Exploring Love as a Professional Practice in Early Childhood Education: A Critical Hermeneutic Study

TL;DRAbstract

This study addresses love as a professional practice in early childhood education. The practice of love is largely unspoken and takes place within a profession associated with the traditional work of women. The professional practice of love in early childhood education involves a tension between the feminist plight for equality and freedom from preconceived notions of a woman’s ‘natural’ role as caretaker, and the ever present needs of children to be loved and cared for within the predominantly female driven field of early childhood education.\nThe study is informed by a critical hermeneutic perspective and addresses love in the context of early childhood education from three perspectives: the conceptual perspective, the socio-historic perspective and the individual meaning perspective. These perspectives are explored in light of historical and current concepts of love, Foucault’s genealogical insights and additional key literature from the field of study.\nIn response to the conceptua

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