The article addresses questions of gender and bodily materiality and how this is included in professional practice in Danish ECEC. Point of departure is the finding that professionals are required to include gender equality and equal opportunities for all children in the everyday practice in daycare centers. Based on a multi-method, empirical study consisting of observations and research workshops, the article examines the professional perspective that is part of the pedagogical staff's interactions with children in ECEC-institutions. The study shows that the professionals' view of the children has a paradoxical, partial blindness that makes children's gender partially invisible in professional practice. This invisibility becomes a barrier in professionals' work to ensuring gender equality and equal opportunities for all children. However, the analysis also shows how collective reflections can widen the professional view, so that specific gender differences become visible to the professional's view. This way, they can become integrated in professional practice in a way that better ensures gender equality for all children.
The article discusses the professionalization of early childhood education leadership based on the research question: To what extent and how can early childhood education leadership be characterized as a profession in the making? The question is discussed based on the criteria that traditionally define professions, namely education, independently developed knowledge base, authorization and autonomy in work, a specific professional language, and ethical code. Throughout the article, parallels are drawn to the field of school leadership. The article argues that if one adopts a professional theoretical perspective on early childhood education leadership, it can be observed that several of the conditions that traditionally define a profession are also present within the field of early childhood education leadership. However, professionalization is less advanced compared to the field of school leadership. In early childhood education leadership, we are more dealing with leaders of a profession than with so-called professional leaders, i.e., leaders who are removed from the operational everyday life.
The purpose of the article is to discuss the pedagogical work with children's perspectives based on the concept of resonance. The article is based on an analysis of a teaching activity in a Danish national church organized by a national church school service aimed at children in primary school. The teaching in the church seeks to create a relationship between the children's world of experience and the soundscape "The Stone" as well as activities that the adults have organized. On the one hand, the adults create a controlled and controllable framework for the teaching with soundscapes and activities, where the children are expected to act in certain ways, but on the other hand, children's perspectives are expressed in the children's uncontrollable experiences of something or someone talking to them, and that they can respond based on their perspectives on and experiences of the world. With resonance, we can see the importance of the uncontrollable in the pedagogical work with children's perspectives and nuance the creation of space for children's perspectives – here based on teaching activities in the church.
Occupational professionals in the public sector have been exposed to more kinds of pressure during more decades. New Public Management, especially, has orchestrated these. Welfare and administrative developments have weakened the power basis of these professionals - on all levels. More differentiations and hybridizations are to be recorded too. The article points to a new ecology for welfare professionals, changed demands and expectations as to behavior – including cross-professional work – and to changes in identities and identifications. Following this, a revision of the analytical understanding of occupational professionals is called for. Concepts from theories of the 20th century are no longer adequate in relation to the situation of today with external regulation. New theoretical positions are highlighted, and elements of a “connective professionalism” are discussed as professionalization this way might give expertise, responsibility and authority a renewal.
This article explores the concept of 'pedagogical waiting positions' as a central but often overlooked aspect of social pedagogical practice. The article challenges the perception of waiting time as a passive practice, demonstrating instead how pedagogical waiting - defined as shorter or longer periods during which the pedagogue remains in an anticipatory stance in their interaction with a citizen - contains significant pedagogical potential. The article distinguishes between activity-internal waiting positions, which support the continuation or resumption of an ongoing activity, and activity-external waiting positions, which arise in the transition between the end of one pedagogical activity and the beginning of another. We show how both types of waiting positions require an active and reflective interplay between observation, analysis, and readiness to act. Drawing on narratives, interviews, and video observations from a practice-based research project at a residential facility for individuals with significant physical and intellectual disabilities, we demonstrate how different orientations within waiting positions require mental, emotional, and physical awareness. The article concludes that recognizing waiting positions as a professional competence is crucial for enhancing the acknowledgment of social pedagogical work. Furthermore, the article highlights the need for managerial and collegial support that legitimizes waiting positions as an integral part of pedagogical professionalism and fosters critical reflections on practice.
Studies in elderly care, policing, hospitals, and schools point to moral stress as (part of) the explanation for the current recruitment and retention crisis in the welfare professions. Moral stress refers to the strain that arises when the working conditions hinder living out what one professionally assesses is the right thing to do. Experiences of failure and powerlessness are thus involved. Based on an ongoing study, this article seeks to understand moral stress as a phenomenon in a daycare context. We argue that moral stress as a daycare phenomenon must consider the working conditions as more than just a framework, but something that interweaves with and into the professionals' experiences and feelings of being professional. Taking an entrance through the sociology of emotions, we show how different moral imperatives and emotional demands pull pedagogues and pedagogical leaders in contradictory directions and stretch them into different ambivalences.
Many ethnic minority students experience distress while studying. This affects the individual student's quality of life, learning motivation, and educational achievement. Considering the recruitment crisis in the welfare professions and the desire for professionals to reflect the diversity of society, we investigate ethnic minority students' academic and social well-being on the midwifery and nursing programmes. Well-being is understood from Ryan and Deci's self-determination theory, which emphasizes the importance of experiencing autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be motivated. We conducted focus groups with students and teachers from the midwifery and nursing programmes and performed a deductive content analysis inspired by self-determination theory. The analysis shows that ethnic minority students experience a lack of relatedness to the broader community in the programmes, underestimation of their professional competencies and lack of recognition of autonomy by being perceived as a representative of an ethnic minority group. Ethnic minority students find that these issues are not addressed in the programmes, while teachers express uncertainty about handling ethnic diversity in the classroom. The results point to dynamics that threaten the well-being of ethnic minority students, which calls for action. We propose actions that address the elements that threaten wellbeing and potentially benefit all students.
The holistic view is a fundamental concept in the social work profession. It is considered a basic ambition to be able to develop a holistic analysis and carry out a holistic effort. However, it has proven difficult to specify how this should be done, and the established models are rarely of practical help. This article examines how holistic analyses are conducted with activity-ready recipients of social assistance with the aim of developing more practice-oriented understandings of working with the holistic view. The article highlights the importance of exercising professional judgment in holistic analyses.
The article examines how vocational teachers from three different vocational education programs have participated in three separate continuing education courses to enhance their professional expertise. The study sheds light on the learning processes that the vocational teachers have developed throughout these courses. Using the concepts of transfer (Aarkrog, 2011) and transition (Hager & Hodkinson, 2009), the article investigates the types of learning that may be involved in various activities within the courses. Additionally, it explores how the learning is related to the vocational teachers' meaning making during or after the courses. Through observational studies followed by interviews, the research particularly highlights how the three courses have contributed in different ways to a process in which several vocational teachers have begun to integrate what they have learned, assigning meaning to it after undergoing a transition process. The analysis suggests that transition processes among several teachers have occurred over time after their critique of the lack of transfer processes in the courses. Moreover, the findings indicate that courses allowing space for unplanned activities throughout the learning process have particularly fostered meaning-making and transitional learning processes among some vocational teachers. The article concludes with recommendations on how vocational teachers' continuing education can be strengthened.
Like many other European countries Early Childhood Education in Denmark is challenged with a shortage of preschool teachers. More than eight out of ten directors or managers of daycare centers believe that labor supply is one of the most important challenges for their center in the years to come. However, research on recruitment practices at the local level is lacking. Based on a survey among 1,063 Danish daycare managers as well as qualitative interviews with six managers this article investigates which measures Danish daycare centers take to have sufficient human resources in the future and tries to understand these choices through three different theoretical perspectives. Although managers’ use of measures depend on their perception of these measures’ effectiveness, a ‘logic of consequentiality’ can only partly explain the recruitment practices. This understanding must be supplemented with a ‘logic of appropriateness’ since managers’ strategies are shaped by external demands and expectations. Finally, many recruitment practices can be understood in terms of a ‘logic of practice’ or ‘wayfinding’.
The demographic development has increased the demand for social and health professions (SOSU), but these professions remain difficult to recruit for and have low status despite professionalization. Based on focus groups with a total of 31 SOSU students, the article examines how the students legitimize their choice of profession and handle the devaluing perceptions they encounter in society. The analysis shows that the students develop professional ideologies in which they either reframe or refocus away from the less valued aspects of the profession. Through reframing, work with the elderly and personal care is ascribed new value, while refocusing shifts attention to work in hospitals and roles as 'junior nurses.' The article discusses how these ideologies contribute to understanding the causes of the care crisis and highlights both the potentials and dilemmas in the students' professional worth attribution.
