Early childhood practice and refrains of complexity

Abstract

Early childhood practice has often been described as complex in both policy documents and research literature; however, less attention has been given to exploring the nature and consequences of complexity in early childhood practice. At a time of intense policy attention in many national contexts, there is the potential for closing down, as well as for opening up conceptualisations of early childhood practice. To help keep possibilities open for multiple conceptualisations of practice, in this paper, we explore how complexity works and what it produces in early childhood practice assemblages. To do this, we draw on data fragments from research with 10 early childhood educators in NSW, Australia, and read these data with concepts from Deleuze and Guattari. We suggest four ways that our readings help articulate, and contribute to understandings of the complexity of early childhood practice.

Keywords:

• early childhood education
• early childhood educators
• post-structural theory
• Australia

Notes

1. In NSW, preschools operate during school hours and in school term-time only. Long day care centres also provide a preschool programme with a university-qualified teacher; however, they operate for longer hours, and throughout the year.

2. Di is an educator with a vocational education and training [VET] diploma and five years of experience in prior-to-school settings. She also has around 20 years of primary school teaching experience.