Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/the-name-for-our-profession-is.../5018088/
When Exchange magazine was launched 30 years ago, programs serving young children were either called day care centers (full day) or nursery schools (part day). Over the years as early childhood professionals recognized that all services for preschool children provide a combination of caring, education, and development, the names of programs, and the names people applied to our profession, started to evolve. Terms like child care, child development, early childhood services, and early learning started to be used.But three decades of changes have not moved our profession closer to agreeing on the name for our profession. To start the process of consensus building, in late January we ran on our web site an Exchange Insta-Poll, “What is the most appropriate name for our field?”. Over 2,000 readers of ExchangeEveryDay responded to this poll by telling us the one name they preferred. Two names clearly emerged as the most popular:
• Early childhood education (preferred by 31% of voters), and
• Early care and education (25%).
The gap between the first two preferred names and the next wave of choices was quite significant. Third place choice (Early childhood development) received only 8% of votes; fourth place (Early learning and development), 7%; and ...