Singaporean educarers’ reflections about their role and practices in the education and care of infants

ABSTRACT

The way educarers conceptualize their role in the education and care of infants can influence their pedagogical practices and interactions with infants in their care. The Early Years Development Framework was developed to provide key principles, practices, and learning outcomes to guide educarers working with children under 3 in Singapore. It envisioned educarers to be attuned and responsive to infants’ development in their physical, linguistic, cognitive, social, and emotional domains. The professional educarer is also envisaged to engage in reflection and practitioner research for professional growth. Using principles stipulated in the EYDF as an analytical framework, this paper explores how 6 Singaporean educarers’ conceptualize and reflect on their dual role of education and care of infants. Half of the educarers viewed their role as custodial in nature, with less focus on the education aspects of caregiving. The practice of critical reflection was also not prevalent in the work of some of the educarers. Work conditions were found to be a contributing factor that supported or impeded the practice of reflection. How conceptions can potentially be transformed and changed by the practice of critical reflection and implications of these findings on professional training and policy for educarers are discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.