BOOK
Developing as a Reflective Early Years Professional
Carol Hayes | Jayne Daly | Mandy Duncan | Ruth Gill | Ann Whitehouse
(2017)
Additional Information
Book Details
Abstract
This is a revised and completely up to date new edition which takes an accessible yet critical approach to key themes within the early years, with a focus throughout on reflective practice.
The text starts by examining theories and research into the nature of reflection, how it can be used and how it can improve practice and produce a more responsive and thoughtful, research-based workforce for young children and their families. A range of themes, including global childhood poverty, observation and assessment, leadership, and multi-professional working, are then explored, highlighting the importance and application of reflection throughout these areas of research and practice.
This new edition includes two completely new chapters on reflecting on work-based learning and reflecting on children’s play and creativity. Information on mentoring and on the position of men in early years higher education has also been added. Greater depth and challenge is provided through extended thinking questions and extended reflections at the end of each chapter.
Carol Hayes worked in early years for over 40 years as a teacher and tutor. She most recently worked at Staffordshire University as a principal lecturer and academic group leader where she helped to develop a thriving early childhood studies department with programmes from Foundation Degrees to Masters. Her specialist area is cognitive development, language, literacy and communication. Her main research interests are dyslexia and communication difficulties and graduate teaching assistants in the workforce.
Jayne Daly has worked in early years for the past 25 years as a nursery officer (NNEB), an early years manager and tutor. Throughout her professional practice she has worked within the public care, health and education sectors. Her desire to ‘give something back’ to those new to providing positive outcomes for young children and their families pushed her forward into teaching within the higher education sector at Staffordshire University. She now teaches within the early childhood studies department at the University of Wolverhampton.
Mandy Duncan began her career as a nursery nurse 15 years ago, before training as a teacher. She worked initially with young children in primary schools in both inner city and rural areas and later with young people aged 14-19 in a further education college. She has been a lecturer in higher education for the last four years teaching on BA (Hons) and MA Early Childhood Studies and BA (Hons) Childhood & Youth Studies. She is currently engaged in doctoral research with young people undergoing child protection proceedings.
Ruth Gill's experience with children started as a children’s nanny to bereaved families and progressed to working in a Further Education based nursery as an assistant. She quickly progressed to management but continued to study at HE level. Teaching in HE allows her to share her passion for quality interactions between staff and children with a wide audience of new and experienced practitioners.
Ann Whitehouse started her career as an NNEB and worked for a number of years in nursery education. More recently, she has worked as an Early Years lecturer in FE and played an integral role in developing a Foundation Degree in Early Years for experienced practitioners. Most recently she was a Senior Lecturer at Staffordshire University, working with full-time and part-time students on Early Childhood Studies programmes and Award Leader for the Foundation Degree. Her specific interests are related to the development of early years' pedagogy.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover 1 | ||
| Half-title | i | ||
| Series information | ii | ||
| Title page | iii | ||
| Copyright information | iv | ||
| Table of contents | v | ||
| Praise for the first edition | vii | ||
| Meet the authors | viii | ||
| Foreword | x | ||
| 1 The nature of reflective practice | 1 | ||
| What is reflection? | 1 | ||
| Is there really a definition? | 3 | ||
| Reflection on action | 3 | ||
| Reflection in action | 3 | ||
| The reflective process | 5 | ||
| So what is reflective practice? | 6 | ||
| Reflective models | 9 | ||
| The reflective pyramid | 9 | ||
| The Kolb Cycle | 10 | ||
| Gibbs’ Cycle | 11 | ||
| Jay and Johnson: three-tier classification | 12 | ||
| Race’s ripples model | 13 | ||
| Raelin’s five-stage model | 14 | ||
| Reflexivity | 14 | ||
| Challenges to reflective practice | 15 | ||
| Ethical issues | 17 | ||
| Further reading | 23 | ||
| References | 23 | ||
| 2 Writing for reflection | 25 | ||
| Introduction | 25 | ||
| Why write for reflection? | 26 | ||
| Where to start writing? | 28 | ||
| Increased self-awareness | 31 | ||
| RAIN framework | 32 | ||
| Narrative reflections | 34 | ||
| Writing reflectively for group collaboration | 35 | ||
| Reflective writing for emotional incidents | 37 | ||
| Reflecting on past events for future practice | 37 | ||
| Writing a reflective journal | 38 | ||
| Student reflection on journal writing and personal and professional development | 39 | ||
| Insert for your journal | 40 | ||
| Further reading | 41 | ||
| References | 41 | ||
| 3 Critical friends: the reflective facilitators | 43 | ||
| Introduction | 43 | ||
| What is a critical friend? | 44 | ||
| How does a critical friend compare with other models of support? | 46 | ||
| What makes a good critical friend? | 47 | ||
| Availability | 48 | ||
| Interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence | 48 | ||
| Knowledge and experience | 49 | ||
| Positions and balance of power | 49 | ||
| Shared responsibility | 51 | ||
| How do conversations with critical friends work? | 52 | ||
| How can critical friendships support practitioners within early childhood care and education? | 53 | ||
| The ripple effect | 57 | ||
| Further reading | 59 | ||
| References | 59 | ||
| 4 Reflecting on work-based learning | 61 | ||
| Introduction | 61 | ||
| Communities of practice and social learning communities | 62 | ||
| Their composition and purposes | 62 | ||
| Learning through practitioner research | 63 | ||
| Some possible barriers to learning as part of a community | 64 | ||
| Reflecting on your professional identity as part of a developing learning community | 65 | ||
| Mentoring and ways it can support professional learning and development | 67 | ||
| External versus work-based mentors | 68 | ||
| Team mentoring | 69 | ||
| Challenges to good mentoring in early childhood care and education workplaces | 70 | ||
| Work-based learning for Early Years Teacher Status | 71 | ||
| Expectations of Early Years Teacher Status work-based learning | 72 | ||
| Reflecting on Early Years Teacher Status work-based learning experiences | 74 | ||
| Reflective activity | 76 | ||
| Further reading | 78 | ||
| References | 78 | ||
| 5 Reflecting on the transition from vocational practice to university study | 80 | ||
| Setting the scene | 80 | ||
| Introduction | 81 | ||
| Background: transitions in early years | 82 | ||
| Social and cultural capital and access to higher education | 83 | ||
| Risk factors in the transition to higher education | 85 | ||
| What are the risk factors in entering higher education? | 85 | ||
| Commentary on Diane | 86 | ||
| Developing a new identity and self-perception in higher education | 87 | ||
| Commentary on Sally | 89 | ||
| Transformative learning in higher education | 90 | ||
| Commentary on Louise | 91 | ||
| Being effectively mentored and coached through the learning process | 92 | ||
| Commentary on Julie | 94 | ||
| Further reading | 95 | ||
| References | 95 | ||
| 6 Reflection informed by observation and assessment | 99 | ||
| What is observation? | 99 | ||
| How difficult can it be? | 101 | ||
| What do I observe, why and how? | 104 | ||
| The power of observation | 106 | ||
| The planning cycle | 109 | ||
| When do we observe? | 110 | ||
| Who should observe and share? | 116 | ||
| Interpretation and links to the EYFS | 119 | ||
| Further reading | 122 | ||
| References | 123 | ||
| 7 Reflecting on emotionally enabled practice | 125 | ||
| Introduction | 125 | ||
| Choosing to work with children | 126 | ||
| Attachments with children, for children and ourselves | 127 | ||
| ABC of well-being | 128 | ||
| Attachment through the key person approach | 129 | ||
| Key person approach for children | 131 | ||
| Key person approach for parents | 132 | ||
| Key person approach for practitioners | 134 | ||
| Caring and love: what does this mean in early years? | 136 | ||
| Commentary | 138 | ||
| Commentary | 139 | ||
| Parents and practitioners as co-carers: a shared love? | 139 | ||
| Further reading | 141 | ||
| References | 142 | ||
| 8 Reflecting on racism in predominantly white settings | 144 | ||
| Introduction | 144 | ||
| Critical reflection on specific issues | 145 | ||
| The social construction of ‘race’ | 146 | ||
| Racism | 147 | ||
| Reflecting on your family’s immigrant background | 147 | ||
| Ignoring racist incidents | 148 | ||
| Critical race theory | 150 | ||
| Reflecting on practice through a critical race theory lens | 151 | ||
| Multicultural versus anti-racist education | 152 | ||
| Cultural bag activity – children’s lens | 153 | ||
| Curricula, policies and procedures | 155 | ||
| Engaging in critically reflective dialogue – the colleagues’ lens | 157 | ||
| Radicalisation in childhood: an emerging early years issue | 158 | ||
| Further reading | 162 | ||
| References | 163 | ||
| 9 Reflecting on global childhood poverty | 166 | ||
| Introduction | 166 | ||
| A note on philosophical reflection | 167 | ||
| What is poverty? | 168 | ||
| What does child poverty mean in developing nations? | 168 | ||
| In a world where there is so much wealth, why do so many children live in poverty? | 170 | ||
| Colonisation of the mind | 171 | ||
| What are the links between capitalism and poverty? | 172 | ||
| The Singer solution to child poverty | 174 | ||
| Discussion | 175 | ||
| Discussion | 177 | ||
| Can aid end poverty? | 178 | ||
| Further reading | 183 | ||
| References | 183 | ||
| 10 Reflecting upon childhood, creativity and play | 186 | ||
| Introduction | 186 | ||
| Reflecting upon creativity | 188 | ||
| Stuck in the messy play time warp | 189 | ||
| Reflecting upon play and playfulness | 192 | ||
| To be or not to be Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, that is the question! | 194 | ||
| The health and safety minefield | 196 | ||
| Further reading | 200 | ||
| References | 200 | ||
| 11 The reflective leader | 202 | ||
| Introduction | 202 | ||
| Historical content | 202 | ||
| Defining leadership and management | 203 | ||
| Theories of leadership: trait versus skill | 205 | ||
| Theories of leadership: transformational versus transactional | 209 | ||
| Situational leadership model | 210 | ||
| What does an early years leadership framework look like? | 212 | ||
| Leadership and team development | 215 | ||
| Leadership and professionalism | 216 | ||
| Further Reading | 217 | ||
| References | 217 | ||
| 12 Reflecting on the multi-professional team | 220 | ||
| Introduction | 220 | ||
| What is a multi-professional team? | 220 | ||
| Challenges of working together | 223 | ||
| Trust | 223 | ||
| Relationships | 224 | ||
| Confidence | 225 | ||
| The ethics of information sharing | 228 | ||
| Moral dilemma: is it ethical to share information about children and their families? | 229 | ||
| The deontological perspective | 229 | ||
| The utilitarian perspective | 230 | ||
| Discussion | 231 | ||
| Surveillance and control | 232 | ||
| The Panopticon | 232 | ||
| Discussion | 234 | ||
| Further reading | 237 | ||
| 13 Reflection and change | 240 | ||
| Introduction | 240 | ||
| Action research | 241 | ||
| Participatory action research | 244 | ||
| Reflective activity | 244 | ||
| Professional development | 245 | ||
| Challenges of action research | 246 | ||
| A reflective research buddy | 249 | ||
| Validity and trustworthiness | 251 | ||
| Spreading the news | 253 | ||
| Knowledge is power | 254 | ||
| Change management | 257 | ||
| Guidelines for good practice in action research | 259 | ||
| Further reading | 260 | ||
| References | 261 | ||
| Index | 262 |