Breaking through the barriers: Professional development, action research and the early years

Abstract

This article is based on a paper delivered at the CARN Conference, 1995. The authors, who are both early-years professionals, have worked as research associates on the ‘Principles into Practice’ project based at Goldsmiths' College, London. This is an important national project involving practitioner action research in a number of local authorities. The authors examine the current context of early-years education and reflect on the increasingly marginalised and de-professionalised status of early-years practitioners working with the 0-8 years age range. They examine the impact of recent government policies on the early years field and present case-studies which demonstrate how action research in their own workplace helped practitioners, in a wide range of settings, break through barriers, and develop a renewed sense of professional identity and prestige. They consider the tension between professional re-empowerment and institutional power, and argue that action research can contribute to a knowledge and power base on which to build policies and practices on which all early-years practitioners can agree. © 1997, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.