Bradbury, A;
Hoskins, K;
Fogarty, L;
(2021)
Policy actors in a hostile environment: the views of staff in maintained nursery schools in England.
Education 3-13
10.1080/03004279.2021.1956561.
(In press).
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Abstract
The nearly 400 maintained nursery schools in England are schools for children aged 2–4 years. They hold a unique position in offering state-funded provision for this age group, outside of a primary school environment, and are disproportionately located in areas of disadvantage [EE. 2020. Briefing Note: The Comprehensive Spending Review and Funding for Maintained Nursery Schools. Accessed 13 October 2020. https://early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/Briefing%20note%20-%20CSR%20and%20maintained%20nursery%20schools%27%20funding.pdf]. While there have been policy-based attempts to reduce the impact of social deprivation on educational outcomes, we argue that education policy has created a hostile environment for nursery schools. This arises from the national strategies on funding, ‘free hours’ for parents, and staff qualifications, alongside social policy. Based on interview data with staff and leaders in four nursery schools, the paper explores the views of these teachers and discusses them as policy actors within a precarious environment, faced with possible closure. We explore their agency as they navigate this hostile terrain and their ways of maintaining their sense of professional pride and commitment to social justice.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Policy actors in a hostile environment: the views of staff in maintained nursery schools in England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/03004279.2021.1956561 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2021.1956561a |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Nursery schools, early years, policy enactment, disadvantaged pupils, policy actors |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10132875 |
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