Hall-Kenyon, K.M., Bullough, R.V., MacKay, K.L. and Marshall, E.E. (2014) ‘Preschool teacher well-being: A review of the literature’, Early Childhood Education Journal, 42(3), pp. 153–162.
- Current concerns about preschool effectiveness have led to rapid changes in early childhood education policy and
practice. These changes have focused primarily on the
professionalization of early childhood through increased
education requirements for teachers, standardized instructional and assessment practices, and improved teacher compensation (Ackerman 2004; Barnett 2003, 2004; Stipek 2006).
Day and Smethem (2009) argue, when reform efforts are preoccupied with teacher, child, and school outcomes they may overlook the impact of ‘‘teachers’ identities and work lives’’ (p. 145) on educational improvement.
- Early childhood services are widely presented as failing
to meet the needs of children and families and
therefore the rationale for regulation is legitimated and
a regulatory gaze deemed expedient and necessary. In
this climate early years practitioners increasingly have
to wrestle with demands for accountability, performativity
and standardised approaches to their practice,
all of which mark a pronounced movement towards
centralised control, and prescription, which poses a
potential threat to professional autonomy and morale.
(Osgood 2006, p. 6)