The Professional Project among Danish Kindergarten Teachers: Its Nature and Consequences in the Current Context

Abstract

This article describes ways in which the professionalization strategy among Danish kindergarten teachers is realised in practice by newly educated members of the occupation. It focusses on relations between gender and professionalisation and concludes that the professionalisation strategy is realised as, respectively, a female professional project and a male qualification project. The consequences of these two projects are discussed in terms of ways they seem to produce and reproduce kindergarten teachers’ work. The article is based on ethnographic observations and interviews with newly educated kindergarten teachers employed in three different pedagogic institutions: day-care (0-6 years), after-school institutions (6-10 years) and club facilities (10-18 years).