ABSTRACT
This chapters offers a multi-pronged perspective to understanding why early childhood teachers’ authority over classroom matters is not more closely aligned with the potential reach of their professional expertise, despite the clear risks and affronts to young children and their families when this is not the case. The goal is to confront attempts by external agents and policy makers, as well as long-standing social biases, to override early childhood teachers’ professional authority, defined here as command over pedagogical decisions by virtue of education, credentials, and experience (both personal and cultural). The target of this effort is two-fold: First the historical and still ongoing debate over “mother-care” vs. “other-care” in early childhood education is examined in light of the ultimate need for the early childhood workforce to embody professionally-informed, responsive caretaking and educating roles simultaneously. This perspective exposes the second half of the problem, which is the question of who decides what early childhood teachers do or teach and under what conditions. Perspectives on how teachers can push back against noxious forces that dominate practice are also considered.
