Emotional labor, ordinary affects and the early childhood education and care worker

Fairchild, N. and Mikuska, E. (2021) Emotional labor, ordinary affects and the early childhood education and care worker. Gender, Work & Organization, 28 (3). pp. 1177-1190. ISSN 0968-6673

[thumbnail of This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12663.This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.] Text (This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12663.This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.)
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Abstract

This paper discusses society’s lack of recognition of the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce as professionals, and its emotional impact that this deficit has on them. The concerns are that the role of the ECEC worker has been mainly conceptualised as maternal, where emotional labour is taken for granted and needing to be suppressed or harnessed as part of the caring role. This is at odds with successive government policy agenda which has focused on professionalising the workforce. In this paper we engage with qualitative data gathered from twenty-four experienced ECEC workers to explore the impact that ‘affect’ has upon them. In this respect we build on the theorisations of Massumi and Stewart, which connect affect theory with the emotional labour; we argue that affect theory offers different ways to consider how objects, spaces, material and discursive entities and bodies impact ECEC workers emotions and emotional labour.

Publication Type: Articles
Additional Information: Fairchild, N. and Mikuska, E. (2021), Emotional labour, Ordinary Affects and the Early Childhood Education and Care Worker.. Gender Work Organ. Accepted Author Manuscript. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12663
Uncontrolled Keywords: affect theory, emotional labour; ECEC work; ordinary affects, Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, Gender Studies
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1139 Early childhood education
Divisions: Academic Areas > Institute of Education, Social and Life Sciences > Childhood
Depositing User: Eva Mikuska
Date Deposited: 25 Mar 2021 08:52
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2023 01:10
URI: https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/5664

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