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Introduction

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

This unit is from our archive and it is an adapted extract from Personal Professional Development: Early Years Settings (E115) which is no longer in presentation. If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area.

In this unit you will be building on your previous study and experience of ‘working with others’. Using the notion of ‘teamwork’, you will be asked to think specifically about the values and beliefs underpinning the following three aspects of practice:

developing working relationships with other professionals;
sharing information and skills with other professionals;
working in cooperation with other professionals.

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Learning outcomes

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

By the end of this unit you should have:

examined your own practice in relation to working with other professionals in order to make your underpinning knowledge, values and beliefs explicit;
used a variety of ‘tools’ to examine the knowledge, values and beliefs underpinning your practice;
identified contradictions between your underpinning knowledge, values and beliefs and your practice;
seen where you might want to develop your practice and reconsider your underpinning values and beliefs in relation to how you work with other professionals;
identified constraints within your setting that impact on the ways in which you work with other professionals.

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1.1 Examples of positive working relationships

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

If you are a childminder or nanny, or if you work in a small-scale setting, it may seem that you have little opportunity to work with other professionals. However, many practitioners in small-scale settings do forge positive working relationships with others. Many are involved in sharing information and certainly in cooperating with other professionals. Whether you are a childminder or you work in a large organisation, what you have in common with all early years practitioners is that you do not work in isolation. Let us look at some examples.

In England, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) carries out inspections and directly observes early years practitioners in their own settings. This is certainly a part of your working with other professionals. It requires you to plan and prepare information, as well as respond to advice and acknowledge the expertise of others. It also requires you to share your practice and to evaluate what you do.
As a practitioner, you are required to adhere to such quality standards and to register for accreditation by a variety of quality assurance schemes. This is another example of professional contact, which requires you to collaborate with others.
If you are a practitioner working in a small-scale setting, you will have contact with a variety of other professionals, ranging from other childminders to staff at the library, the local playgroup, health visitors, and colleagues via the internet. Indeed, the use of the internet takes ‘developing working relationships with others’ into a new dimension. There are many websites that enable you to contact others, share information and keep up to date with childcare issues.

Training is another focus for professional collaboration. There are now many short courses available via Early Years Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs). Over the next few years, the concept of interprofessional training recommended within the English Government Green Paper Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003a) will provide another dimension to professional development.

Our approach is to use the word ‘team’ to encompass those who you work with on a day-to-day basis, not only within your setting but also in the wider context. Whether you work with other people within your setting or outside it, how you relate and work with other professionals is influenced by your attitudes towards other people and vice versa. Jillian Rodd (1994, p.87) makes the important point that: ‘The end product of teamwork is an improvement in the quality of care and education for children.’ It is therefore important for you, as an early years practitioner, to understand what ‘teamwork’ looks like in practice and to consider how working with other professionals is influenced by your underpinning values and beliefs. In the first activity, you will think about how you develop working relationships with other professionals.

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1.2 Thinking about how you work with other professionals

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Activity 1

0 hours 40 minutes

Think about other adults you interact with in your role as an early years practitioner. Draw a chart or diagrammatic representation showing:

the core team – those you work with on a daily or regular basis;
the wider team – those you come into contact with, but not necessarily on a daily basis;
your position within the team.

Now work through the following tasks, making a note of your responses.

Consider how you would describe your working relationships with the adults you have included in your chart.
Think about how you initiate and sustain contact with other professionals in a manner likely to promote trust and confidence in the relationship and the setting.
Give at least one example of how you share information and skills with other professionals.
Write down two examples of how you work cooperatively with these other professionals.
Suggest two ways in which you could improve your working relationships with other professionals.

Discussion

How you work with parents depends, to a large degree, on your underpinning views and beliefs. Similarly, how you work with other professionals largely depends on your underpinning views and beliefs – in this case, relating to teamwork.

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2.1 Thinking about values and beliefs underpinning teamwork

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

While few would contest the value of teamwork, it is important to explore how perceptions of teamwork are reflected in the actual experience of belonging to a team. In Activity 1 you identified the members of your team and you thought about your working relationships. The nature of those relationships largely depends on the extent to which you work cooperatively together. Cooperation, in turn, depends on the shared understandings within the team. This is exemplified in the following extract.

Teamwork

While some people still enter the field with the assumption that the focus of the job is on autonomous work with children, the reality of early childhood centres today is that the work of the early childhood practitioner requires effective interaction with other adults as members of a team (Stonehouse and Woodrow, 1992). When early childhood professionals talk about the staff at their centre, the word ‘team’ is often used. It is apparent that the concept of teamwork is perceived by current leaders as important for the working conditions of early childhood centres. What constitutes a team can vary from centre to centre … In long day or occasional childcare centres, the team may consist of the entire group of practitioners or of smaller groups who work together in a room or with a particular group of children. In family day care, the team may mean the coordinator, field workers, office staff and a large group of independent providers who are physically isolated from the central administration. Depending on the meaning given to the concept of team, parents may or may not be included in the broader definition. Regardless of its definition, the essence of a team is that all participants work together effectively to achieve a common goal.

(Rodd, 1994, p.87)

It is widely accepted that the idea of ‘a common goal’ is core to understanding the notion of a team. But what is a ‘common goal’ and what does it look like in your practice? Rodd suggests that:

A team is ‘a group of people cooperating with each other to work towards achieving an agreed set of aims, objectives or goals while simultaneously considering the personal needs and interests of individuals … the pursuit of a common philosophy, ideals and values; commitment to working through the issues; shared responsibility; open and honest communication and access to a support system.
(Rodd, 1994, p.88)

Activity 2

0 hours 40 minutes

The objective of this activity is:

to examine your own practice in relation to working with other professionals in order to make your underpinning values and beliefs explicit.

Now that you have read the text above, think about and make notes on the following questions.

What do you understand by the word ‘team’?
Do you have a ‘common goal’, an articulated ‘vision’, a written ‘mission statement’ or aims and objectives in your setting? What are they? Are they written down? How did they come about? Were you involved? What do they mean to you?
What understandings, values, attitudes and beliefs relating to how children learn and develop, written or unwritten, do you share with those you work with?

Discussion

In relation to working with parents, your practice is dependent on your own views as an individual. It may be that these views change as you become more experienced or as a result of your professional development. A key aspect of teamwork is the extent to which all those involved in the team have shared views, values and beliefs. If you and the other members of your team are able to articulate your views, values and beliefs then you are more likely to develop shared understandings and to be an effective team.

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2.2 Thinking about core values underpinning your work with other professionals

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Activity 3

0 hours 40 minutes

The objective of this activity is:

to examine your own practice in relation to working with parents and other professionals in order to make your views, values and beliefs explicit.

In this activity, we would like to you to think about your own views, values and beliefs in relation to working with other people using the idea of ‘ethos’. The positive ethos may be intangible in that you can sense it when you walk into a home or group setting but you cannot see it. This is because it is the ethos of your provision that reflects the shared philosophy of the team (see Activity 2).

All practitioners need to develop a set of core values to help them engage honestly with the everyday experiences of those they work with or come into contact with.

Read the list below of core values identified by Tony Jeffs and Mark Smith (1999, p.81).

Core values underpinning teamwork

Respect for persons – recognising the dignity and uniqueness of every human being, and behaving in ways that convey that respect.
The promotion of well-being – working for the welfare of all and seeking to further human flourishing.
Truth – having a commitment to teach and embrace truthfulness; being open in dialogue, to what others have to say, and confronting falsehood wherever it is found.
Democracy – believing that all human beings should enjoy the chance of self-government, or autonomy, and seeking within practice to offer opportunities for people to enjoy and exercise democratic rights.
Fairness and equality – working towards relationships that are characterised by fairness, confronting discrimination in the pursuit of promoting equality, and evaluating actions with regard to the way people are treated, the opportunities that are open to them and the rewards they receive.

Now complete the following tasks.

Write a short ‘self analysis’ to illustrate which of the core values you believe in or disagree with and why.
Provide one example from your practice that reflects the influence of each of these core values.
Talk to a colleague and note down which of your core values are shared.
Consider whether there are any other core values to add to the list in relation to working with others.

Many core values can be observed, or be seen to be lacking, in the way professionals are empowered to communicate with each other, for example in a team meeting.

A person-centred way of being in an educational situation is something one grows into. It is a set of values … placing emphasis on the dignity of the individual, the importance of personal choice, the significance of responsibility, the joy of creativity. It is a philosophy, built on a foundation of the democratic way, empowering each individual.
(Rogers, 1983, p.95)

The framework in the next activity provides a useful tool for examining practice in relation to working with other professionals and allows us to make comparisons between settings. As Rodd (1998, p.42) suggests, better relationships develop out of feelings of safety, security and trust and are characterised by openness and sharing between people.

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3.1 Using a framework to think about communication between professionals

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Activity 4

0 hours 40 minutes

The objective of this activity is:

to use a variety of tools to help you examine your practice.

Table 1: Framework for professional communication

Collaboration	Support	Manager	Educator	Learner	Listener
Each team member is actively involved and actively listening: sharing information; altering activities to achieve a common purpose; making formal links. Team members are empowered.	Mutual support within team by members. Common links. Shared identity.	Management of team – control hierarchy. Control is maintained by individual team members within areas or across the team – manage conflict.	Educating team members to participate. ‘Teaching’ of a specific aspect of team participation – instruction takes place within the team.	Passively participating by learning within the team. Some team members are passive – there to learn and gather information, not to contribute.	Passively listening to other team members – isolation from or within team. Team members are dis-empowered.

Adapted from: DfES (2003b, p.23)

Read the case studies below, and then note your answers to the questions that follow.

Case study 1: Sarah

Sarah is five and a half years old. She has been experiencing behavioural difficulties in the reception class at school. She has been referred to the school Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), who is acting as her key worker and has arranged a meeting with Sarah's parents. Sarah attends an after-school club twice a week, and for three other days she is picked up by her childminder. The childminder wishes to be involved in the meeting at school, and has suggested that the after-school club be informed about any discussions that take place. The SENCO, acting as the key worker, arranges and keeps records of all the meetings. She is the point of contact for the team involved in supporting Sarah.

Case study 2: Mark

Mark is four years old. He has difficulty communicating. He has a few words, which he sometimes uses in context. He has many difficulties resulting from obsessive behaviours, and his parents find him very difficult to manage. He was referred to the child development centre by his health visitor and the playgroup leader at the age of three, where he was assessed by a speech therapist who recognised that his difficulties were more complex than purely speech. He was referred by the speech therapist to other members of the multi-disciplinary team. He was provided with speech therapy once a week and he was referred as an urgent case to the home-visiting team. An initial visit was arranged to the home by a teacher and an educational psychologist to discuss his behavioural difficulties and his sleep problems. As he was finding playgroup difficult, he was assigned a support assistant in his playgroup for one hour each morning. However, his behaviour deteriorated and he started receiving support for the anxiety and panic he was experiencing. The educational psychologist saw him again and agreed to begin the assessment at his parents’ request.

(Adapted from Wolfendale and Wooster, 1992, pp.134–5)

Questions

How does the practice in each case study fit on the framework for communicating with other professionals shown in Table 1? Explain why you think it fits into particular categories of the framework.
Explain how the professionals in each case study collaborate together. What does this tell you about the importance they place on sharing information and skills?
Why do you think they believe the sharing of information and skills to be important?

Discussion

It is not always easy to identify where a particular description of practice fits within a framework. For example, in Case study 1, if you focus on different members of the team, you might come to different conclusions:

The childminder wants to be actively involved, sharing information and working with everyone else for a common purpose, placing this person most appropriately in the ‘Collaboration’ category.
The SENCO might be perceived as having a more ‘managerial’ model, by controlling the process and everyone else taking responsibility within their own area, placing the SENCO most appropriately in the ‘Manager’ category.
The staff in the after-school club will be informed of decisions rather than involved in the decision-making process, placing them most appropriately in the ‘Listener’ category.

In deciding how to categorise the team as a whole, it is necessary to look at all the team's members. This is not easy, and different people might come to different conclusions. However, the process of trying to categorise the team's practice will help to make explicit underlying knowledge, values and beliefs. The activity in the next subsection asks you to apply the framework for professional communication in Table 1 to your own practice.

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3.2 Using a framework to think about communication between yourself and other professionals

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Activity 5

0 hours 40 minutes

The objective of this activity is:

to use a variety of ‘tools’ to help you examine your practice.

Describe how your practice relates to the categories in the framework for professional communication presented in Table 1.

Give an example from your practice, such as a team meeting, to show professionals sharing information and skills.

Inevitably, in any setting, the way you work is dependent on constraints as well as your own underpinning knowledge, values and beliefs. Understanding those constraints is important, as the next activity illustrates.

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4.1 Thinking about constraints within your setting

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Activity 6

0 hours 40 minutes

The objectives of this activity are:

to identify constraints within your setting;
to see where you might want to change your practice (or underpinning values and beliefs).

If you are a team leader, write a description of how, given an ‘ideal’ context you would like to work with other professionals. Otherwise, imagine you are a team leader and write a description of your ideal approach to working with others. Make a note of any constraints that result in aspects of practice being less than ideal in your view. Think about the values and practices in your setting relating to teamwork. How would you like to see practice improved or changed over the next two years? You might like to record your examples in a table like the one below. Aim to include at least two examples.

Example of key issue or area of practice	Strengths	Area for development	How it could be improved and why	Values/views of good practice

Discussion

Jane, a teaching assistant, wrote the following description of her ideal approach to working with others.

I would ensure that I work collaboratively with any other professionals I come into contact with, such as the SENCO, Ofsted inspector, health visitor, speech therapist and class teacher. We would have a sharing of information, verbally and on paper, and I would ensure that they had ‘open access’ to arrange meetings with me (at times when the children were able to be supervised by another adult). My record keeping would also be a way of showing how I could become the child's key worker while they were in my setting. I would keep a log of all the documentation for the child, which would be important for their transition to another setting, or if the child has any social, emotional or educational difficulties. I would also make sure that I have policy documents to show other professionals and parents, on areas such as parent partnership. These documents would reflect practice in my setting.

Having core values and beliefs and translating them into practice is not always as straightforward as it sounds. Working as a successful team can be difficult to achieve. Empowerment of individuals is the key characteristic of successful group dynamics.

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5.1 Thinking about successful teamworking

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Activity 7

0 hours 40 minutes

The objective of this activity is:

to think about your practice in relation to working with other professionals.

Think how you would ensure that each professional in your ideal setting feels like a respected and valued member of the team. Write some brief notes on this. Remember, each member of the team comes from a different background, with a range of experiences and perhaps conflicting ideas and values of good practice in early years childcare and education settings.

Discussion

The variable nature of settings and the range of people involved means that there is no single route to successful teamwork. Certain constraints may prevent the practice reflecting the values and views of the practitioners. You may be part of a team whose members have different experiences, and there may have been little time to develop shared understandings. Team members may only share the fact that they work with young children. You may be so busy with the day-to-day business of caring for the children in your setting that there is no time set aside to make contacts with other professionals or to have informal discussions. As a result, you may only have ‘snatched time’ to develop relationships with other professionals. As when thinking about working with parents, time is a key factor, and there are many competing demands for your time.

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5.2 Conclusions

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Throughout this unit, you have been thinking about your personal views on working with others. We have seen that working with parents and other professionals is an important area underpinning practice in early years settings. In the ideal setting, the sharing of skills and information, and the collaborative approach to supporting children's learning, fosters a positive learning environment in which all adults, including parents, work together for the benefit of the children in their care. However, you will have noticed that rhetoric does not always match reality.

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Next steps

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn Study Unit or find out more about this topic. Here are some suggestions:

If you wish to study formally at The Open University, you may wish to explore the courses we offer in this curriculum area:

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References

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2003a) Every Child Matters: Next Steps, London, DfES.

Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (2003b) Together from the Start: Practical Guidance for Professionals Working with Disabled Children, London, DfES.

Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. K. (1999) Informal Education, 2nd edn, Nottingham, Education Now.

Rodd, J. (1994) Leadership in Early Childhood: The Pathway to Professionalism, Buckingham, Open University Press.

Rogers, C. R. (1983) Freedom to Learn for the ‘80s (revised edn), London, Charles Merrill.

Wolfendale, S. and Wooster, J. (1992) ‘Meeting special needs in the early years’ in Pugh, G. (ed.) Contemporary Issues in the Early Years, London, Paul Chapman.

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Acknowledgements

The Open University — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:27:05 GMT

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Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit.

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Adapted from Phil_NZ. [Details correct as of 7 April 2011]

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