Jan Peeters

Gender balance in ECEC: why is there so little progress?

Social attitudes about male participation in the upbringing of children have changed considerably over the past few decades. Men are now seen as important for childrens development and learning. Research from many countries worldwide shows that in early childhood care and education (ECEC), male workers are welcomed by female colleagues and parents. In the last two decades there have been initiatives for more men in ECEC in several European countries. Nevertheless the proportion of male workers ECEC remains low worldwide. This article questions the persisting gender imbalance in ECEC and analyzes ambivalences regarding more men in the field. Based on recent gender theory, efforts and limits of strategies for more male students and workers in ECEC in Belgium, Norway and Germany are discussed. It is concluded that deeply held gendered attitudes and practices in the field of care and educational work with young children have to be put into question. More space in ECEC for embodied subjectivities is needed to overcome essentialist conceptions of differences between body and mind, women and men.

Gender and professionalism: a critical analysis of overt and covert curricula

Since many decades, scholars in the field of early childhood education deplore the gender segregation in the caring professions. Research and experiments so far show that it may take decades of multiple actions to overcome the gender divide in the caring workforce. However, research that includes the voices of men in child care is rather recent, scarce and involves only very small samples of male carers. Therefore little is known about the students’ perspectives on how the gendered culture of the profession is transmitted through overt or covert curricula and how this may affect them. We present three studies that may begin to unveil how future male carers are affected by both overt and covert gendered curricula. The first study interviewed 30 students in initial training, while the second study involved 16 men in adult education for caring professions. The third study examined 1635 pages of textbooks. The studies show how both overt and covert curricula affect younger students more than their adult colleagues. The results also indicate some ways forward.

Challenging the Feminisation of the Workforce: Rethinking the Mind-Body Dualism in Early Childhood Education and Care.

Despite the political and academic debate on the demands for more male workers in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), no European country has reached the benchmark set for 2006 to have 20% male early childhood workers. This has predominantly been countered by challenging the idea that care for the youngest implies an activity ‘that women naturally do’ and by consequently arguing for a higher status and better working conditions for caring jobs. In this article, we analyse the recent ‘schoolification’ of ECEC, and in so doing, we argue that the traditional explanations of the feminisation of the early years workforce do not suffice. In addition, we dwell upon contemporary feminism to challenge the mind–body dualism in discourses and practices of care and explore the concepts of embodied subjectivity and corporeality to further explore pathways to a more equally gendered workforce in early childhood provision.

Lifelong learning and the counter/professionalisation of childcare: A case study of local hybridizations of global European discourses

We provide a historical (genealogical) study of the changes in discourses on adult education since the famous UNESCO conference in Montreal, to present day texts of the European Union on lifelong learning. We also analyse how these changing global discourses on lifelong learning have travelled – through the hegemony of English language – to local situations, such as in Flanders. In the case of Flanders, they have paradoxically contributed to a significant counter-professionalisation of the early years workforce. This genealogical case study also shows how research, policy and practice are closely intertwined in their contribution to this paradox. The study shows that genealogical approaches are useful to show both how international influences need to be considered in a globalised world, but also how specific local ‘hybridisations’ of these discourses are constructed.

Measuring hindfoot alignment in weight bearing CT: A novel clinical relevant measurement method

BACKGROUND A precise pre-operative measurement of hindfoot malalignment is paramount to plan and obtain an accurate surgical correction. Hindfoot alignment is currently determined on standard weightbearing radiographs. However this is hampered by the superposition of the skeletal structures. Recent technology developed weightbearing cone beam CT to overcome this problem. The objective is to introduce a clinically relevant and reproducible method to measure hindfoot alignment on weightbearing CT. METHODS Sixty malalignments of the hindfoot were divided in to two groups; group one containing a valgus alignment (n=30) and group two a varus alignment (n=30) of the hindfoot. Imaging techniques used were standard radiographs and a weightbearing CT (pedCAT®). Following angles were measured by two different authors: standard long axial hindfoot angle both on standard radiographs and on CT, clinical hindfoot, novel hindfoot angle, talar shift (distance from a neutral alignment), tibial inclination angle, talar tilt and subtalar vertical angle on CT. RESULTS Hindfoot alignment angles showed to significantly differ from each other (P<0.001). The novel hindfoot alignment angle showed the highest correlation with the clinical measurement method. Correlation of this novel angle with the talar shift showed a Spearmans correlation coefficient=0.87. Interclass correlation coefficient of the novel hindfoot alignment angle=0.72 and was the highest among the hindfoot alignment angles. CONCLUSION Weightbearing CT is allows to objectively assess hindfoot alignment. The proposed novel hindfoot alignment angle showed to be both clinically relevant and reproducible as compared to previous methods. The lateral tibiocalcaneal shift, on which the angle is highly correlated to, can help the surgeon in determining how much translation is necessary to obtain a neutral alignment during a calcaneal osteotomy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level III: retrospective cohort study.

Professional development for ECEC practitioners with responsibilities for children at risk: which competences and in-service training are needed?

ABSTRACT There is growing evidence among researchers and international organisations that quality of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), and ultimately the outcomes for children and families – especially disadvantaged ones – is dependent on well-educated and competent staff, and that a lack of higher pre-service training can be partly compensated by in-service training of a sufficient intensity and length. In this article an overview is given of three qualitative studies of the competences needed to work in ECEC with children and families at risk. These three studies focus on ECEC practitioners who have played an active role in a change process aimed at developing a new pedagogical approach to working with children and parents with disadvantaged backgrounds. The three studies also strengthen the view that pedagogical support, sustained over long periods of time and developed by specialised staff (such as pedagogical coaches), is seen as a successful way to develop reflective thinking on practice and to construct new knowledge and practices when working with families and children. To conclude, the article tries to define how in-service training can be organised in a comprehensive way.

New developments in Belgian childcare policy and practice

In this article recent evolutions in the French and Flemish communty of Belgium are critically analysed. In the French Community of Belgium the importance of the pedagogical function of childcare has increased, while the policy of the Flemish Community focused on the social function. In both parts the was also a diffrent evolution concerning the professionalisation process. While the situation in the French Community did not changed, in the flemish Community a process of deprofessionalisation has been going on since the beginning of the new millenium.

Can research realise a bit of utopia? The impact of action research on the policy of childcare in Flanders

For the past 10 years, there has been ongoing research at the University of Ghent on professionalism in childcare (the 0–3 age group) in the Flemish Community of Belgium. This research has been inspired by the ‘Contesting Early Childhood’ movement, which is based on the premise that pedagogic research can lead to social change. The first studies dealt with the relationship between gender and professionalism (2002–2010). These ‘Men in Childcare’ studies were embedded in a campaign to increase the number of male workers. Between 2005 and 2008 a PhD study focused on the de-professionalisation that has taken place within the Flemish childcare sector. This study, ‘The construction of a new profession’, was part of a large European Social Fund project involving many partners across Europe. This article aims not only to shed light on the results of these studies, but also to delve into the influences that these projects and studies have had on political decision-making through their embedding in large ‘communicative spaces’.

Childcare Professionalism in Flanders: An Inside–Outside Perspective

This chapter gives a comparative overview of the professionalisation of the childcare professions in the Flemish Community of Belgium, England, France, New Zealand and Denmark. Its first aim is to highlight a paradox in the professionalisation of childcare in Flanders; with ever-higher societal expectations of professionalism, there is a strong tendency towards de-professionalisation. The second aim is to raise issues about the approach to professionalism in four countries with a high level of professionalism, as not simply a question of training, but as a social practice that is the consequence of interaction between, on the one hand, social evolutions, policy measures and new scientific insights and, on the other hand, the researchers, the staff at childcare centres and the parents and the children. The last part of the chapter describes how the comparative study on which this chapter draws contributed to create a broad consensus in the Flemish childcare sector about the need to increase the professionalism of the childcare workforce and how this resulted in a new decree for the childcare sector.

Democratic Experimentation in Early Childhood Education

There is a large consensus on the beneficial effects of early childhood care and education, especially for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as on the crucial role of professional qualifications. However, this consensus also leaves many crucial educational issues undiscussed and may therefore mask areas of profound dissensus. We argue how the apparent consensus instrumentalises children, parents and professionals. We also argue how dissensus may be essential for democratic experimentation and consequently, why the consensus may be anti-democratic. In contrast, we analyse some of the experiences with professionalisation of the workforce in the city of Ghent in previous decades, as examples that may be illustrative of other pathways to professionalisation, leaving more space for debate and reflection.