ABSTRACT

There is little research to show how early childhood educators perceive risk-taking and whether, in the pursuit of high quality early childhood education, educators might take risks in their professional practice. We conducted a qualitative case study to explore early childhood educators’ views on, and engagement with, risk-taking in professional practice. Through thematic analysis of interviews with 55 educators in three high quality early childhood education services, we show that, for the educators in the study, risk-taking was a valuable aspect of professional practice driven by three main motivations: professional growth and development; developing children as competent and empowered individuals; and advocacy and activism. We also show that educators’ risk-taking was enacted under five broad themes: providing opportunities for children to take risks; trusting children; doing things that are new; expressing ideas and beliefs; and including curriculum content that may be considered controversial, complex and inappropriate for children. We conclude that for educators in the study, risk-taking was enacted as courageous, ethically and morally driven praxis in pursuit of high quality ECE for the benefit of both individuals and society.

摘要

很少有研究表明幼儿教育者如何看待冒险，以及在追求高质量的幼儿教育时，教育者是否可能在其专业实践中冒险。我们进行了定性案例研究，以探讨幼儿教育者对专业实践中的冒险行为的看法和参与。通过对三种高质量的幼儿教育服务中的55名教育者的访谈进行主题分析，我们表明，对于研究中的教育者来说，冒险是专业实践的一个宝贵方面，它受到三个主要动机的推动：专业成长和发展；培养儿童成为有能力和有能力的人；宣传和行动主义。我们还表明，教育者的冒险精神是根据五个主要主题制定的：为儿童提供冒险的机会；信任孩子；做新的事情；表达想法和信念；并包括可能会引起争议，复杂且不适合儿童的课程内容。我们得出结论，对于研究中的教育者，冒险是为了追求高品质的幼儿教育，为个人和社会的利益而采取的勇气，道德和道德驱动的实践。