Good practice and professional identity in early years practitioners

This study investigates how students on the Foundation degree (FdA) in Early Years conceptualise good practice in early years settings and how they use this to evaluate their own and others’ professional practice. The purpose behind this investigation is to consider whether or not the teaching of reflection on the FdA Early Years is providing appropriate guidance for these students to become the lead practitioners required in the early years sector.
Whilst open, in-vivo coding and memos used in the data analysis identify how good practice is measured and defined, voice centred relational analysis has also been adopted to attempt to elicit the personal voice of the practitioner in contrast to the professional voice. The aim of this research approach was determine how much personal ownership of these definitions students demonstrated and how much personal autonomy they showed in evaluating their professional skills and knowledge.
The data gathered indicated that the participants’ conceptualisation of good practice varied in terms of its emphasis on context-free skills and knowledge or the situated building of relationships and rapport with individual children, but all participants included in their concepts the need for practitioners to be child-centred in their approach to practice and to be knowledgeable about the children as individuals as well as about theories of learning and development.