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Valuable everyday encounters in early childhoodeducation: narratives from professionals

Håkan Löfgren & Annika Manni

To cite this article: Håkan Löfgren & Annika Manni (2020): Valuable everydayencounters in early childhood education: narratives from professionals, Early Years, DOI:10.1080/09575146.2020.1759028

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Valuable everyday encounters in early childhood education:narratives from professionalsHåkan Löfgren a and Annika Manni b

aDepartment of Thematic Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden; bDepartment of AppliedEducational Sciences, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

ABSTRACTThis article presents professionals’ narratives about valuableencounters with young children in early childhood education(ECE) settings. The study aims to provide an in-depth perspectiveon how professionals talk about ethics in practice, and the valuesaddressed in the narratives. Initially, professionals in Swedish ECEsettings defined their understanding of a valuable encounter witha child and then used a digital app to self-register 10 such encoun-ters during one day. After the self-registration, we interviewed theprofessionals and they told us about the encounters they hadexperienced. We identified three themes concerning who was thefocus of the encounters: the professional, the child, or both reci-procally. By using a narrative approach and Nussbaum’s ethicaltheoretical perspective, we show how different rationales wereinterwoven in the stories and that situated emotions were enactedand reflected. Finally, we noticed that many valuable encounterstook place in ‘in-between spaces’. They were not planned for ororganised, but occurred spontaneously through professionals’ sen-sitive employment of an ethics in practice.

ARTICLE HISTORYReceived 31 May 2019Accepted 19 April 2020

KEYWORDSValuable encounters;preschool; leisure-timecentres; profession

Introduction

In a time of increased demands for accountability in the welfare professions (Biesta 2016;Osgood 2010), this paper is about professionals’ definitions and narratives of ethicallyvaluable encounters during their daily practice in Swedish early-childhood education(ECE). These relational pedagogical practices can thus be regarded as arenas wherepolicies and values are expressed, negotiated and implemented. Different professionals’approaches when encountering children, we argue, reflect different ways of performingprofessional ethics in practice. Looking at the situation from a distance, we can see that,over the last decade, Swedish ECE has been subject to many new policies, as in othercountries around the world, concerning aspects such as the revision of national curriculato include more precise learning goals and increased demands for documentation andaccountability (Löfgren 2015). Taggart (2011, referring to Osgood, 2004) critically exam-ines these global trends, urging us to consider the implications of these changes for earlychildhood professions and to pay attention to the practitioners’ own language of care.

CONTACT Håkan Löfgren hakan.lofgren@liu.se Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University,Linköping SE-581 83, Sweden

EARLY YEARShttps://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2020.1759028

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any med-ium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

Consequently, recent research, as well as political and value-laden discussions, havefocused on how the now more formal and educational side of ECE work can be combinedwith (Dahlberg 2009), or separated from (Hjalmarsson 2018) the deeply rooted caringaspects.

Standing as we do in the crossfire of education and/or care debates, we wanted toreturn to the very core of human interaction, the everyday encounters between profes-sionals and children, and investigate how these are valued in professionals’ narratives. Weaddress issues of how the professionals themselves stress the values linked to differentrationales about teaching, learning and care when they talk about these encounters andhow, in their narratives, they reflect upon their experiences.

The data are analysed from an ethically informed point of view, based on Nussbaum’s(2001) theories concerning the situated emotional responses involved in professionals’value-laden narratives. This is somewhat different from previous research describingethical aspects of professionals’ work, which stresses the impact of values in officialpolicies versus more personal beliefs; explicit versus implicit values (Colnerud 2017;Thornberg 2016). We argue that the narrative approach used here allows the profes-sionals to reflect upon why a certain encounter is valuable to them.

The study aims to provide an in-depth examination of how professionals talk aboutethics in practice, and the values addressed in their narratives about everyday encounterswith children. Empirically, we investigate how, in their talk, professionals define anddescribe what they find valuable when encountering children in their educational set-tings. Theoretically, we discuss some of the ethical aspects of values and emotionsemerging in educational practices. From an ECE practitioner’s perspective, the study hasimplications for how narrative reflection might shed new light on what makes an every-day situation, such as an encounter with a child, a valuable experience.

Early childhood education in Sweden

In this section, we will give a short presentation of the research focusing on the historicalbackground and current (curriculum and policy) context of Swedish early-childhoodeducation. Historically, ECE focused on social pedagogical issues but during the 1990 sthe focus gradually shifted to a stronger interest in teaching and learning, and now thesedifferent rationales exist side by side (Lindgren and Söderlind 2019).

Not surprisingly, research that takes a long historical perspective stresses care as themain task for early-childhood institutions in Sweden. The need for organised childcare isdescribed as a consequence of industrialisation, urbanisation and women’s emancipation.Furthermore, care and guiding children into adulthood were the guiding principlesduring the early formation of ECE, emphasising young children’s need for care(Lindgren and Söderlind 2019). During the 1960 s and ‘70 s, the political aspects ofnurturing democratic citizens grew strong in ECE in Sweden, which also broughtincreased status to activities directed towards school-age children (Pihlgren 2017).

Descriptions of the more modern history (after 1990) of these institutions, on theother hand, stress their inclusion into the formal educational system, with the role ofsetting the foundations for further (cognitive) learning in schools, and the influences ofnew ideas concerning a more formal, predefined learning (Dahlberg 2009). In 1998,preschools in Sweden got their own national curriculum (National Agency of Education

2 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

1998), which was revised in 2011 and replaced with a new one in 2018 (National Agencyof Education 2018). In 2016, leisure-time centres received their own chapter in thenational curriculum for elementary school (National Agency of Education 2016).1

These reforms strengthened the emphasis on the learning goals2 stated in the nationalcurriculum. As a consequence, a number of curriculum and policy studies were con-ducted, as well as studies of didactics and subject learning during the early years. Someof these studies stress that care is constantly present in preschool activities(Riddersporre and Bruce 2016) and fundamental to the activities in leisure-time centres(Hjalmarsson 2018). In a previous study, we stressed that preschool teachers who talkabout documentation refer to formulations about learning (not care) in the nationalcurriculum in order to perform their professional identities (Löfgren 2015, 2016). Similararguments and findings can be seen within the area of leisure-time centres, but here theemphasis is more on democracy and relational care (Hjalmarsson and Löfdahl 2014).Much recent research also focuses on didactic issues dealing with the teaching, learningand evaluation of different subjects (Areljung, 2018; Helenius 2018). We argue that thesestudies (including our own) have in common that they tend to approach the actualsituation and describe activities in practice mainly as a matter of teaching, learning orcaring. We also argue that there is a need to further stress issues of how values linked todifferent rationales are intertwined or combined in the daily work of professionals. Eventhough there is a qualitative difference between values linked to a more extrinsic orinstrumental rationale that stresses predetermined learning goals, and values linked toa more intrinsic and emotional rationale that stresses a social pedagogical approach tocare, professionals need to get these rationales to work together in their everydayencounters with children.

Value-laden aspects of early-childhood educational practice and research

Different kinds of value-laden aspects regarding the notion of care surround the ECEprofessions, in Sweden and elsewhere. For example, Osgood (2004) described practi-tioners’ language of care as a counter-discourse to dominant ways of thinking aboutdemands for quality in English preschools. In the same vein, Taggart (2011) discussescaring as being linked to personal emotions and to ethical principles for professionalpreschool teachers.

Other value-laden aspects are actualised when the matter of how values take shape inthe intersection between the public and private spheres is addressed. Ideas about whatprofessional tasks and duties teachers in ECE are obliged to undertake could be con-nected both to the content and values of official policy and curricula and to more personalbeliefs (Colnerud 2017). Thornberg (2016) describes it similarly through the use of explicitvalues education: ‘preschools and schools’ official curricula of what and how to teachvalues and morals, including teachers’ explicit intentions and practices of values educa-tion’ (p. 247) and implicit values education: ‘a hidden curriculum and implicit valuesembedded in school and classroom practices’ (p. 247).

Finally, Emilson (2007) argues that there are different educational values at stake in ECEpractices; namely: care, discipline, democracy, and being individual oriented or collectiveoriented. These are values that could originate in either the official values or morepersonal ones.

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The value-laden approaches (education and care) are sometimes discussed as differ-ent, competing and challenging demands. Studies have even shown that professionalsmight experience moral dilemmas when they find the official educational demands tobe in conflict with their own personal values, even causing them to feel despair andmental stress (Santoro 2016). Furthermore, it has also been documented that manyteachers find the emotional aspects of care the most rewarding parts of their profession(Taggart 2011).

Theoretical perspectives on ethics and values

In the section above, we have described some previous research on the value-ladenchallenges faced by professionals. Here, we present some ethical and theoretical aspectsrelated to the issues in question. We agree with Taggart (2011) that, in contemporarydiscourses about the purposes and tasks of ECE, it is not only policy or pedagogy thatcould be useful, but also ethical theory and reflections.

In the educational practices we are studying here, care ethics holds a central position,and has done so for a long time. This theory emphasises the importance of relationships,but also the specific situation and the kind of care that is given (Colnerud 2006; Noddings2012). Noddings (1984) showed that, in caring professions such as nursing and teaching,the notion of care was more important than rational rules of justice. Within the largerframe of care ethics, we are especially interested here in the fact that relations andvaluable encounters do often have an emotional character, rather than merelya cognitive one. In other words, we choose to empirically observe and interpret thesituated encounters identified and described by the professionals as relational ina theoretical ethical sense. Instead of general and more solid rules or principles beingused as guidance in moral and ethical questions, contextual and situated aspects areconsidered. Afdal (2014) suggests that ethical issues in educational practices should beframed as empirical ethics, with a starting point that what happens in practice constituteswhat could be through reflection.

Within value-ethics, what is given value can in a broad sense be divided into that whichhas value in itself – intrinsic value – and that which has value because it serves anotherpurpose – instrumental value. In this study, we focus upon professionals’ encounters withchildren from a value-laden ethical perspective, i.e. what kind of value is placed on theencounters between professionals and children? One philosopher who emphasises emo-tions as a prerequisite for values is Nussbaum. She argues that emotions are immediateand complex, but also situated and contextual, and hence rational. Furthermore, emo-tions are argued to be the basis for values and, through this logic, important for bothethics and morals (Nussbaum 2001). Similarly, Dewey (1934) emphasises immediateemotional experience as an important part of human meaning-making, the aestheticexperience, something that is part of our daily lives. Through Dewey’s (1916) work withexperiential learning theories, we learn that experience and reflection interact along anintertwined continuum, and thus illuminate dualistic frames of mind regarding action andreflection, theory and practice. Elaborating upon and developing Dewey’s theories onlearning, in a previous empirical study, Manni, Sporre, and Ottander (2017) designed andused an analytical model for emotions and values as a process of experience andreflection.

4 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

The point here, in relation to this model, is that professionals’ values in educationalpractices might stem from spontaneous emotional experiences (the wide arrow) as well asbeing based on cognitive understandings of ethical guidelines, curricula, or traditionalnorms (the thin arrow). In other words, values could be understood and described ascogni-emotional; neither just emotional, nor only cognitive but intertwined. From this lineof argument, we have developed and will use this model, and that concept, in our article.

To sum up: besides a relational ethics of care, and the emotional aspects of the same,we also pay attention to the fact that the practices of ECE are locations where differentvalues compete, as seen in previous research. Professionals’ own values can thus bechallenged by other values in the curriculum, or norms related to their profession, some-thing that we found interesting to further investigate and highlight.

Method – research context, design and sampling

In Sweden, ECE is organised in pre-school (for children aged one to five years), pre-schoolclass (for six-year-old children, the year before they start compulsory schooling) andleisure-time centres (for school-aged children between six and twelve years, before andafter school and during holidays). Ten ECE professionals were located through our net-works in teacher education and initially asked to participate via email. Seven professionalsaccepted the invitation, all trained teachers with more than five years’ experience of workin ECE, of whom five were working in pre-school and two in leisure-time centres. In theanalysis, however, we do not compare the professionals’ statements with regard to theirprofessional status or work setting.

Due to the initial description of the educational practices of ECE, as well as our ownresearch interest, we chose to design our study in two steps. The choice was thus basedon our understanding of the intensity of the daily ECE-practice and the time available. Wethen used a digital tool for the professionals’ self-registration as the first step, in combina-tion with a more classical follow-up interview method for this qualitative study.

When the participants agreed to take part, they were instructed to download an app,free from the internet, onto their smartphones. The app we used here was Socrative.3 Afterthey had installed it, the first question was open in nature, asking them to define: ‘What isa valuable encounter with children to you?’ Based on their own definitions, we then askedthem to register on the app whenever and wherever they had a valuable encounter witha child or group of children.

Each participant made registrations over the course of one day. At the end of the day,we arranged a personal interview in which they told us in more detail about three of theencounters they had registered as valuable, and reflected upon them. The interviewslasted between 25 and 73 minutes and have similarities with stimulated recall andnarrative methodology. They focus on the participants’ own stories of the encountersthey had chosen. All digital answers, both open and closed, were documented in the app,while the interviews were audio recorded and transcribed.

We have used thematic narrative analysis (Kohler Riessman 2008). This means that weinitially identified a number of short coherent stories consisting of a plot arc witha beginning, middle and ending (Linde 1993) in the transcribed interview data. The factorthat these stories have in common, and the evaluative feature, is that the encounter wasvaluable to the professional in one way or another. During the analytical process, we

EARLY YEARS 5

alternated between the researchers, individually completing each step and then compar-ing each other’s results to ensure that reasonable and credible interpretations had beenmade. We listened to and read these stories a number of times, with a particular focus onwhat the professionals claimed was valuable about those particular encounters. We thengrouped the stories into three themes that cover the range of stories in this set of data.This procedure assumes that telling a story is one way to reflect upon lived experiencesand to perform one’s professional identity (Mishler 1999). In other words, the stories areunderstood as socially situated actions, through which the professionals make claims thatthe encounters they had were valuable in a professional sense. When telling their stories,they move from the immediate emotional experience to a more reflective and contextua-lised, rational-emotional understanding of the encounter (see Figure 1). Each themedisplays its own variations, and in this article we present two stories from each themethat to some degree cover the variation within that theme. Finally, we conduct a narrowanalysis of each story in order to scrutinise exactly how the claim that the specificencounter is valuable is narratively constructed. This analysis is guided by the followingquestions: What is valued? How is the claim valuable narratively constructed? Whatrationale does the claim refer to?

Typically, the professionals use different narrative conventions and rationales thatguide us as listeners to understand the evaluative point that they want to make in thestories. For example, they use time as a narrative resource (Mishler 2006; Blomberg andBörjesson 2013), they employ another voice and quote what the children have said wordfor word (Bauman 1986), and they refer to explicit and implicit rationales about teaching,learning, and care.

Ethical considerations

Our main ethical concerns in this study dealt with how to interfere as little as possible inthe daily practices we were investigating. We recognise the intensity of professionals’work and wanted to respect them in that. Both written and oral information about thestudy were given before the participants voluntarily agreed to take part. All empirical datahas been handled with care and confidentiality by the researchers. The participants weremade anonymous, even between the two of us, since we have only used the first names orinitials in the transcripts of the interviews (Vetenskapsrådet 2017).

Figure 1. Emotions and values as part of teachers’ narratived of valuable educational meetings.(Developed from Manni, Sporre, and Ottander 2017)

6 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

Findings

First, we give an overview of how the professionals defined what a valuable encounterwith a child or a group of children meant to them. Then two individual stories within eachtheme are presented and analysed in order to cover the variation in professionals’narratives about ideal valuable encounters with children.

Professionals’ definitions of ideal valuable encounters –maintaining relationships

In order to gain a preliminary overview of the kind of encounters that professionals in ECEregarded as valuable, we asked them to write a short definition in the digital app. Theparticipating professionals defined such encounters in different ways but one commoncharacteristic of their definitions is that they stressed the importance of initiating andmaintaining relationships, and that this involves emotions. Typically, several definitionsdescribed a reciprocal relationship between professional and child, others implied thatthe encounter had most value for the child, and finally some concrete examples ofvaluable encounters were given. The definitions are presented here. In the analysis,however, we do not link these definitions to the individual professionals’ stories aboutactual encounters with children. The definitions are regarded as an introduction to howthe professionals talk about valuable encounters and, according to our understanding ofempirical ethics, these statements are to be seen as reflected principles of a cogni-emotional character.

Definitions of valuable encounters based on reciprocal relationships:

We note, in line with Colnerud (2006) and Noddings (2012), that these definitions stressthe importance of reciprocal relationships and the specific situation as central aspectswhen ascribing a certain value to an encounter. We conclude that the values stated hereoriginate in both a personal and a professional point of view. This is how encounters aredescribed in the educational literature, but also what might have been experienced inpractice. In other words, we notice that these definitions are intertwined with bothpersonal emotions and general values.

There were other definitions, however, implying that the encounter hadmost value forthe child. These examples indicate that the professional is seen as an important actor whomakes the encounter important for the child. The value then tends to be described asa gift given by the professional.

Box 1‘A meeting with a child becomes valuable when the teacher and child meet and interact on equal terms.’‘A situation when I and the child meet in concert.’‘A meeting where I can give the children time to be seen and listened to. Where there is a reciprocal value in themeeting, a reciprocal interaction.’

‘A meeting where a relationship is built.’‘The meetings where you meet together, in communication about something. Community. Develop new insights –development. You get a mutual exchange from each other’

EARLY YEARS 7

An analysis of these statements reveals the impact of professionals’ understandings oftheir task, and what is valued when they enter their role as a professional: being there forthe child. We can also see how pre-set values within their profession affect what theythemselves say is valuable.

Finally, some concrete examples of valuable encounters were given:

Typically, these concrete examples illustrate specific encounters with children incertain situations and are based on professionals’ own emotional experiences ratherthan what might be the expected norm. We note that some of them occur as incidentsin a daily flow of activities and that the situations are described as calm or not disturbedby others. They appear to be isolated islands in an ocean of activity.

To sum up, the descriptions given by these professionals of ideal valuable encountersare based on both personal emotional experiences and ethical norms within the profes-sion. For example, they are defined as either reciprocal between the professional and thechild, or as ‘gifts’ from the professional that are implicitly or explicitly characterised asvaluable for the child.

A thematic narrative analysis of professionals’ stories about valuable encounters

When analysing the interview transcripts and scanning them for stories about encountersthat the professionals framed as valuable, we found three major themes, or sets of stories,concerning who was the focus of the story. In one set of stories, theme one, the professionalsmade themselves the protagonists in the sense that they were the ones who valued theencounter. In another set, theme two, they made a child the protagonist and the one who,according to them, valued the encounter. Finally, in theme three, there were stories stressing

Box 3‘It can be when you sit down and play a game with a person and ask a little about how things are, what happenedat the weekend and so on. It can be when you see the happiness and laughter in the sports arena or at thefootball/floorball ground.’

‘To be present as a teacher, eye contact, listening to what the children say or showing with your body language thatthere is no disturbance around. That both I as a teacher and the child/children are showing interest in each otherand in the content if we meet around something, that it’s positive.’

‘Today it was a meeting with a child who is usually very defiant. There’s a lot of fuss. Today I had the opportunity toeat together with that child.’

Box 2‘When I know that I’m somehow contributing by being a role model and can do things that give the child a feeling ofbeing safe and seen.’

‘To shape emotions of safety and an opportunity to learn.’‘I think all meetings with children are important. I try to be responsive and interpret what the child has to say. I canbe super-valuable in most of the meetings, whether the child needs to tell me something, if the child “only” needsa secure adult or if they need a role model.’

‘A valuable meeting can be when children feel that they’re welcome and longed for by us teachers and/or by otherchildren. And that they get to experience that we’re interested in what they have to say, in their opinions.’

8 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

that the encounter was probably valued reciprocally by both the child and the professional.Relating to the theory of an ethics of care, these themes reveal aspects of the relationaldimensions of how care is carried out in practice and some underlying reasons for this (cf.Noddings 2012). In total, we found nine coherent stories with a clear beginning, middle andending (Linde 1993) in the data. These stories concern spontaneous situated examples ofvaluable encounters and involve cogni-emotional reflections about the recounted experi-ences. In the following, we provide examples of stories that illustrate the three themes.

Theme one is based on stories illustrating the narrator’s claim that the encounter wasvalued mainly by the professional. The first story presented here is about the feelings ofjoy felt by a professional at a leisure-time centre when a child took the initiative for a shortand spontaneous encounter with her during the lunch break. This story is designed toinform us that the encounter is valuable because the professional felt that the child gaveher attention and established a spontaneous contact with her because he wanted to shareand reflect upon a certain experience.

The claim that this encounter is valuable rests on the idea that it is the boy who takesthe initiative and that the encounter is spontaneous. The use of token speech (Bauman1986), in which the child is quoted, reinforces the claim that the encounter is unique andgenuine. The repeated use of the term ‘they’makes the claim stronger and more general,because it indicates that the professional is used to being approached in this way. Shepositioned herself as someone who is to be trusted and the example stresses that shevalues the idea that ‘they can experience that you’re there’. In other words, she values thefact that the children see her and establish contact with her. The last phrase shows thatshe is the one in focus, she is the one who appreciates these encounters, not necessarilythe children. This could be described as an implicit value (Thornberg 2016), based on theprofessional’s own beliefs (Colnerud 2017) and following an intrinsic rationale wherebythe value of the encounter is based on personal emotions. The value described in thisstory, however, is a result of an encounter in which the professional considers herself to bea person worthy of being approached by a child in the context of a leisure-time centre,not just in any context. This frames the situated emotional receptiveness that makes thechildren feel welcome and invited to approach the adult as a professional virtue. In thatsense, the appreciation expressed by the adult is closely related to a professional caringrational as well as a situated emotional agenda (see Taggart 2011).

The second set of stories illustrates the narrator’s claims that the encounter was valuedmainly by the child. The first story is about a preschool boy who does some writing,perhaps for the first time in his life. This story is designed to illustrate that the professional

Box 4A short little meeting that I thought was valuable . . . Sometimes it is short, small moments that make you get incontact with the children. Where they can experience that you’re there, you know. Yes, it was a boy I walkedback with from the canteen. And it’s for a short while, and then they can tell you about small things kind ofspontaneously. And then today he caught up with me and said: ‘Do you know J? I have a little cousin who’sa baby who’s just a few weeks old.’ And then we just exchanged a few words and then he strutted about infront of me. But it’s like, they want to tell you things, a little reflection. That is also a meeting that you canappreciate. (Teacher J)

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values encounters in which a child achieves something and becomes pleased as a result ofher support and encouragement.

The claim that this encounter is valuable rests on the assumption that the boy ispleased because he has learnt something and that he could see with his own eyes that hehad succeeded. In this case, temporality is used as a way of emphasising the uniquenessof the encounter (cf. Blomberg and Börjesson 2013). The sketching of a past in which theboy was not interested in writing and ‘has barely held a pen’ is contrasted with thepresent state, where he is described as pleased and understanding that he ‘can achievemore than he thought’. The boy as a subject who learns is the focus; however, theprofessional is positioned as someone who knows how to encourage children’s learningand arranges creative and individualised learning situations. The value of this encountercould thus be linked to an instrumental rationale in which it is important to implementthe national curriculum goals stating that children in preschool should practise writingskills. The value, however, is not merely linked to the actual success in learning to write,but also to the pleased feelings that are shared in an exclusive situation that occursbetween the everyday group activities. This might be the most obvious example in whichformalised policies and general values within the profession interrelate with the emotionsinvolved in the actual encounter.

The next story is about a girl who was proud of herself for taking a blood test anda professional who confirmed that she was brave. The story serves as an illustration of howimportant the professional thinks it is for the children to know that she sees and confirmsthem.

Box 6The children arrive in the morning and it’s like ‘ah, you’ve been to the medical centre?’ you know. Taking a bloodtest. Then it’s, obviously, very important that I meet her in that. And that she gets the opportunity to tell meabout what she has experienced, her experience. And that she got a plaster. So, all these situations becomeimportant meetings. [. . .] She’s, it’s very dramatic for her. All wounds and such are very dramatic for her. So, itwas huge that she’d dared to take a blood-test. [. . .] So when she arrives, so happy, running. And that she, thatI noticed it. That I confirm her in that and, kind of: ‘Can I see your plaster?’ so she can tell me. She was happyto show me the [toy] lizard she got. [. . .] Yes, it became very important for her [. . .] that we saw it [. . .] and thatshe saw that I saw and, like, lifted her in that. (Teacher W)

Box 5Now the focus has been on names and they’ve been interested in writing. So, this very day they should write thefirst and last name of the stone man [a fictional stone figure at the preschool]. And this particular [child] wasalso a boy [. . .] and my experience is that he has barely held a pen before, been very uninterested. So,I thought, well, we’ll see how he approaches this task then. But, yes with a little support, he succeeded inwriting that whole name. And I felt he was very pleased that he’d managed to write the name with all thoseletters. [. . .] Yes, and this was that I, kind of, thought it was valuable because he was able to succeed. Yes, thatwas the positive thing with this meeting. Yes, that he was able to succeed, to see that, with some support andencouragement, he can achieve more than he thought [. . .] I had chosen to just take one child at a timebecause I wanted to give them the support they needed. (Teacher L)

10 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

In this story, the child is the protagonist and is claimed to be the one who is likely tovalue the encounter most. The professional’s claim that the encounter is valuable is thusbased on the idea that the child values it, it is ‘very important for her [. . .] that she saw thatI saw’. This evaluative point is constructed through the use of quoting what the profes-sional said to confirm the girl’s courage and taking another voice. The professional alsodramatises the situation by positioning the girl as sensitive: ‘wounds and such are verydramatic for her’ and stating that it was ‘huge that she’d dared to take a blood test’. Thus,time becomes an important aspect in two ways. The threatening situation occurredbefore the girl’s arrival at preschool, in another location, but because the professionalgave time for the girl to retell what had happened to her, she could frame it as a successstory and feel proud and safe. The professional is thus positioned as skilled and attentiveto children’s needs. In this case, there are influences from both an intrinsic, personal-emotional and an instrumental, general-normative rationale. Clearly, the professional iscommitted to being observant of the children’s needs; however, the importance of givingchildren a voice is also clearly stated in teachers’ professional ethical guidelines as well asin the national curriculum.

The third set of stories illustrates the narrator’s claims that the encounter is reciprocallyvalued by both the child and the professional. The first of these stories is abouta professional who felt that she was invited by two children who were playing to talkabout and reflect upon things for a few minutes. She explicitly describes the children assatisfied and implicitly expresses gratitude for the invitation.

The claim that this encounter is valuable is based on the fact that it is on the terms ofthe playing children. The professional is positioned as humble when she gently asks thechildren to give her access to their world. This humility is emphasised when she says she‘got the opportunity to talk to them’ and ‘built on what they said’. In her final statement,that ‘you don’t get invited every time so you have to take the opportunity if they want to’,she expresses gratitude for being accepted as a reflective partner for a while. It is also clearthat these kinds of in-between moments are exclusive privileges that sometimes addvalue to her professional life. All these statements build up the argument that anencounter becomes valuable if the children accept her involvement as a professional.The rationale that frames this story could be described as intrinsic and caring, built on theidea that the young children’s play is a sacred situation. The analysis of this example

Box 7Two children were playing with ‘nopper’ [Stickle Bricks], a material with spiky building blocks. It’s a new materialthat the children really like. And two children were sitting down building and I sat down beside and asked:‘What are you building?’ Yes, they were building boats with something special, it was boats that drove fast.And then I got the opportunity to talk to them, whether it was small or big boats, who was allowed to ridewith them and so on. And they told me, so I could build on what they said. So, we had a nice momenttogether [. . .] just to sit together and talk a little . . . yes, but I thought about it. It’s not very long moments withthe small ones, but still you achieve a lot in just a few minutes. And then they continued to build bythemselves, they were very satisfied. When I saw them, I thought that I would try to get involved in theirplaying and reflect together with them, but you don’t get invited every time so you have to take theopportunity if they want to. (Teacher K)

EARLY YEARS 11

shows that the immediate emotional experience of just being part of children’s playmakes the situational encounter mutually valuable, according to the professional.

The last story is about a professional and a boy who got to know each other better ina leisure-time centre one early morning when they were alone and found time to reada book together. The story stresses the importance of finding moments of calm in whichto enjoy valuable encounters based on mutual respect, especially with children who havespecial needs.

The claim that this encounter was based on mutual respect is constructed in the twoevaluative statements: ‘that became a good start to the day for him’ and: ‘It was a calm startfor both him and forme, and I got to knowhim a little better’. Once again, time stands out asan important narrative resource (Mishler 2006). The explicit description of the early morninghours when they found time for a genuine encounter is contrasted with the implicitassumption that the rest of the ‘ordinary school day’ is somewhat chaotic from the boy’spoint of view. The value in this case could be linked to an intrinsic rationale concerning theimportance of protecting pupils with special needs from the sometimes-chaotic situation inclassrooms. Furthermore, the value of seeing and being seen by another person is a generalone. We interpret this situation as personal and emotional; it is an act of humanity, not onlyan act performed by a professional. This might even be a glimpse of the relational nature ofbeing a professional, to have the sensitive notion of the needs of someone else and thedesire to assist in that.

Discussion

The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of how professionals talk aboutethics in practice, and the values they address in narratives about everyday encounterswith children. We did not notice any mental or moral despair of the kind described bySantoro (2016), but instead we found three qualitatively different sets of stories, orthemes, in terms of who is the focus of the story, who is the person who is supposed tovalue the encounter. In some stories, it is the professional, in others it is a child who,according to the professional, valued the encounter, and additionally there were storiesclaiming that the encounter was valued by both the child and the professional. In linewith other research that emphasises the situatedness of caring (Noddings 2012), and anempirical ethic (what happens in practice) (Afdal 2014), we argue that these differencesshould be understood as a matter of what actually happens between the professional and

Box 8Yes, the first meeting I’ve selected was an early morning when I was opening [the school]. The first child whoarrived, he’s always very early, right after 6 o’clock. And this is a pupil who’s involved in a lot of stuff duringthe ordinary school day. He has some special needs and so on. Yes, and then, this particular morning he wasalone before any other children came. And we were sitting and reading a tale about Lasse-Majas detectiveagency and we found time to read several chapters and so, yes, that became a good start to the day for him. Itwas calm and nice and we found time to talk about a lot of things with each other. It was a calm start for bothhim and for me, and I got to know him a little better. I’ve known him since preschool class and now he’s in firstgrade. (Teacher A)

12 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

the child in the different situations. Acknowledging the relational aspect of teaching(Dewey 1916), these findings add nuances to our understanding of how the professionalsnot only ascribe intrinsic and extrinsic values to the encounters, but also include ideas ofwhat the children are assumed to appreciate. For example, even though the boy wholearned how to write was working with an extrinsic goal, the professional claimed that itwas genuinely important for him to catch a glimpse of his own learning. Or, as in the storyabout the professional who was invited to join in the children’s play, the intrinsic value ofhumility was sanctioned by a claim that the children actually appreciated the adult’sintervention. Obviously, the introduction of new curricula and demands for documenta-tion and accountability have influenced the conditions under which professionals work(Löfgren 2016).What is valued, however, is a delicate mixture of current educationalnorms, learning goals, personal preferences, and beliefs about what the ‘other’ (thechild) thinks is valuable. Furthermore, personal standpoints and emotions, as well asmore general ethical principles and codes, provide some guidelines for what professionalsvalue, or should value, in their encounters with children (Colnerud 2017; Taggart 2011). Inshort, professionals are dealing with several intrinsic and extrinsic rationales aboutteaching, learning and care simultaneously when they work, and it is important to addressthe complexity of how they do this if we want to understand the values at stake inprofessionals’ talk about ethics in practice.

The analysis of the professionals’ stories also reveals that many of the encounters theyvalued took place in ‘in-between spaces’, and that these spaces are sought out and foundby both the professionals and the children. Typically, these spaces appear, or are shaped,in situations where the child is moving from one location or activity to another and anencounter with a professional takes place more or less incidentally. One child is arrivingfrom a tense meeting with medical care, another is on the way from lunch and a thirdhappens to arrive earlier than the others at the leisure-time centre. Such spaces allowthem to meet one on one in private to establish a relationship or share somethingmeaningful. Calm and undisturbed situations appear to be fertile soil for valuableencounters. We also noticed that many encounters take place in situations where childrenare playing, eating or getting dressed; i.e., not during planned activities. A professionalethic of care is thus not something that one can necessarily plan, but rather somethingthat emerges through an increased awareness of the possibilities of the ‘in-between’. Byhighlighting this finding, we wish to encourage professionals to stand strong in thesetimes when activities are tending to become more regulated and planned in advance. Animplication of this finding is that those responsible for planning activities in ECE shouldacknowledge that valuable encounters take time and demand attentiveness from theprofessionals, and therefore ensure that time and space for spontaneous meetings areprovided.

Finally, and in line with Dewey (1916, 1934), we argue that the findings of this studyshow that a few minutes of reflection on such a mundane thing as an encounter witha child in ECE allows professionals to develop their professional virtues. More specifically,we wish to focus on the role of emotions in the stories and how these emotions relate towhat is considered valuable when reflecting upon them. In line with Taggart (2011), weconsider the emotions involved in professionals’ encounters with children to be centralfor the early years teaching profession, and an aspect that should not be dismissed ordiminished. Following the theories of Nussbaum, emotions are rational because they are

EARLY YEARS 13

situated, and in that sense a professional’s immediate responses to a situation areprofessional rather than personal, as argued in previous research (Colnerud 2006).Based on our analysis, we further argue that there is no strict dividing line betweenaspects that have previously been described as either personal or professional whenworking as a professional in early years educational practice. Rather, several of the storiessuggest that, in order to be professional, one must trust and rely upon one’s immediate(personal) emotional responses in these spontaneous situations (see Figure 1). For exam-ple, the story about the happy girl coming back from the medical examination, illustratehow the professional used her emotional sensitivity to identify a child in need of atten-tion. The narrative approach in this study enables the professionals to reflect upon theemotions involved in their experiences of encounters with children, and allows us todescribe how emotions are involved in the more reflective evaluation of their experiencesof meeting children. The professionals use emotionally value-laden words like ‘appreci-ate’, ‘calm and nice’, ‘comforting’, ‘pleased’ and ‘satisfied’ when giving their stories anevaluative point that supports their claims that these encounters were valuable. Hence,they are moving away from the immediate and spontaneous and reflecting upon theirexperiences. The narrative activity thus involves a cogni-emotional reflection that servesas a way to make sense of how each encounter was valuable in relation to a broadercontext. This is illustrated by the two arrows in Figure 1. From an ECE practitioner’sperspective, the study has implications for how narrative reflection might shed newlight on what makes an everyday situation, such as an encounter with a child, intoa valuable experience. Being professional, we argue, means to trust and reflect uponone’s emotions in everyday spontaneous individual encounters with children. This, weargue, increases the likelihood that encounters will become reciprocally valuable for bothprofessionals and children. In line with Taggart (2011), we think reflections upon the roleof the emotions involved in professionals’ work and reconceptualisations of practiceshould be acknowledged as a sustainable element of professional work.

Concluding remarks

In this article, we have argued that several studies on ECE, including some of our own,have tended to address teaching, learning and caring as separate entities. Here, finally, weargue that the findings presented in this article illustrate that no particular rationale oragenda is privileged in the professionals’ talk about the situated encounters they claim tobe valuable. We think this is important to remember when researchers express andaddress their research interests in future. Perhaps, we suggest, future research canacknowledge to a greater extent the situated and cogni-emotional character of ECEprofessionals’ work, and hence come closer to, and become even more relevant for, theprofessionals and children who actually meet in ECE contexts.

Notes

1. In 2018, the National Agency of Education changed the formal title ‘leisure-time centres’ inthe curriculum to “School-age educare”. For this article, however, we use the term ‘leisure-time centre’. https://www.skolverket.se/andra-sprak-other-languages/english-engelska[retrieved 2020-01-17].

14 H. LÖFGREN AND A. MANNI

2. In Swedish ECE, in contrast to compulsory schooling, they do not measure learning outcomesfor individual children and the national curriculum describes a holistic approach which statesthat “care, development and learning should be treated as a whole” (LpFö, 2018, 7). https://www.skolverket.se/getFile?file=4049 [retrieved 2020-01-17].

3. http://socrative.com [retrieved 2020-01-17].

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participating professionals in this study who shared their stories ofvaluable encounters in their practice with young children. Without you, this article would not havebeen possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Håkan Löfgren http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7420-0801Annika Manni http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4388-7970

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