A qualitative examination of early childhood educators’ participation in professional learning: investigating social constructionist understandings of quality

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the burgeoning literature that describes the most effective ways of engaging early childhood educators in professional learning, very little empirical work in North America has examined the processes, dialogs, and engagements in which educators participate to address quality as a social construct. This article (1) describes a model of professional learning trialed in western Canada that supports educators to engage with social constructionist scholarship on quality and (2) reports on the educators’ and pedagogical facilitators’ experiences with this model. Using a qualitative methodology, the article analyzes data from interviews, focus groups, and open-ended questionnaires completed by educators and pedagogical facilitators. The study’s findings suggest the importance of creating professional learning opportunities that respond to contextual and current conditions over extended periods of time. More importantly, our results show that PD that engages quality as a social construct requires both a multidimensional approach with a wide variety of learning modalities, and the critical role of a skilled pedagogical facilitator who challenges educators to interrogate the ethico-political aspects of early education. The findings of this study have implications not only for the professional learning of early childhood educators but also for early education systems in Canada and abroad.