Pandemic-focused projects in Early Childhood have amplified concerns such as child poverty, separation/attachment, maternal anxiety, and other health issues. However, significant attention in actual reports in published literature to the affective experiences of young children was almost entirely lacking. This study created child-focused narratives which qualitatively characterise the salient issues of rejection, heartbreak, and sadness as six families in England with young children reflected on their experiences of 'Lockdown'. The project embraced a life history case study approach within a purposive sampling frame and used dialogic interviews which revealed the myriad ways in which young lives were disturbed, not least as exigent events of care and affect displaced the familial and the familiar in the child's life. The themes revealed the significant upheaval in the children's experiences exemplified through five vignettes related to 'shutting': the management of Home-School relationships; the impact of proscribed contact generally; the fracture of family patterns of contact; the 'darkness' of lockdown memories; and the all-encompassing fifth theme: the disruption of the child's self.

This article describes the professional development program, Baby Playspace Learning (BPL), and evaluates its capacity to build close relationships between educators, parents, their infants and infant peers during the morning transitions in ECEC settings. Using a pre-post design, video recordings of 20 (10 pre and 10 post) morning transitions were collected across a 12-month period and analysed for developing closeness, by measuring the frequency of triangular interactions, educators’ use of relational language and physical availability (sitting down, being still and holding infants in a curled position to relax). All measures of closeness increased significantly post-test, indicating that BPL created more opportunities for building closeness between all parties. BPL can enhance educator professionalism by showing educators how to engage in practices that help them to realise close relationships in a group setting. This gives parents, infants and infant peers the experience of belonging to a secure base culture where closeness is valued.

Children and young people in the UK face myriad challenges, which we characterize ascolic(1): the deleterious impact of uncertainty, stress and precarity on their mental health and wellbeing, particularly in their social bonds and relationships. We present findings from studies in the North of England which used focus group, individual interview and experimental LEGO (R) modeling sessions with 23 child and youth professionals working in a variety of roles and settings, to determine how demonstrating love within their professional relationships with children and young people can scaffold their resilience to these challenges and enhance mental health and wellbeing. We use thematic analysis to make meaning from the data, and we relate the findings to our extrapolation of Page's developmental steps in early years professional practice, highlighting the potential for the concept ofProfessional Loveto enhance children and young people's wellbeing.

ABSTRACT Framed as an extension of Noddings’ notion of the ‘ethic of care,’ the paper sets out an argument about ‘Professional Love’ as both a term to comprehend the reciprocal pedagogic relationship which develops in positive interactions between primary caregiver, child and parent and as a core normative component of early years educational discourse; the paper grounds this conceptualisation of Professional Love in attachment theory (both its empirical validity and its sociological shortcomings); it then posits the dynamic of child–parent-practitioner love as a Triangle of Love which is essentially complementary to the parent/child relationship as opposed to representing any risk or threat to parents’ relationships with their children. The paper examines the work of theorists of care who have been particularly influential in developing the notion of Professional Love, and it considers the work of interdisciplinary scholars whose challenges to notions of love and care help problematise and clarify Professional Love beyond romanticised or other contextually inappropriate forms of love. The paper is intended as a provocative and explorative piece of critical enquiry; it highlights the prevalent devaluation of care/love in policy making and posits a semi-operationalisable prospectus for cultivating Professional Love in early childhood settings. Consistent with the author's editorial foreword, tensions between practitioner, child and parent, as well as internal encumbrances placed on practitioners to develop Professional Love in the absence of policymaker support, emerge as recurring themes.

The legitimisation of love in Early Childhood Education and Care is undergoing a (re)birth and some reinforcement. With other academics and practitioners, I am working to build the case for love as...

In many countries, early childhood curriculum documents place ‘relationships’ at the core of learning and teaching. Early childhood pedagogies are thus increasingly informed by convincing evidence, from a variety of disciplinary sources and theoretical perspectives, that learning is socially situated and mediated through interpersonal relatedness. Infant-toddler research and professional literature has similarly been framed around the significance of relationships. Drawing from psychological research in particular, the focus has largely rested on environments, policies and practices that provide infants and toddlers with stable and secure attachments to their caregivers in the absence of their families (Degotardi and Pearson, 2009; Page, 2015; Slater, 2007; White, Peter and Redder, 2015). This body of work responds to the increasing presence of infants and toddlers in educational institutions which were traditionally oriented to their older peers. At issue in the present positioning of infant and toddler pedagogy seems to be the extent to which there are specialist requirements for a younger age group with consideration to the developmental and the sociocultural concerns which frame their development and learning. It is therefore not surprising that, until recently, studies of relationships in infant-toddler pedagogy have tended to focus on the establishment of secure and stable attachments as the nexus of effective learning for the very young. Such an emphasis has been enshrined in internationally sanctioned key quality criteria for early childhood education services – ratios, group size and adult qualifications (Dalli et al., 2011) – with an understanding that positive educator–child attachments are constructed and maintained when these structural dynamics are in place. It is here that the formation of relationships takes centre stage on the assumption that, if positive, these relationships will provide the foundation for learning and development (National Scientific Council, 2004). More recently, however, an emphasis on relational dynamics has pursued the fundamental idea that individuals’ active participation in, and contribution to, different types and qualities of interpersonal relationships shapes their learning and development. These developments signal a need for revised conceptualisations concerning the intersectionality between relationships, as pedagogies, and very young children, as learners. When determined through a series of teacher–child and child–peer pedagogical acts, various relationship dynamics not only establish trust, warmth and reciprocity (Dalli and White, 2015; Page and Elfer, 2013), but also ultimately foster group socialisation, belonging and collaborative participatory learning (Degotardi and Pearson, 2014). If, as we strongly argue, such acts lie at the heart of effective pedagogies for this age group, more attention needs to be directed towards understanding the intricacies of these relational encounters. 742760 CIE0010.1177/1463949117742760Contemporary Issues in Early ChildhoodEditorial research-article2017

There is an increased international interest in how close attachment interactions with infants and toddlers are realised and interpreted by early years professionals. It is troubling for those who work in early years settings with infants and toddlers to know how best to demonstrate healthy loving attachment behaviours as an expectation of their professional caregiving role when standing in for parents'. This article reports the interview findings from a mixed-methods study which examined practitioners' views on love, care and intimacy within the English early years policy context. It draws on attachment theory and relational ethics to analyse the narratives of practice drawn from eight in-depth interviews with infant-toddler professionals to reveal the extent of their challenge as well as their beliefs about attachment and professional love. The responses highlighted the level of concern about the place of love and intimacy in non-familial pedagogical relationships with young children, against the backdrop of child protection and safeguarding following the global concern about infant abuse. The study suggests that there is a need to embrace an infant-toddler pedagogy to include the lens and the language of attachment and professional love, and to provide early years professionals with training and guidance on how to safely interpret these theories in their everyday practice.

In the current risk-averse climate of the United Kingdom (UK) necessarily intimate relationships that early years educators develop with young children have become a matter for intense scrutiny. This chapter draws on a field-based study which investigated how early years educators in England engage intimately with young children to meet their needs and determine what 'love' looks like in early years settings. Emerging from a critical review of the attachment literature the study used an online survey, in-depth interviews and focus groups to explore how notions of professional care and love are constructed within a contemporary early childhood discourse in England. The findings of the study suggest educators want to feel more confident about their professional decisions in relation to expressions of love, care and intimacy. Educators also wanted to inform their everyday intimate relationships with young children with a better understanding of attachment theory and its focus on attuned relationships.

This chapter discusses the contribution of John Bowlby’s more than fifty years of thinking about attachments, separation, relationships and emotional stability. After a brief biography, the chapter considers his well-known, and sometimes controversial, ‘Attachment Theory’ alongside the work of his collaborators at the time, including James Robertson and Mary Ainsworth. A key focus is attachment theory in relation to children in their home and early years environments, and how understanding this theory is important for early years practitioners to appreciate the lived experiences of children in out-of-home contexts. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the place of love and loving relationships in contemporary professional practice and the implications of ‘Modern Attachment Theory’ for early years and childcare practitioners working globally.

Children and Young People NowVol. 2016, No. 4 Resources: ResearchReport: Professional Love in Early Years Settings: The Summary of FindingsJools PageJools PageSearch for more papers by this authorJools PagePublished Online:7 Dec 2017https://doi.org/10.12968/cypn.2016.4.28AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 16 February 2016Volume 2016Issue 4ISSN (print): 1755-8093ISSN (online): 2515-7582 Metrics History Published online 7 December 2017 Published in print 16 February 2016 Information© MA Education LimitedPDF download

The last 30 years have seen a significant increase in babies attending nursery, with corresponding questions about the aims and organisation of practice. Research broadly agrees on the importance of emotionally consistent, sensitive and responsive interactions between staff and babies. Policy objectives for nursery and expectations of parents and staff give rise to different and sometimes conflicting aims for such interactions; for example attachments to staff, peer interactions or early learning. Research shows marked variations of pedagogy aims and organisation with babies in nurseries in different national and cultural contexts. It also demonstrates variation between nurseries in similar contexts and between staff in their beliefs and values about work with babies. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the beliefs, aspirations and approaches of eight managers concerning pedagogy with babies in two similar English local authorities. These managers spoke of the importance of being responsive to the concerns and priorities of parents, whilst being sensitive to the demands of the work on their staff. The main finding was of the contradictions and confusions managers felt were inherent in the work, arising from both conflicting policy objectives and personal beliefs and aspirations; sometimes their own and sometimes those of individual staff and parents. Urban, Vandenbroeck, Van Laere, Lazzari, and Peeters' [(2012). Towards competent systems in early childhood education and care. Implications for policy and practice. European Journal of Education, 47(4), 508-526.] concept of the 'competent system' is used to recommend a grounded approach to the development of a more culturally, socially and individually responsive pedagogy with babies than appears to exist at present.

This paper focuses on the methodology of a study that asked what factors English mothers of very young babies consider when making employment decisions and childcare choices, and sought their views on the idea of carers in day care settings 'loving' their children. After a characterisation of life historical study, a four-staged process of analysis demonstrates how meaning was made from data created with six mothers. The discussion 'voices' their stories through excerpts from their expressions of emotion. The conclusion acknowledges insights generated into the dilemmas of mothers' choices, but importantly points up how the careful listening and critical attending required by life historical study themselves generate stories that 'go awry' to reveal something of personal and of social importance. The paper concludes that using life story methods is a difficult process which may create discomfort for researcher and 'researched' long after the study is finished.Keywords: life historicalinterpretationmeaning-makingnarrativemothersvoice AcknowledgementsI wish to thank the six women who participated in my study for their willingness to share their experiences. I am also indebted to the reviewers and editor of International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education for their advice and suggestions which have led to the improvement of this paper.

The purposes of this article are to understand the factors that women are likely to take into consideration when making employment decisions and childcare choices while their babies are young, and to identify their choices, beliefs and dilemmas: the focus is on the experiences of working mothers in England. These choices are problematised in the context of mothers placing their babies with carers in day care settings who ‘love’ their children. Drawing from a larger study, the focus is on the narrative and experience of Ayesha in order to illuminate the tensions of being a mother responsible for, and making decisions about her child's care and education, coupled with her working role as an early years education advisor. Issues about gender and education are enmeshed in Ayesha's narrative through these two roles and the subject positions which they created. Ayesha's narrative illustrates the ways in which such decisions can be fuelled by contradictory political messages which are sensationalised by the media in relation to the role of a ‘good’ mother. The findings suggest there is a need to discuss the impact of media sensualisation on mothers' decision-making and to highlight the importance mothers place on close, loving relationships between the carer and the baby.

ABSTRACT In a single intensive nursery case study, using in depth interviews, group discussion and self completed daily diaries, this article reports on staff accounts of the emotional aspects of their interactions with young children. The findings show how much the staff achieved through their empathy for children and families and the establishment of warm, responsive and individual relationships. However, they also reveal how vulnerable these interactions were to discontinuity and disturbance and how much the work was based on an intuitive approach. There was little specification about nursery attachments in theoretical or practical terms to guide staff critical reflection and judgement about managing these close relationships. The findings also indicate the emotional demands on staff of sustaining such emotionally close interactions with very young children. The article concludes acknowledging the logistical and emotional complexity of facilitating consistent, accountable and reflective attachment interactions with young children. It highlights the importance of developing sophisticated management attention to the emotional experience of attachment based pedagogy so that feelings evoked in staff by attachment work can be better understood.

Nursery WorldVol. 2012, No. 2 FeatureTime to pool the early years sector's expertise on working with babiesPeter Elfer, Jools PagePeter ElferSearch for more papers by this author, Jools PageSearch for more papers by this authorPeter Elfer; Jools PagePublished Online:4 Mar 2014https://doi.org/10.12968/nuwa.2012.3.2.1105891AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View articleAbstractBy pooling experience and expertise, early years practitioners could bring about real advances in under-threes provision, say Drs Peter Elfer and Jools Page FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 1 February 2012Volume 2012Issue 2ISSN (print): 0029-6422ISSN (online): 2059-9358 Metrics History Published online 4 March 2014 Published in print 1 February 2012 Information© MA Education Ltd

This article reports an aspect of a life historical study which investigated the part that ‘love’ played in mothers’ decision-making about returning to work and placing their babies in day care. The article begins with a brief discussion of the context, including 21st-century policies in England to encourage mothers to return to the workforce (DfES, 2004; HMT, 2009). This is followed by a critical overview of relevant literature exploring three key themes: an historical view of women in the workforce, Attachment Theory, and theorizing ‘love’ and ‘care’. The life-historical methodology is discussed and justified and seven key themes are briefly identified and explained. The article then focuses specifically on the theme of ‘love’ using life-history interview data and key literature to discuss mothers’ views on the importance of ‘love’, the saliency of ‘ love’ in choosing childcare, and the notion of ‘ professional love’.