Reconceptualising quality interactions

Abstract

Providing 'quality interactions' has long been integral to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practice. Whilst regular interaction between children and their educators is accepted as beneficial for children's academic and social 'growth', universal policy and framework documents lack the flexibility to take the values and subjectivities of the Early Childhood Practitioner (ECP) into account within this interaction. This chapter reflects on ideas of quality interaction within current scholarship and my own research. Examination of the data emphasises ECPs' perspectives, querying and challenging essentialised views outlined in policy documentation. In doing so, it aims to provoke reconceptualisation of quality interaction in ECEC settings and challenge normative ideas of the ECP, demonstrating ways that they can be 'so much more than'.