Providing quality early childhood professional development at the intersections of power, race, gender, and dis/ability

Abstract

Quality professional development for a diverse early education and care workforce has been a priority in policy reform agendas. This issue points to the need to address quality professional development for this particular workforce, across varied childcare settings, which takes into consideration the complex experiences and intersecting social positions of these individuals. This colloquium reports on a case study of part-time childcare staff’s experiences as the researcher implemented an on-site professional development program at an area childcare center. Post-structural perspectives and Black feminist thought were utilized as epistemological and analytical tools to highlight how power discourse and the intersecting subject positions (gender, race, and dis/ability) of particular participants influenced both the implementation of and access to quality professional development within the given context.