We all prefer it when things run smoothly. It’s a great feeling when everyone is getting along and feeling like part of a team that’s pulling in the same direction and supporting each other. In reality all of us disagree with decisions made and approaches used in our setting at times – especially given the intensity of working in an early years environment. When it happens, we can feel very uncomfortable, concerned about how to raise the issue, or worried about the response we will receive. This can lead to important things not being voiced and discussed.
Professional challenge provides a way to have important discussions in a productive manner and it’s essential if we are to create self-improving and forward-thinking provision. The clue is in the phrase – as long as we are professional in the way that we talk about and reflect on concerns, there is no need for anyone to feel offended or upset. It recognises that we’re involved in a shared, professional endeavour. It means leaders have to acknowledge they’re not perfect and to be open to new learning and thought provocations.
When it comes to ‘inclusion’, professional challenge is essential. If we feel unconformable about something, then it’s important that we communicate this to the people who need to know. It might be that we feel the way a child’s distress is being managed doesn’t ‘sit right’. Or it could be that we are aware of a lack of representation in our resources and books. Or maybe we feel a child’s sensory sensitivities are being ignored.
We’ve explored professional challenge in our toolkit The Inclusive Early Years Educator, and it’s been an opportunity to share the approaches that have been taken in Doncaster. Professional challenge underpins how the local authority (LA) works with early years providers.
The LA use a range of models and tools, often developed by staff members, to support professional challenge. A good example is the Inclusive Conversations meeting approach which uses aspects of the SEND Code of Practice as its starting point. Support and challenge are central to the meeting prompting reflection and shared opportunity to:
· Identify a provider’s strengths around inclusive practice
· Discuss where adjustments need to be considered
· Plan how to improve inclusive practice
The Inclusive Conversations toolkit is used termly with providers helping it to become an embedded process encouraging continual reflection and improvement. The regular contact between providers and the LA’s Area SENCos and EY Inclusion Officers has also helped to increase trust.
In order to enable a culture of professional challenge, it is essential that leaders actively encourage and welcome the ideas and opinions of those in their team. Educators should feel empowered to make suggestions on existing practices. Leaders need to actively listen and respond – not everything needs to be actioned but it must be heard and acknowledged. It can be challenging for leaders to receive feedback and it’s important they ‘leave their ego at the door’ and are curious, rather than defensive. Empathising with the person providing feedback focusing on their wellbeing is important. Appreciating how someone’s lived experience might inform their views and why they might have a different viewpoint are also valuable to consider.
Returning to Doncaster, the LA has spent time reflecting on practice to develop more collaborative ways to foster a shared collective culture. This has helped with short term and longer-term improvements to practice. For instance, where a provider was experiencing increasing numbers of children showing dysregulation, the Inclusive Conversation meeting approach helped to put in place a range of CPD. This included immediate training for educators on self-regulation and co-regulation, and longer-term plans to implement changes and to evaluate their impact.
Selecting your language carefully in professional challenge is also important. For instance, the LA educational psychologist uses an approach called ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ which uses positive language to provide a framework for discussing and making changes to practice:
· Discovery - identifying the best of what is already happening
· Dream – considering what could be
· Design – understanding what should be the ideal
· Destiny - adjusting and doing
The framework has helped colleagues in the LA in a number of ways, for example to discuss with a setting about how they can foster a neurodiversity affirming ethos. The positive language used in the framework enabled this to be seen as a collective journey and facilitated a shared, professional dialogue that provided space for challenge and support. As a result, there was buy in from everyone at the setting, demonstrating that organisational improvement only happens when a shared culture for positive change is developed.
A culture of professional challenge enables everyone to feel safe to act on the things that concern them or ‘don’t feel quite right’. Although we have seen examples of professional challenge working effectively at a team level this has its limitations in creating a truly inclusive environment. Instead, leaders need to be proactive in encouraging professional challenge and be open to it themselves. If they walk the talk and model the behaviours they want everyone to adopt it can have a real impact.
Ann Lowe is an early years inclusion officer at Doncaster Council and Stephen Kilgour is education adviser at Tapestry. They have written a book together and collaborated on the Reflections Toolkit which can be accessed for free: https://tapestry.info/reflection-toolkit/
