Maternalist discourse in nursery nurse training at Wellgarth Nursery Training School from 1911 to 1939: current dilemmas of class and status in historical context

ABSTRACT

This article explores current dilemmas of status surrounding professional roles for the early years workforce through research into training for nursery nurses at Wellgarth Nursery Training School, London, from 1911 to 1939. It interrogates the issues through the lens of vocational habitus and feminine and emotional capital and draws comparison with contemporary training for Froebel teachers. The data identify maternalist discourse as a common factor in training for Wellgarth and Froebel students, with consequences for a gendered workforce. The research demonstrates that class was the key factor in the ability to pursue a career in nursery nursing or teaching, and shaped unique professional identities. The historical perspective sets current European and English policy on early years professional roles, and the plethora of recent literature on differentiated constructions of professionalism, which problematises conceptions of professional roles as caring or teaching, within a history dating back over 100 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Nursery nurses
• Froebel teachers
• training
• professional roles
• vocational habitus
• feminine capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jane Read is Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and a member of the Early Childhood Research Centre at the University of Roehampton, London, UK. Her research interests focus on the dissemination of Froebelian pedagogy across time and space and in diverse educational settings. Recent research has adopted socio-historical perspectives to interrogate the Froebelian impact on the development of policy and on early years professions and services to illuminate (dis)continuities between past and present.

Notes

1. Originally called the Nursery Training School, it changed its name to Wellgarth Nursery Training School in 1928 and to Wellgarth Nursery Training College in 1932; it closed in 1979. In this article, it is referred to as Wellgarth. The archival data which comprised the research material for this paper can be accessed at the London Metropolitan Archive.

2. In the context of Wellgarth training, the term ‘nurse’ refers to caring for children, not a medical professional.

3. FEI applicants were required to hold a high school leaving certificate, such as the Oxford and Cambridge Senior or London University Matriculation, whereas Wellgarth entrants had received only an elementary education.

4. Level 3 is a non-tertiary level qualification equivalent to Year One, or HE1, of a UK degree course, and Level 6 to Year 3 or HE3. Prior to 2013, the Children’s Workforce Development Council oversaw qualifications at Level 6 for achievement of Early Years Professional Status in connection with Foundation and Bachelor degree programmes. I am grateful for the comments of a Reviewer on this point.