Preparing university students for the moral responsibility of early years education

Abstract

This research collected the voices of students in a UK university, better to understand their perception of their ‘moral responsibility’ as trainee early years educators. The UK Early Years Framework states that practitioners will instil in young children an understanding of what is ‘right and wrong’. This is a formidable expectation in itself; yet early years educators are also expected to work ethically, sensitively and respectfully with a wide network of colleagues and stakeholders. This research, carried out through a fully anonymised survey, provided the opportunity for some student teachers to share that where ethical responsibility was concerned, they just didn’t get it. The research found that an understanding was often assumed by tutors and that a more conscious effort needed to be made more explicitly to explore these concepts, and the associated lexicon, within module content.