Industry … it is a word I have heard spoken in and about early childhood education and care (ECEC) since I first began working in ECEC centres 20 years ago. I have never liked it (to the point of visibly cringing mid-way through a conversation if I hear it). Back then, I couldn’t explain why. I didn’t know; I just knew that I didn’t want to accept I was a part of an ‘industry’.
Politicians often use the word to describe us, as do journalists and social commentators. Worst of all, early childhood educators say it most often when referring to themselves as a collective group. All these years later, I still haven’t accepted the word and I still refuse to identify my work as part of an industry. But now I can articulate why. Industry, by definition, is something that manufactures duplicate products. Learning is not a product. Children are not products, and we do a major disservice to the rights of children and to the professional and skilled work of our educators if we view them this way. If early childhood educators want to be valued and recognised for their worth to children, families and communities around Australia, we all need to stop using this word.
Our work is clearly identified (and valued) by our current federal government for its affordability and accessibility and as part of the wider economic market to support workforce participation. Ironically, in the eyes of the government, we are an industry, even though industries operate ‘according to market rules’ and should not receive government funding or support to continue operation (Corr & Carey, 2017, p. 154). ECEC, by that definition, is a market failure and industrial workers within a failing market will never receive high levels of training, status or pay.
Of course, all the everyday ‘market rules’ have turned on their heads in our current world. In 2020, the government scrambled to keep our ‘industry’ and many others operating through considerable funding and workforce incentives. ECEC was considered alongside other childcare course online major market players, such as the airline and hospitality industries, all seen together as crucial for the long-term stability of the economy. Since then, early childhood educators have been attempting to advocate that we are not the same—that our worth is much more than the current ‘market value’—while continuing to call ourselves an industry!
If we want to succeed in changing the way politicians and society view us, we need to stop. Stop CHC40221 Certificate 4 in Education Support saying we are an industry. Refuse to accept the word when it is said by others to describe our role and our worth. The provision of education and care is not, nor should it ever be, an industry. I encourage you to find other words—for example, sector and profession, as our peak bodies refer to us—to inform others (and ourselves) about who we are as a collective and about the immeasurable value of the work we do.
What are your thoughts on this?
Acknowledgement
The catalyst in bringing my thoughts to words here was the 2017 research paper by Lara Corr and Gemma Carey.
Reference
Corr, L., & Carey, G. (2017). Investigating the institutional norms and values of the Productivity Commission: The 2011 and 2015 childcare inquiries. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 76(2), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12194