Constructions of babyhood among baby room leaders in the UK

Bibliographic Data

ID12724840
AuthorsKayla Halls (0000-0002-5105-8793, Middlesex University, corresponding author), Mona Sakr (0000-0003-3057-2758, Middlesex University)
Year2024
Volume23
Issue1
Pages18-30
Publication date2024-09-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Early Childhood Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1476-718X • E-ISSN: 1741-2927
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1476718x241279348
OpenAlexW4402760972
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited26

The research presented in this article scrutinises how baby room leaders construct babyhood and how this impacts their practice. Our research feeds into a growing body of research that challenges the dominant developmentalist paradigm in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and instead highlights possibilities for self-determination, agency and reciprocity in the baby room. Through an inductive thematic analysis applied to 15 interviews with baby room leaders across the UK, we consider how baby room leaders construct babies as receptacles of care, find joy in being needed and make sense of babies’ learning through developmental checklists and milestones. We pay particular attention to the questions that emerge when we consider baby room educators’ joy in being needed: how this can reinforce a perception of babies as completely dependent while simultaneously highlighting their agency and the extent to which their actions shift the emotional landscape of those around them. Our research calls for more provocation, reflection and problematisation that specifically focuses on baby pedagogies and the constructions of babyhood on which these pedagogies are founded

Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Psychology · Social and Demographic Issues in Germany · Work-Family Balance Challenges · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access