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perceived as women’s work. The result is the devaluing of what is considered the work of
women.
This experience has been well documented for other female-dominated
professions such as nursing, social work, and teaching. For early childhood education the
situation is complicated by the strong perception of child care as an extension of
mothering (Kuhn, 1999). If practitioners want to have their expertise recognized as
supportive to, but different from parenting, they must act as professionals within a sector
that does not meet the criteria for a profession.
Professionalism as distinct from professionalization is considered the ability to
plan knowledgeably and competently to make a sustained difference: to diagnose and
analyze situations, to select the most appropriate interventions, to apply them skillfully,
and to describe why they were selected (VanderVen, 1994). The definition describes the
ability of a professional to do quality work and recognizes the types of decisions early
childhood educators make several times a day (Kuhn, 1999). However, according to
Spodek (1995) early childhood teachers possess an even lower level of professionalism
than the primary school teacher as the field faces many barriers to increasing
professionalization, including the lack of a theoretical base. The relationship between
theory and practice is tenuous, with actual practice guided by each teacher’s own set of
underlying principles that may or may not include a theoretical basis.
Professionalization.
For a field to gain professional status it must actively and collectively pursue
professionalization. Fromberg (1997) identifies distinct characteristics of a profession
which include ethical performance, a high level of expertise and skill, a body of