Early Childhood Education as an Evolving ‘Community of Practice’ or as Lived ‘Social Reproduction’: Researching the ‘taken-for-granted’

Early childhood education within many English-speaking countries has evolved routines, practices, rituals, artefacts, symbols, conventions, stories and histories. In effect, practices have become traditions that have been named and reified, evolving a specialist discourse. What has become valued within the profession of early childhood education is essentially a Western view of childhood. Documents abound with statements on what is constituted as ‘good’ practice or ‘quality’ practice or even ‘best’ practice. But for whom is this practice best? This article examines early childhood education from a ‘communities of practice’ perspective, drawing upon the work of Goncu, Rogoff and Wenger to shed light on the levels of agency inherent in the profession.