Early childhood education associations and unions (ECEAUs) have the capacity to build and sustain professionalism by constituting a force in generating visions, debates, and governance mechanisms for the profession and its workforce. Conversely, the weakness of ECEAUs is symptomatic of fragility in the ECE field. ECEAUs are embedded in neoliberal global trends that disengage the ECE workforce, weakening and breaking up workforce solidarity and agency under the pressure of governments pursuing accountability, competition, and standards-based educational policies.
Understanding how ECEAUs experience this neoliberal context and what actions they enact to confront, contest, and bypass these trends to build professionalism in early childhood education is imperative. This Special Issue aims to expand the discussion on the complexities, knowledge, and horizons of ECEAUs within a neoliberal context. The call will cover associations' and unions' debates, relations, and actions, bringing up diverse understandings of their roles and challenges. We invite contributors from various countries, acknowledging the diversity of geographies, paradigms, political agendas, and methodologies to explore how professionalism builds through ECEAUs.
We welcome the submission of abstracts for proposed papers on topics and themes, including cases of achievements, legacies, and influences at different levels of building professionalism through ECEAUs, within neoliberal contexts. We will also accept comparative perspectives on ECEAU cultures, their models of collective action, pathways, agendas, and relations. Furthermore, we welcome work showing ECEAUs' influence in politics and policies of ECE professionalism and discussion on ECEAUs' participation in public decision-making.
