Time to get down to business? The responses of early years practitioners to entrepreneurial approaches to professionalism

In this article theories of the gendered nature of new managerialism are drawn upon to examine the economic rationale behind educational reform (Trow, 1994) and the marketization and economization (Ozga, 2000) of early years education and childcare services. The author concentrates on the policy attention that the early years and childcare sector has attracted from the New Labour Government since 1998, and the implications of this attention. Through an analysis of the views and experiences of practitioners at the grassroots of early education and childcare it is argued that the application of business approaches is unhelpful and inappropriate. The evidence suggests that the top-down application of a specific policy designed to emphasize and promote new managerialist entrepreneurialism was unwelcome to an overwhelmingly resistant, almost exclusively female, group of practitioners. In conclusion, it is argued that whilst practitioners are committed to heightening their professionalism, the most appropriate means of realizing this is not through a business approach, but rather one which develops and nurtures practitioners’ preferred feminized ways of operating, along collaborative lines with an appreciation of the emotional investment and personal sacrifices they make.