What is needed is a cryptographer: Baroque conceptualizations of professionalism

Recently, the concepts of profession and professionalism have gained a stronger position in the Norwegian field of early childhood education. Where once kindergarten teachers were understood to be performing work as an occupation, it has become more common to conceptualize their work within a theoretical framework relying on the sociology of professions. One might say it has become a conceptual habit – both unfolding possibilities for the field to claim territories and at the same time plying the field into a certain vocabulary. This article emerges from a doctoral study carried out as empirical–philosophical explorations of the concept of professionalism in collaboration with kindergarten teachers, thus adding another fold to the reconceptualization of professionalism. By dramatizing ( Deleuze, 2004 ) the concept of professionalism, the study endeavours creative conceptual innovation. This is done by loosening the concept of professionalism from the above-mentioned conceptual structures to connect it with baroque points of view. By putting to work the baroque fold, the article suggests a move away from a landscape that relates professionalism to simplicity and clear identifications towards complexities. More concretely, by bringing the concept of professionalism into the underground of the dark crypts where forces of resistance are located, the article proposes professionalism in early childhood education as dim and obscure, and in need of a cryptographer.