There is a broad consensus that a well-trained childcare workforce is needed if young children are to have the chances to which they are entitled. Everywhere in Europe, professionalism in childcare is on the political agenda. At the same time, the ‘care concept’ is being increasingly set aside and childcare is becoming embedded in a larger whole in which parenting and social functions have an important place. As a result of these developments, the professions in the childcare sector are being radically reformed in many industrialised countries. Some countries are choosing a social-pedagogic vision, others have integrated childcare into the educational system. The examples in this book, from Denmark and New Zealand, illustrate the possibility of constructing a democratic professionalism in early childhood education and care, whose reflective practitioners can deal with complex situations and relationships.
This book shows that this striving for the co-construction of a new profession in childcare is not an isolated event, but an international endeavour in which actors from various countries are deeply involved.
Jan Peeters is the director of VBJK, Resource and Research Centre for Early Childhood Education and Care, which is linked to the Department of Social Welfare, Ghent University. He has been involved in several European Social Fund projects on training and professionalization of the childcare sector. In 1998 he was co-founder of the European DECET Network (Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Care, and Training). He has also set up several projects on Men in Childcare and directed documentaries (Lullaby for Hamza, Childcare Stories) on diversity and professionalism in childcare, produced in six different languages and countries. He is the editor of the Dutch language version of Children in Europe, a joint publication in 12 languages by a network of magazines in 13 European countries.