Learning to care for children: training, and the acquisition of a 'vocational habitus'.

The training of childcare practitioners is a key part of the Government's plans for improving and extending childcare for young children (with a particular focus here on the under-fives). However, little is known about the experience of such training. This research will focus upon the processes by which students on childcare courses acquire, interpret and inhabit a 'vocational habitus' (Colley 2006, Colley et al. 2003). We will focus on two specific issues: first, the processes of becoming a 'professional' and what that means for the values, practices and sense of identity of the students, and second, the students' understandings and enactments of two sets of relationships, those with children and those with parents, the conduct of which, we suggest, lie at the core of the practitioner's vocational habitus. This qualitative study will involve interviews with two different types of students (school leavers and those already working in childcare) in two Further Education colleges within Greater London.

托育从业者培训是政府改善和扩展幼儿托育服务计划的核心组成部分（本文尤其聚焦五岁以下儿童群体）。然而，目前关于此类培训的实际体验知之甚少。本研究将聚焦托育专业学生习得、阐释并内化“职业惯习（vocational habitus）”的过程（Colley, 2006；Colley等，2003）。本研究将围绕两个具体问题展开：其一，学生向“专业人士”转变的过程，及其对学生价值观、实践行为与身份认同的意义；其二，学生对两类关系（与儿童的关系及与家长的关系）的理解与践行——我们认为，这些关系的处理是托育从业者职业惯习的核心所在。本质性研究将对大伦敦地区两所继续教育学院的两类学生（应届毕业生与已从事托育工作的人员）开展访谈。