The fact that the title of has been initiated as a fits ‘teacher’ ‘one size all’ approach, is in itself exacerbating issues for the ECEC workforce. Oberhuemer (2005) highlighted that the discourse of teacher is fairly homogenous “a concept associated with a (p. 7), which may or may not align transmission role” with the role of the early years practitioner, yet as Lloyd and Hallett (2010) point out it does not seem to account for the institutional and conceptual “pre-existing divides between teachers and other (p. 84). practitioners” Hargreaves and Hopper (2006) in their of (p. 172) comparative “sense status” study suggest that and primary teachers perceived less respect from the “EY general public and the media, which seems to confirm a sense of inferiority of occupational (p. 184). Given that these perceptions were based on status” qualified teachers, it could be suggested that this could apply even more so to the EYTTs in this study relating to their work with under-threes. Yet, it appears that there is still a mismatch between early years beliefs and practices teachers’ relating to teaching, play and learning, which is further compounded by Ofsted’s and play in the early years a balancing act?’ Ofsted 2015 ‘Teaching – paper. (2015) report that perceptions in the early years on how teachers’ “depended they interpreted key definitions from the Statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (p. 9). In addition, Ofsted (2015) highlight that there was a framework” to use the word from professionals working in “reluctance ‘teaching’” mainly who teaching as a very formal (p. 10): “pre-school settings”, “viewed approach” They considered teaching to be the domain of schools and those who had qualified teacher status. As such, it held less relevance to the vast majority of professionals in pre-school settings. (Ofsted, 2015, p. 10) This relevance and viewpoint of teaching within the ECEC workforce is clearly problematic for professionals and their identity (Gibson, 2013; Osgood, 2010). Ofsted continue to suggest that best practice was found when years “early professionals learn from (Ofsted, 2015, p. 7), therefore perpetuating schools” the notion of schools in order to support early years provision. Given ‘leading’
The fact that the title of ‘teacher’ has been initiated as a ‘one size fits all’ approach, is in itself exacerbating issues for the ECEC workforce. Oberhuemer (2005) highlighted that the discourse of teacher is “a fairly homogenous concept associated with a transmission role” (p. 7), which may or may not align with the role of the early years practitioner, yet as Lloyd and Hallett (2010) point out it does not seem to account for the “pre-existing institutional and conceptual divides between teachers and other practitioners” (p. 84). Hargreaves and Hopper (2006) in their comparative “sense of status” (p. 172) study suggest that “EY and primary teachers perceived less respect from the general public and the media, which seems to confirm a sense of inferiority of occupational status” (p. 184). Given that these perceptions were based on qualified teachers, it could be suggested that this could apply even more so to the EYTTs in this study relating to their work with under-threes. Yet, it appears that there is still a mismatch between early years teachers’ beliefs and practices relating to teaching, play and learning, which is further compounded by Ofsted’s 2015 ‘Teaching and play in the early years – a balancing act?’ paper. Ofsted (2015) report that teachers’ perceptions in the early years “depended on how they interpreted key definitions from the Statutory Early Years Foundation Stage framework” (p. 9). In addition, Ofsted (2015) highlight that there was a “reluctance to use the word ‘teaching’” mainly from professionals working in “pre-school settings”, who “viewed teaching as a very formal approach” (p. 10): They considered teaching to be the domain of schools and those who had qualified teacher status. As such, it held less relevance to the vast majority of professionals in pre-school settings. (Ofsted, 2015, p. 10) This relevance and viewpoint of teaching within the ECEC workforce is clearly problematic for professionals and their identity (Gibson, 2013; Osgood, 2010). Ofsted continue to suggest that best practice was found when “early years professionals learn from schools” (Ofsted, 2015, p. 7), therefore perpetuating the notion of schools ‘leading’ in order to support early years provision. Given
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