Ethical practice in the early years

This chapter considers how the practitioner's understanding of the child and childhood, and the purpose of early years provision inform practice. It explores how policy, pedagogy and personal values can be combined to develop an understanding of good practice through critical reflection, offering practitioner a context within which to evaluate how they support young children's learning and holistic development, and how practitioner decide what is important and ethical in their own practice. The chapter draws on literature that stresses the need for practitioners to apply and develop their own ethical stance not only to how they care for the children they work with and form relationships with, but also to their practice in supporting and assessing learning for these children. It shows that care is much more than a matter of instinct, and represents an ethical stance taken by practitioners to underpin the pedagogic choices they make when supporting children's learning.