concept of “interactional competence”, the paper focuses on the linguistic and interactional nature of competencies by showing how these can be made visible and developed through continuing education programs inspired by video-based interaction analysis methods. The analyses show that educators orient their attention towards the “theatrical” nature of their work and tend to be sensitive to making what they do visible to others through their voice.