Pearson, E.C. orcid.org/0000-0001-5886-9591, Rawdin, C. and Ahuja, R. (2023) A model of transformational learning for early childhood community-based workers: Sajag training for responsive caregiving. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32. pp. 598-612. ISSN 1062-1024
Abstract
A global goal for early childhood education and care is to ensure universal, “quality” provision that reaches all children. Achieving this goal requires a well-prepared workforce that is equipped to adapt to and deliver early childhood programs across the vastly diverse contexts and communities where children are growing up around the world. Yet currently there is a severe shortage of early childhood workers, particularly in “low resource” and complex communities. Evidence to support appropriate training for such workers is also lacking. In response, this paper presents findings from a case study of a large-scale training program for community-based early childhood workers in central-east India. A total of 650 community-based Village Communicators were trained to deliver a responsive caregiving package to parents of young children. Data collected over 3 months highlight how the unique contextually grounded, caring and reflexive approach to training resulted in profound personal and professional change among training participants. The findings are of significance in informing policy and practice associated with global goals for early childhood. First, they challenge the technical, programmatic approaches to training that are commonly adopted for preparing this workforce. Second, they evidence the potentially transformative, long-term impact of person-centered approaches to training that facilitate knowledge-sharing to understand local needs and attitudes. Third, they provide insight into ways in which training programs can support enhanced local relevance and effectiveness of early childhood services implemented for children and families across diverse contexts.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Community-based programs; Early childhood workforce; Globalization; Culturally-sensitive; Responsive caregiving; Relationship-based approaches; Transformational learning |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Education (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2023 16:20 |
Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2023 16:20 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02301-5 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10826-022-02301-5 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:196826 |