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Professional Development in a Competent System: An Emergent Culture of Professionalization

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International Handbook of Early Childhood Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

Abstract

Workforce quality and professionalization in the field of early childhood education are widely considered to be a powerful lever in improving the quality of childcare services. This emphasis demonstrates the necessity of increasing the level of practitioner qualification across the sector and to revise both professional profiles and training curriculum in response to the complex demands of professional activity. Nowadays workspace is recognized as a potential learning space where individual, institutional, inter-institutional and political actions interact. This approach to professionalization is grounded in a theoretical and systemic view that recognizes different levels of responsibility in the development of professional and quality services. This paper presents different educational cultures observed today in the variety of training and professional actions in the Western World. It shows that changes in early childhood education could be understood as a signifier of the emergence of a new culture of professionalization where actions, actors, and environment undergo change simultaneously.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education and Training, University of Liège, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Liège, Belgium

    Florence Pirard

  2. Department of Education and Training, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Pascale Camus

  3. Centre de Recherche sur la Formation, Paris, France

    Jean-Marie Barbier

Authors
  1. Florence Pirard
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  2. Pascale Camus
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  3. Jean-Marie Barbier
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Correspondence to Florence Pirard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Marilyn Fleer

  2. Department of Theory & Research in Education, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Bert van Oers

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Notes

In French, « Réseau Observatoire International sur la Professionnalisation dans les métiers relationnels et de l’interaction humaine » (ROIP) coordinated by Professor P. Maubant, University of Sherbrooke.

French-speaking part of Belgium.

Attribute given to an individual and/or collective subject through the attribution of characteristics constructed by inference made from his involvement in activities that are situated and finalized and result in a value attribution (Barbier 2011, 46).

Literally: Welcoming early years: taking up the challenge of quality.

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Pirard, F., Camus, P., Barbier, JM. (2018). Professional Development in a Competent System: An Emergent Culture of Professionalization. In: Fleer, M., van Oers, B. (eds) International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_17

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