ABSTRACT
The high status professions of medicine and law have long provided the model framing public school teachers' professional ambitions. At best, the results have been mixed. Early childhood education (ECE) has similar ambitions even as under the influence of neoliberalism, professionalism has been redefined. This chapter explores some of the challenges ECE faces in its professional quest, including diverse education provisions, low pay, and lack of a tradition of organizing. A sketch is offered of an alternative professional ideal, one that draws on the ethics of care and seeks to honor ECE teacher motivations for teaching. For the sake of children, ECE needs protecting and this requires better organization. Better childcare and greater attention to the well-being of ECE teachers must come to be seen for what they truly are: pressing women's issues. Child development associate (CDA) training is offered at various sites, including community colleges and since 2011 in high schools as part of Career and Technical Education programs.
