PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: LOOKING BEHIND, WITHIN, AND THEN IN FRONT.
Dr. Tina Bonnett (Ed.D, MS.ECEd., RECE, CTIC), keynote speaker at The Courage to Care with her presentation “Cultivating Secure Spaces to Probe the Complexities of Care”, has been critically reflecting on her experience at this system-wide professional learning day. Tina has kindly shared her reflections with us to further share with the community! Keep reading to dive into Tina’s reflections, and to learn how you can take on a more transformative and reflective approach to your professional learning.
In the later part of 2023, I was honoured to partake in The Courage to Care system wide professional learning day. I was invited to explore care, as it relates to children, with over 2000 early years professionals across three locations. Since this time, I have continued to reflect on this professional learning (PL) experience.
At the heart of what I continue to ponder is the pull that some of us seem to feel, when we attend PL, to find immediate answers or solutions to the complexities that accompany our pedagogical work. It can be tempting to enroll in PL with the vision to solve the ‘problems’ that we encounter in our practice, and this is an honourable goal in many cases. For instance, if we are in search of new ideas to extend sensory experiences in our playroom, or add to our self-care and wellness toolkit, professional learning may offer us strategies that we can immediately transfer into practice. There is utility in attending professional learning experiences with the aim to gain transferable solutions, and so our profession undoubtedly needs PL that sets the stage for this to unfold.
This, however, does not apply to many elements of our pedagogical work that are multidimensional and in need of a responsive approach that honours diverse peoples and communities. Topics such as care, attachment, psychological trauma, gender, equity, diversity, family engagement, cultural responsivity, and a host of other areas in the early years sphere, often do not have a one-size-fits-all or instant solution. They instead require a willingness to sit in (dis)comfort knowing that we may not always walk away from PL with prescriptive solutions. As I reflect on PL experiences that I have engaged in I recall times when I left the experience with more questions than ‘answers’, which in truth left me feeling a bit frustrated. Looking back, however, I now recognize that these were deeply meaningful experiences because instead of offering concrete solutions they provoked me to critically deconstruct and re-frame aspects of my pedagogical philosophy and practice.
What this requires, I propose, is that we venture into professional learning experiences with the understanding that they are often crafted to set the stage for an ongoing and scaffolded journey where we delve into aspects of our work that are complex and layered. In reflection of this, I wonder if we, in our early years communities, can create safe/accountable spaces to participate in professional learning with an openness to look behind and within ourselves, prior to looking at actionable solutions that lie in front of us? This, I argue, requires vulnerability, as well as the willingness to step into the younger versions of ourselves to consider how our child-self informs the philosophies that guide our work.
Care as an Example
Although there are breadth of topics that intersect with our work, for this blog I take up PL that is care focused, as an example. Specific to care, looking behind us can feel unsettling as it requires that we contemplate the caregiving relationships that apply to our own childhood. This is very important given research suggests that our own template of relationships impacts the ways in which we (dis)connect with children. Looking back also means that we act with intentionality to disrupt the notion that care always ‘feels good’. For many early childhood professionals probing their early relationships can be psychologically painful. Needed, therefore, are safe physical and emotional spaces for us to examine the (un)caring styles of our parents/caregivers and how our (un)healed hurts may influence our practice. If we have a willingness to step into this, we can use strategies (e.g., journaling, counselling, self-care) that allow healing from our own care wounds, and in turn action care in ways that are attuned and responsive.
Looking within means reflecting on and naming our position(s) about care. We can do this by bringing our experiences, biases, and power, to public spaces for exploration. Our beliefs about care are not only shaped by the learning that unfolds in our post-secondary education, but also by the (dis)advantages we encounter, culture, spirituality, and many other factors. Looking within has the potential to bring us closer to being in tune with how our lived and living experiences affect our philosophy of care, and the ways in which we enact it. It is when this has transpired that we are authentically able to suspend judgement and embrace the voices and stories of others, who may have (un)parallel care experiences and positions.
Only when we have looked behind and within ourselves are we then grounded to look in front. Necessary to this is the motivation to think about, and ‘do’, care in different ways. In our ever-changing world, that is vibrant with professional learning, there are invitations for us to re-think and re-imagine what care embodies, both as individuals with unique experiences and collectively as early years communities. As we lean into our future practice we can explore if the lanterns in Illuminating Care: The Pedagogy and Practice of Care in Early Childhood Communities (Murray, 2023) are (mis)aligned with our beliefs. We can look to Rachel Langford’s work to see how her care theories and policy positions play out in our pedagogical practice. We can also immerse ourselves in paradigms of care that are non-westernized to add to the tapestry of how we have historically thought about, and actioned, care.
Behind, Within, and in Front in Professional Learning
Looking behind, within, and in front of ourselves is no small task, especially for those who hold hurts from their past. As early years professionals we are often natural problem-solvers, and so we may need to intentionally resist the pull to participate in PL with the vision of locating quick answers to the complexities that reflect our practice. This applies to care, which is used in this blog as an example, however, likely pertains to many topics taken up in professional learning. Our work is rooted in being with humans, who are beautifully complicated. With this comes the invitation to enter into professional learning with an openness for seeds to be planted, and the understanding that they will take time and care to be harvested in ways that are responsive to unique peoples and communities..
About Dr. Tina Bonnett:
Tina Bonnett (Ed.D, MS.ECEd., RECE, CTIC) is a faculty member in the Honours Bachelor of Early Childhood Leadership (HBECL) degree program at Fanshawe College. She is an RECE, a graduate of York University’s Infant Mental Health program, and has completed a master’s degree with a focus on primary care infant/RECE dyadic attachment relationships. Tina also holds a doctoral degree from Western University. Her dissertation explored the intersection of relational leadership and infant care. Tina has earned a graduate certificate in Applied Psychology and Counselling with a specialization in psychotherapy and is trained in Emotionally-Focused Therapy, ITATM®, and the Circle of Security. Some of her research interests include attachment, trauma-informed practice, relational leadership and care discourse.
Tina mentions creating “accountable spaces” when participating in professional learning. Read more about what an accountable space is in a previous blog post, “Accountable Spaces: Transforming the Early Years into an Accountable Space”, by Liz Gannon (She/Them) and Jenn Nguyen (She/Her).
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