Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
A provocative ethnography of the lived experiences of infants and toddlers in day care centers.
Robin Lynn Leavitt presents in a provocative ethnography the lived experiences of infants and toddlers in day care centers. This text speaks to researchers and instructors interested in infancy, early childhood socialization, child care, and interpretive research. Leavitt's original application of multiple theoretical perspectives-interpretive, interactionist, critical, feminist, and postmodern- yields powerful insights into the problematic emotional experiences and relations between infants and their caregivers.
The day care center is described as an institution that imposes a temporal and spatial regime on the lives of infants and toddlers. Vivid descriptions illustrate how caregivers create problematic situations for the children as they exercise unyielding power in the rigid management and control of the daily routines and play of children. As Leavitt documents the experiences of our youngest children, she engages in a philosophical exploration of the meanings of emotionally responsive, empowering care in group settings. Her analysis points to the need to care for caregivers, and for caregiving to become a self-reflective activity.
"The book is quite powerful. I couldn't put it down! I read it every chance I got. I love the way it brings together several theories, real examples, and frank discussion to paint a picture of life for toddlers in child care. We have not examined the daily lives of children in care closely enough. The issues raised here are vital to healthy development." — Kimberlee Whaley, Ohio State University, Laboratory for Child and Family Studies
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Problematic Experience, Power, and Emotion
Assumptions
Methodological Specifics
Research on Infant Day Care
Summary
2. Theoretical and Philosophical Perspective
Hermeneutic, Existential Phenomenology
Symbolic Interactionism
Critical Theory
Feminism
Postmodernism
Summary
3. Power
Spatial Regime
Disciplinary Time
Caregiver Power/Children's Play
Resistance
Extractive Versus Development Power
A Day in the Life of a Toddler
Children's Place in the Social World of Day Care
Summary
4. Emotion
Objectification and Seriality
Child Care as Emotional Labor
Child Care as Alienated Labor
Unsurpassable Childhoods
Summary
5. Emotionally Responsive, Empowering Child Care
The Concept of Responsive Caregiving
The Child in Child Care
Reciprocity
Empathy
Images of Emotionally Responsive, Empowering Caregiving
The Center as a Setting for Responsive Care
Summary
6. Infant-Toddler Day Care: Review, Reflections, and Directions
Review
Reflections
Directions
Conclusion
Appendix: The Credibility of Interpretive Studies
Notes
References