Early years teacher status trainees' placement experiences: a creative interpretative phenomenological analysis

Trainees on the Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS) Graduate Employed Pathway are graduate practitioners working in the school or Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI) sectors of early years services. On this one-year pathway, trainees undertake a placement in the alternate and unfamiliar sector to complement their workplace practice. There is little published research on teachers’ lived experience of placement in early years services with children aged between 0-5 years. This longitudinal study sought to address gaps in the research literature by focussing on the placement experience for EYTS trainees using a novel approach of combining Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) with creative methods and semi-structured interviews. Five trainees represented their lived experience through multi-dimensional models using Lego and playdough. I discuss my findings in relation to two worlds, a world of learning and development that promotes a predominantly relationship-based pedagogy, partially overlapping with a world of schooling that promotes a predominantly readiness-based pedagogy. The trainees’ perceptions of commonalities and differences pertaining to enactments of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (DfE 2014) suggest that these two distinct worlds exist, despite a single statutory framework, indicating that the historical split in early years services in England continues today. The findings suggest a dichotomy of professional identity for EYTS trainees that rests on the different teaching cultures of each world. This dichotomy troubles the current policy concept of a single graduate practitioner successfully teaching across the different worlds. The study has implications for professional practice in the field of early years, specifically for the preparation and support of EYTS trainees undertaking placements. Wider implications include the need for greater clarity and guidance in early years policy.