Are we child carers or teachers?  A question which is so deep and heavily steeped in wider systems and society. Carlie Powell and Jackie Warren, from Growing Places, have been reflecting on this with their teams for a while, and want to spark a wider movement of advocacy, change and reinvention within early childhood in England by taking inspiration and insight from an international perspective. Read Carlie and Jackie’s article: Are we child carers or teachers? https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/are-we-child-carers-or-teachers/ Listen to more: If you enjoyed this episode you might also like: - Telling hopeful stories of advocacy, agency and rights in ECEC –  https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/advocacy-agency-and-rights-in-early-childhood/ - What is professional confidence? And how do we find the confidence to speak out – https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/professional-confidence-finding-the-confidence-to-speak-out/  Episode break down: 00:00 – Early years is known as the poor relation 02:50 – Early years is valued differently outside of England 04:40 – The language we use to describe ourselves 09:55 – Disparity between how teachers and nursery staff are viewed 11:40 – Can we call ourselves teachers? Do we want to be called teachers? 16:30 – We don’t have high enough quality training 17:55 – The educator role is blending into a parent/carer role 22:00 – We need to re-invent the role of the educator 24:50 – Do we ‘dumb ourselves down’? 27:30 – Articulating ourselves and shouting about the importance of our work 31:48 – Re-searchful practice… 36:20 – Early years is so much more than sending parents to work 38:00 – Assessing educators’ competence in different ways 40:30 – Let’s collectively be advocates for early years For more episodes and articles visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com