Abstract
This chapter attends to a critical analysis of the ways in which the early childhood education workforce in England experiences a series of fundamental social injustices. Through a decade or more of research framed by a concern with social justice the ways in which government policy and therefore public discourse frames the workforce has been addressed. This body of research revealed that the workforce is presented as holding a contradictory position: as both saviour of society and shambolic. This troubling construction, which continues to persist, has provided the justification for endless national strategic plans and workforce remodelling projects. The ECE has undergone unprecedented reform for over 20 years and during that time structural injustices (i.e. low status, poor pay and unfavourable working conditions) persist. However, this highly gendered and classed workforce maintains its commitment to the youngest children (their families and local communities), and it is through increased education that this workforce has found creative ways in which to circumvent and rework neoliberal apparatuses (curriculum diktats, inspection regimes and other accountability measures) to ensure that it contributes to the public good through practices of worldly justice.
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Notes
- 1.
In the UK early childhood education and care is defined as birth to five with formal school beginning at age 5. However, some schools are now taking children as young as 2 into nursery classes.
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Osgood, J. (2021). In pursuit of worldly justice in Early Childhood Education: bringing critique and creation into productive partnership for the public good. In: Ross, A. (eds) Educational Research for Social Justice . Education Science, Evidence, and the Public Good, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62572-6_8
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