Background
In the process of collecting data which feeds into current partnership research, it occurred to us that there is very little information and indeed evidence of other work which aims to collect the views, opinions and thoughts of early years practitioners.
We're conscious that there's many changes happening now in the early years arena; some of these are importantly about services for children and their families but we don't think it's unfair to say that many of them affect the daily work of practitioners.
Rationale
We want to try to establish a place within academic discourse to house people’s voices; this enabling agenda collects and retains the subjective views of people in the early years sector to be documented and later heard.
Even more, we think that the changes happening are well publicised and consulted upon but the people who take part in these important discussions are often not the very people who have to implement the change. We're also conscious that many early years workers are young, recently qualified (some not) and, despite doing important work with children, are not listened to enough…also many are not HE students
There’s also some thinking about the value of oral history; if we don’t capture something (sentiments, voices, recollections) in these times of change, then these'll be lost [forever]!
Our Research Question therefore may be articulated as:
“what are the day-to-day lived experiences of being an early years practitioner?”
In reality, 100V will be many more than 100(!) and also be continuing, offering an enduring avenue for expression, perhaps web based. We aim to make it simple to use and for contributors to play a real part in it.
Andrew Sanders
7th March 2008
