Professional disagreement in relationcentered work

Abstract

The article focuses on what is arguably an important aspect of relations between colleagues in childcare institutions: professional disagreement. The article is based on a quantitative survey of attitudes using vignette methodology combined with qualitative interviews, both individual and focus group interviews. In the article it is argued that professional disagreement can potentially promote professional development, since the different views of colleagues can challenge habits and assumptions and thus lead to a more reflective practice. In the light of this, emotional barriers to articulating professional disagreement in pedagogical work are discussed. It is shown that disagreement among colleagues in relationcentered work can be especially difficult to articulate, since professional criticism may be difficult to separate from a personal criticism, and since pedagogues are aware that professional criticism may be difficult to receive. It is emphasized that work in small groups with a common professional identity pose an obvious risk for the development of unidirectional group processes, groupthink, where disagreement is concealed and pressure towards agreement arises. Furthermore, the expectations concerning agreement with colleagues among pedagogues are illuminated, and the ideals of agreement are discussed. Concerning the ideals of agreement, it is argued that in order to benefit constructively from professional disagreement it may be necessary to abandon ideals of consensus and to appreciate disagreement as an unavoidable and potentially rewarding aspect of pedagogical work. Finally, the discussion of articulation of professional disagreement is linked to a discussion of meaningfulness in relation to work, and it is argued, that an important contribution to the experience of meaningfulness may be, that pedagogues feel that they are part of a productive professional environment.