Accompaniment and quality in childcare services: the emergence of a culture of professionalization

Abstract

This article addresses various educational cultures observed today in a variety of training and professional development contexts in the field of early childhood education. The paper also analyses methods of developing and implementing training or professional ‘accompaniment’. This notion of ‘accompaniment’ has been developed in the context of French-speaking countries, especially in relation to the development of childcare services and the search for quality. From a case study using ‘accompaniment’ as a professional development initiative to consider freedom of movement for children aged birth to three years as a quality criterion in daily educational practice, the article illustrates the importance of considering innovation in the professional development of early years educators, not only as a new initiative in this specific context, but also as a signifier of the wider emergence of a new culture of professionalization where actions, actors and environment undergo change simultaneously.

Keywords:

• accompaniment
• culture
• professionalization
• quality
• training