Critical reflections on care and dyadic relationships in a toddler group

Authors explore role and status of care in a toddler classroom and ways dyadic relationships between children and their educator mirror care processes. Specifically, they investigated the care, and the characteristics of the dyadic relationships established by the educators with the children, with the aim to understand the values of care being played out in the practices that sustained them and their role in the development of the children's emancipation, here understood as the process of growing in autonomy and power over their lives. The case study was conducted in a class of children aged two to three years old. Class was part of a nursery school located in the Greek municipality of Ioannina. Data was collected through non-participant observation, using field notes. Results have revealed that care experiences offered by early childhood educators to toddlers represent important contexts for children´s early affective and autonomy development. Educators become a figure of subsidiary secure attachment, particularly during stressful situations and these care experiences. The dyads established between the child and the educator in care situations strengthen safe attachments if the adult respects the children´s bodies, rhythms, necessities, and interests. These safe relationships benefit all children, including those who experience social problems at home. Children could develop negative expectations and fear about interpersonal relationships and conflictive behaviors of all kinds if established relationships with them are hostile. Results indicate that secure attachments are formed only when educators empower children. In that sense, results highlight that education and care are strongly interrelated.