ZOP: Critical thinking, untested feasibilities
and Zones of Professional Developmewnt
Working paper presented to the
EECERA 17th Annual Conference
Prague, 29 August – 1 September 2007
Dr. Mathias Urban
EC+P. Early Childhood and Profession
International Centre for Research, Studies and Development
Martin-LutherUniversitaet Halle-Wittenberg
Background:
The Strategies for Change project
 “Cross-national studies of early childhood can lose
sight of the child“
(Moss 2001)
 They are also at risk of losing sight of practitioners
 ECCE has moved up national and European policy
agendas, driven by common concerns





Employment
Competitiveness
Diversity and Equality
Children‘s rights
Social inclusion
 There is a consensus on the overall goals – but it
does not extend to how to achieve these goals
EC+P
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Background:
The Strategies for Change project
 The field is becoming increasingly diverse …

“ the populations of OECD countries also are becoming increasingly
heterogeneous as a result of immigration, the arrival of refugees
and asylum seekers, and economic migrants seeking work in
countries with labour shortage.”

“ the need for early childhood staff and provision to value and
respond to the needs of ethnically, culturally, and linguistically
diverse families remains a challenge in many countries.”
(OECD 2001)

Workforce is central for achieving policy goals of increasing both
quantity and quality of provision
(Oberhuemer 2000, 2005; Siraj-Blatchford 2002; Dalli 2003; Mac Naughton
2005)

EC+P
Most countries face major workforce challenges
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Strategies for Change:
Project goals and objectives



EC+P
What drives change at the
national (macro) and local
(micro) levels of the early years
systems?
What is the conceptualisation
of, and the role given to the
workforce?
Multiple methods /
grounded theory approach:
 Document Analysis
 Narratives and semistructured interviews
 Thick descriptions
 Case Studies
Mathias Urban

Project partners:


Thomas Coram
Research Unit (TCRU),
Institute of Education,
London
(Prof. Peter Moss)
Participating countries:
(pilot phase)
 Ireland
 England
 Flanders
 Australia
 New Zealand
[email protected]
General project design:
Focus on processes of change
macro-layer
 Policy documents
 Strategic plans
 Quality frameworks
 National curricula
Document analysis
Expert Interviews
micro-layer
 One local setting in
each country
 Local authorities
 Trainers, managers,
practitioners …
EC+P
Mathias Urban
Narratives
Observations
Thick descriptions
[email protected]
Group
discussions
(generative
themes)
Main strands / guiding questions
How to change a stagnant system into one that is dynamic and has the assent of
the children, the families, the public and the political establishment?

Advocacy


Leadership


How can institutional obstacles and frictions within the sector be
minimised?
Linking research to policy and practice development

EC+P
How can a critical mass of change agents be achieved?
Institutional Barriers


How is strong political leadership encouraged
- and resourced - to lead change?
Change Agents


How is public discourse informed about rights and interest of
children, diversity issues, socio-economic rationale for services
etc.?
How can the emergence of a strong research community be
nurtured?
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Two conceptualisations of the early childhood workforce
The ‚expert‘ model

a certain base of knowledge
(science)

translated into technology

converted into skills

knowledge and ‚truth‘ linked
to maintaining systems of
power
underlying discourse:
certainty,
predetermined outcomes
The ‘professional’ model

Individuals co-constructing
professional ethos and
knowledge(s)

Knowledge not simply
'applied‘ – but constantly
(re-)invented in complex
situations

Based on working
relationships with
autonomous others
underlying discourse:
uncertainty, ambiguity,
dialogue,
‚untested feasibilities‘
We are not solving problems,
we are managing messes
(Donald E. Schön)
EC+P
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Professional learning – keeping the future open
Now, with our greater understanding of the process, we
must cultivate the most flexible and complex part of the
system – the behaviour of adults. We must, in fact,
teach ourselves how to alter adult behaviour so that we
can give up postfigurative upbringing, […] and discover
prefigurative ways of teaching and learning that will keep
the future open.
Margaret Mead 1978
EC+P
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Critical thinking (1)
interference
curiosity
explanation
openmindedness
interpretation
evaluation
maturity of
judgement
analysis
truthseeking
self-regulation
self-confidence
skills
critical thinking
dispositions
practice
adapted from Facione 2004
EC+P
Mathias Urban
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Vygotsky: Zone of proximal development
Education must be based on the student’s own activity
and should involve nothing more than guiding and
monitoring this activity. In the interaction with children
the teacher should open a zone of proximal development
Vygotsky 1978 / van Oers 2003
“… the child is engaged in a particular kind of meaningful
activity, in which he or she wants to participate, but
cannot yet carry out all actions independently.”
van Oers 1995, 2003
EC+P
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Creating Zones of Professional Development
 How can practitioners and students become
engaged in meaningful activities?
 How can they be guided and monitored – in
a process of reciprocal meaning making?
 How can they be encouraged to create
change?
EC+P
Mathias Urban
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 “[…] creative people, who are change agents, because
the people on the ground have the opportunity to reflect,
they get assistance with people alongside them doing
additional support of their normal work so that they can
stand back and reflect, write up, disseminate what
they’re thinking about.”
 “[…] we identify people, who have promise and we try
and induct them into the next academic layer. I think
that’s really important.”
(strat4change New Zealand)
EC+P
Mathias Urban
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 “The disruption of the binary between research and
practice is happening. I don’t know where it will take us,
but I think, it will take us in good directions.”
(strat4change, Australia)
 “And that all creates an environment, an ethos of
reflection and willingness to consider alternatives beyond
current practice.”
(strat4change, New Zealand)
EC+P
Mathias Urban
[email protected]
Critical thinking (2):
transformative approaches to research and professional learning
(Multiple) perspectives
- Narratives
- Phenomena
- Stories
- Theoretical frameworks
- Informal hunches
What works?
For whom?
In which context?
Who is
empowered?
Who is silenced?
Alternatives?
EC+P
Naming
the world
Professional learning:
Evaluation
a systemic,
transformative project
Generating
themes
Planning
for change
Documentation
Mathias Urban
Contextualising
individual experience:
- History
- Economy
- Politics
- Power
Critical
Analysis
Action
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Goals for individual
children, groups,
communities,
society …
The reason life is so strange is that we have
simply no idea what is around the next corner,
something most of us have learned to forget.
Colum McCann, Zoli