“I’m not going to start a revolution...but I'm certainly going to fight my corner':” Narratives from Early Years Teachers exploring how experiences, quality assurance mechanisms and policy discourses shape their pedagogy, professional relationships, and identity.

This study is concerned with the quality discourse inherent in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) profession in England. The focus within this, is the role of the Early Years Teacher (EYT) and how their identity is shaped by policy discourses, conflicting notions of quality in ECEC and interactions within their respective workspaces.

The aim of the study was to reveal how EYTs working in a diverse range of contexts were able to fulfil their role in their workplace, given the complexity of the contexts and conditions in which they operate. The underpinning theoretical framework sits within a critical ecological perspective which problematises the layers of societal systems which influence constructions of identity.

Much existing literature in the field tends to situate the ECEC profession in a deficit position, the ‘Cinderella’ in the education system (Cameron et al., 2010), despite policy initiatives by successive governments to professionalise the sector, and to increase the number of graduate practitioners working in the profession. This culminated in the introduction of the early years specific Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS). The public perception of those working with the very youngest children remains that of a low status occupation. At the time of writing the profession faces significant recruitment, retention and funding challenges.

The methodological approach adopted was that of a narrative enquiry. This involved utilising interpretations of the EYTs narratives conveyed in shared conversations about their experiences, alongside my own accounts from practice, in order to illuminate the role of the EYT and the conditions under which they resist and/or subvert or conform. The findings from the study reveal how participants think they fulfil their role. They recall instances when they have resisted or subverted the imposition of policy or practice as they recognise the specialist knowledge that they hold. There is also a sense of pride within their responses. The age of the children they work with is significant to them, as are the relationships with their colleagues, where they feel they have an impact in driving practice and provision change. Participants are aware of the outward image of the ECEC workforce as determined by the outer systems of the ecological system, yet from within the contexts that they operate they exercise agency and have an influence.
Therefore, this thesis contributes to knowledge by challenging taken-for-granted assumptions underpinning constructions of quality and school-readiness within England’s ECEC sector. It advances an ecologically informed analytical framework that foregrounds the interconnections between developmental discourse, gendered workforce dynamics and policy enactment. In doing so, it offers a more contextually and politically situated understanding of early childhood practice, extending beyond dominant outcome-driven and technocratic models. Furthermore, it reconceptualises the EYT as a specialist professional who is able to exercise agency and subversion where and when they deem appropriate as they navigate competing discourses of policy.