(Press-News.org) Montreal, September 15, 2015 -- With the federal election around the corner, child care has become a major ballot issue. While every party has its own idea of how best to offset the costs of raising children, no one is looking at how we perceive and value those who provide the education and care.
Concordia researcher Sandra Chang-Kredl wants that to change. In a paper recently published in the Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, she writes that "invariably, the focus of the debate is on the children's needs, the parents' needs and society's needs. The educator is rarely mentioned."
Her study calls for a rethinking -- and revaluing -- of the work being done by child-care educators in order to generate social change.
"There's a perception in society that the work of early childhood educators is low-skilled labour that doesn't require serious education or commensurate pay in Canada," says Chang-Kredl, an assistant professor in Concordia's Department of Education, and a former early childhood educator herself,
"I think there are two issues," says Chang-Kredl. "First, our society doesn't really value the work of teachers in general -- look at the situation with public school teachers in Quebec. This devaluation gets amplified in early childhood education. There is this flawed perception of education as transmission: 'if you can read, you can teach English; if you can tie your shoes, you can teach preschool'. But there's much more to teaching than subject knowledge."
The other issue is gender: 98 per cent of early childhood educators are women. We confuse the work of educators with the work of mothers, Chang-Kredl says.
"However, parenting is considered an honourable pursuit and debates around child-care focus on supporting parents. Yet, we're comfortable believing that the women who care for children outside the home shouldn't expect status or adequate compensation." Why is this?
It's hard to make sense of directly, explains Chang-Kredl. "Some social beliefs can only be accessed indirectly, such as through popular narratives."
She points to the children's film Coraline as an example. Ten-year-old Coraline has a mother and, it turns out, an Other Mother. Her mother is overworked and dull; her Other Mother is nurturing and enchanting.
"We're okay with this," she says."But as soon as Other Mother expects something in return, that expectation becomes a nightmare and she is transformed into a monster. The narrative relies on the audience wanting Other Mother destroyed in order to return to the way things are 'supposed to be'."
According to Chang-Kredl, "it's good story telling, but it reinforces a condition that works against the women who care for children. They're expected to do this out of love, selflessly, with no regard for themselves."
We need to construct a new identity for the child-care educator, she insists. That's already starting at Concordia, where a BA in Early Childhood and Elementary Education focuses on a professional career working with the youngest children.
"It's programs like these that need to become the norm for early childhood educators. Improved educational standards could mean improved pay as well as improved social standing for the thousands of people -- mostly women -- working in early childhood education in Canada."
But for this to become the standard, Chang-Kredl contends that we need to also be aware of our participation in undervaluing women in caring positions.
INFORMATION:
Related links:
Cited study in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10304312.2015.1025367#.VfGmGWRVhBc
Department of Education
http://doe.concordia.ca/
Sandra Chang-Kredl
http://doe.concordia.ca/faculty-and-research/Chang-Kredl_S.php
Concordia's BA in Early Childhood and Elementary Education
http://www.concordia.ca/academics/undergraduate/early-childhood-elementary-education.html
Media contact:
Cléa Desjardins
Senior advisor, media relations
University Communications Services
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Email: clea.desjardins@concordia.ca
Web: http://www.concordia.ca/now/media-relations
Twitter: @CleaDesjardins
DURHAM, N.C. -- Energy companies used nearly 250 billion gallons of water to extract unconventional shale gas and oil from hydraulically fractured wells in the United States between 2005 and 2014, a new Duke University study finds.
During the same period, the fracked wells generated about 210 billion gallons of wastewater.
Large though those numbers seem, the study calculates that the water used in fracking makes up less than 1 percent of total industrial water use nationwide.
While fracking an unconventional shale gas or oil well takes much more water than drilling ...
In what is believed to be the largest, most detailed study of its kind in the United States, scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere have confirmed that tiny chemical particles in the air we breathe are linked to an overall increase in risk of death.
The researchers say this kind of air pollution involves particles so small they are invisible to the human eye (at less than one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter, or no more than 2.5 micrometers across).
In a report on the findings, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives online Sept. ...
Fetuses with enlarged ventricles--the fluid-filled cavities inside the brain--may be less likely than other fetuses to benefit from surgery in the womb to treat spina bifida, according to a study co-authored by researchers at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco.
The researchers found that fetuses with enlarged ventricles were more likely to require a second surgery to relieve a life-threatening build-up of pressure within the brain. Given the risks that fetal surgery poses for mother and newborn, the findings indicate that in these cases, it may be better ...
Sydney, Australia -- Creating futuristic, next generation materials called 'metallic glass' that are ultra-strong and ultra-flexible will become easier and cheaper, based on UNSW Australia research that can predict for the first time which combinations of metals will best form these useful materials.
Just like something from science fiction - think of the Liquid-Metal Man robot assassin (T-1000) in the Terminator films - these materials behave more like glass or plastic than metal.
While still being metals, they become as malleable as chewing gum when heated and can ...
BERKELEY -- A new study by University of California, Berkeley, researchers establishes for the first time a link between infection with the bovine leukemia virus and human breast cancer.
In the study, published this month in the journal PLOS ONE and available online, researchers analyzed breast tissue from 239 women, comparing samples from women who had breast cancer with women who had no history of the disease for the presence of bovine leukemia virus (BLV). They found that 59 percent of breast cancer samples had evidence of exposure to BLV, as determined by the presence ...
Planning conservation actions requires up-to-date information on
Biodiversity is diminishing at unprecedented rates, and quick decisions are needed in what and where to protect.
"The decisions should be based on comprehensive information, but scientists do not have enough resources to collect more data and effectively monitor all species and habitats that need protection. As human are the main driving force of global change, conservation also needs information on human presence and behaviour" says Enrico Di Minin, a researcher in conservation science at the Department ...
A new study has found increasing support in the United States and Canada for smokefree laws for outdoor areas, especially in playgrounds and school grounds.
The collaborative study between the University of Otago, New Zealand and University of Alberta, Canada, provides new and some unexpected insights for health promotion in North America. A key finding is that most residents welcome smokefree laws. Support was strongest for smokefree playgrounds and school grounds, but there was also majority support for a range of other smokefree areas.
University of Otago, Wellington ...
Highly diluted acetic acid, an active ingredient of household vinegar, has been shown to be an effective alternative agent to prevent infection and kill bacteria found in burn wounds.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) investigated the antibacterial activity of acetic acid against key burn wound colonising organisms growing both planktonically and as biofilms.
Burns are a common traumatic injury and prone to becoming infected due to loss ...
On Sept. 13, 2015, as NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, kept up its constant watch on the sun, its view was photobombed not once, but twice. Just as the moon came into SDO's field of view on a path to cross the sun, Earth entered the picture, blocking SDO's view completely. When SDO's view of the sun emerged from Earth's shadow, the moon was just completing its journey across the sun's face.
Though SDO sees dozens of Earth eclipses and several lunar transits each year, this is the first time ever that the two have coincided. This alignment of the sun, moon and ...
New research from the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories shows that a more acidic ocean can weaken the protective shell of a delicate alga. The findings, published Sept. 9 in the journal Biology Letters, come at a time when global climate change may increase ocean acidification.
The creature in question is Acetabularia acetabulum, commonly called the mermaid's wineglass. Reaching a height of just a few inches, this single-celled alga lives on shallow seafloors, where sunlight can still filter down for photosynthesis. Like many marine creatures, the ...
