Narratives of practice and experience

As discussed earlier, it is often claimed either that teachers are technicians or that ‘teaching is a personal activity’ (Nias 1989) and so research into professional practice is either viewed in an overly simplistic way or is shrouded in the mystery of personality. Exposing, laying bare, and examining the values, intentions and ideologies of teachers working with young children, and particularly those teachers who make claims for complexity in their practice, are necessary to help to understand the impulses that drive particular ways of working with children, specifically ways of collaborating and co-constructing in play. Evaluating practice in this way fulfils the expectation that a ‘responsible professional decision depends in a large part on the quality of personal deliberation and reflection’ (Carr 2000: 24). In Carr’s judgement, and in his consideration of professional values and ethics, he claims that teachers need a combination of technical skills, in which he includes communication, management and organisation, with skills of evaluation to provide a context of ‘professional judgement’ (ibid.: 111). It is with this evaluative frame at the centre that credibility can be given to claims of professional expertise. In this chapter I will introduce both teachers, Janette and Matthew, offering some brief biographical information and will present the narratives of practice and experience that have been offered in dialogue, which serve to illustrate well these evaluative skills. There are two teachers in this research study. They are experienced teachers.

Both participants are considered to be ‘successful’ practitioners as evidenced by recent Ofsted inspections and the fact of their promotions. Both of the participants appear to engage in ‘human encounters’ in their practice (McLean 1991). This kind of ‘purposive sampling’ (Robson 2002: 265) was chosen because it was clear that both teachers were engaged in the kind of practice that I was interested in researching. Data have been collected from these two nursery teachers, Janette and Matthew, who are both of a similar age.