Voice, Power and Emotion: the Challenges of Practitioner/ Parent Partnerships

This small-scale research project aimed to evaluate strategies designed to support women undergraduates’ developing confidence in managing communications with parents of children in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The demographic comprising ECEC students remains highly gendered. Fuller, (2016 p.12) suggests that women are subject to a 'subversive cultural hegemony’ which affords them freedom to participate in higher education, though not freedom from gendered norms and expectations. Kass, (2015) highlights a marked difference in perceived self-efficacy amongst educators according to their gender. The QAA (2014) benchmarks for Early Childhood Studies degrees require students to act as advocates for children, their parents and families, but initial findings suggested that students lacked confidence in their abilities to do this, even avoiding opportunities where they arose. The research adopted a social constructivist, feminist perspective. A community of practice (Wenger, 2000) and workshops influenced by Ryan and Deci’s (2000) theory of intrinsic motivation were co-constructed with student participants. Qualitative methods were employed to collect data. The research proposals were scrutinised by a University Ethics Committee underpinned by a protocol which included strategies for participation and withdrawal by participants. Findings supported the notion of the affective as a potential barrier to learning. It is contended that such a barrier might be mitigated by specific learning and teaching strategies and an overt focus on structural and socio-cultural imbalances of power in ECEC
Keywords: confidence, women, power-imbalances, professionalism, self-efficacy