ERIC Number: EJ977962
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0957-5146
EISSN: N/A
Emotion in Nursery Work: Work Discussion as a Model of Critical Professional Reflection
Elfer, Peter
Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development, v32 n2 p129-141 2012
The importance of attention to children's emotions has been emphasised widely in early care and education research and policy. Enabling such attention has been seen as achieved primarily through attachment interactions with nursery staff. However, there is increasing awareness that facilitating such interactions in a way that is optimal for children depends in part on staff's critical professional reflection about how these interactions are managed with children, with family members and between staff themselves. Such professional reflection is seen as needing to include attention to the emotional experience of staff as well as children. This paper reports on Work Discussion as a model of professional reflection that is attentive to emotional experience as it is evoked in professional work. Work Discussion and its theoretical underpinning, a psychoanalytic view of organisational ethos and interaction, is introduced and explained. The paper then reports on a Work Discussion group with nine nursery managers, the issues brought for discussion, the managers' reports of their experience of the group, and the value of Work Discussion in helping them think about and manage interactions in their nurseries.
Descriptors: Discussion Groups, Emotional Experience, Professional Development, Well Being, Attachment Behavior, Child Care, Administrators, Child Care Centers, Nursery Schools, Reflection, Interpersonal Relationship, Foreign Countries, Interviews, Caregiver Attitudes, Child Caregivers, Preschool Children
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A