In July 2022, we published a BERA report on ethnicity and the early years (EY) workforce in maintained nursery schools in England (Sakr et al., 2022). We offered quantitative research based on a sample of 95 maintained nursery schools, which suggested that ethnic diversity in the workforce was not representative of the children and families served by nursery schools, and this was particularly the case when we looked at leaders in the sector.
This led to an interview study with 14 EY nursery school headteachers to discuss the findings from the quantitative research and explore the lived experiences of ethnicity among leaders in the sector. Based on prior participation in the quantitative research, participants were invited to participate in our qualitative study.
In this blog post, we explore how doing this research has challenged us as researchers and required that we bring a reflexive lens to the process. We consider our affective responses to the narratives shared by participants and how these have been shaped by our own individual identities and experiences. We suggest that the work of bell hooks (1994) on vulnerability may be helpful in advancing how we apply reflexivity in research such as this.
Hearing about leaders’ experiences within the early years sector has been deeply emotional. We have heard from racially minoritised leaders who feel constantly under surveillance, having to prove themselves over and over again and subject to prejudice.
