Reflexivity in early childhood education: Reflections on interactions

Abstract

Pedagogical reflexivity is a central tenet of early childhood education. Yet understanding of the concept and its focus on the intensive and multi-perspectival examination of one’s own biographical development is elusive. So too is the application of pedagogical reflexivity to efforts to penetrate the logics and demarcation tendencies of the fields of action and social and organizational frameworks such as values and norms. Although progressive professionalization and academization go hand in hand with in-depth debates about the importance of pedagogical reflexivity, questions on how to develop reflexivity in the field remain mostly unanswered. This article is based on a literature search and document analysis that critically questions the disciplinary contexts of pedagogical reflexivity. It shows the extent to which reflection is to be understood as knowledge work, and how reflexivity and professionalization interact with each other.