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Child care workers' development within an interactional perspective: A response to Bayduss and Toscano

  • Symposium: Developmental Characteristics of Child Care Workers
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Abstract

Professional development as advocated in the Baydus/Toscano model, primarily conceived as anintra personal emotional maturing process constitutes a rather limited and one-sided perspective. Professional development, especially in child care work, is primarily anchored in the interactional events. The child care worker struggles with complex tasks in a relatively powerless position in order to become a group leader which his or her role demands. Even if professional development is an individual process, the actual chances for development are anchored in the clarity of a person's role expectaions and the available resources and freedom to carry out the necessary tasks associated with the role. The support obtained is not a personal but rather a system issue—namely the degree of actual recognition given within the context of the total staff alignments. Support, in its clearest analysis, is reflected basically through working conditions, receptivity to staff persons' input within their role functions, status, and salary classifications. How dollars for child care work are spent means what kind of support is at hand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, Washington

    Henry W. Maier

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  1. Henry W. Maier
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This is a companion article to an original position paper by Gregory Bayduss and John A. Tuscano, “Child Care Workers Development.”

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Maier, H.W. Child care workers' development within an interactional perspective: A response to Bayduss and Toscano. Child Youth Care Forum 8, 94–99 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01554710

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01554710

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