Revisiting adult work in early childhood settings: shifting the frame.

Introduction

This paper might have had the subtitle: `Shifting spaces, fractured time'. There are few constancies about adult work in early childhood settings. We are all aware that we are working in changing and unpredictable times. There are multiple layers of responsibility, a complexity of roles. For example, in addition to the challenges of the socio-political context, people are distracted by their obligations to the timetable. Many staff members operate with a priority on schedule maintenance rather than focusing on either the children and their families, or looking after the wellbeing of themselves and their co-workers.

The complexities of the workplace include `shifting spaces', both metaphorically in terms of the problematising of the work itself (see, for example, Cannella, 1997) and pragmatically. The pragmatic realities include such things as sharing services with other users, working in mobile services, or simply having to contain one group of children inside because another staff member has decreed ownership of her time with `her group' in the outside space.

Of course, the influence of time and space intersect. One person's notion of a logical use of time in a centre may seem `fractured' or illogical to an observer. There is, for example, a centre that I refer to as `Christmas Concert Kindy'. The staff there have made decisions about the use of time and space that are different from the ones that I might make, but which seem to them to be defensible in their context. They value highly a Christmas concert experience that has been part of the life of the centre for some time. There have, however, been changes to the attendance patterns of children over the past few years, because of changes in funding arrangements that have made the cost of attendance more expensive. Therefore, there are more children attending for a few days of the week than full-timers.

Over the past few years, the decision has been made to start preparation for the concert earlier and earlier in the year, so that the youngest children (two-year-olds) will have time to learn the songs and routines by Christmas. This has resulted in little substantive planning for the last three months of the year, beyond that which is required for the mounting of the Christmas concert. The staff work hard, and feel that the families and children look forward to and greatly enjoy the concert. Nevertheless, this privileging of Christmas events denies children other lives that they might be living while in the centre. Their ideas and interests are subservient to a predetermined curriculum. My perception of the experience of children in this centre is such that I feel challenged to invite people working `in early childhood' to shift our perspectives, perhaps enabling us to see children differently, in order to offer them richer opportunities in their early years.

Towards shifting the frame

It may be helpful to have a sense of the evolution of the ideas presented here. Several years ago, at the national conference for TAFE teachers, I introduced a framework for effective early childhood decision-making. The reception to that and subsequent collaboration with Catherine Patterson resulted in the provocation to the field known as Beyond the boxes: Planning for real knowledge and live children …