Towards an intersectional politics for early childhood education workforce reform

This thesis intervenes on the discourse of early childhood education (ECE) workforce reform by positing that an intersectional politics is necessary for meaningful workforce transformation. To date, certain aspects of the workforce demographics have been problematized such as its feminization and economic stratification. I argue that the workforce is also racialized and performed by an overrepresentation of working-class women of color. It is necessary to examine all of these factors and contextualize this labor within the interwoven histories of gender, racial, and economic oppressions. Without a shift towards intersectional analysis, I contend that reform discourse will remain decontextualized and depoliticized, merely prompting the replication of workplace and educational inequities. By drawing upon the literature of ethnic studies feminists, early education advocates, and feminist economists, I examine and contextualize contemporary reform discourse that limits itself to wage parity to K-12 educators writ large. I conceptualize the impact of proposed reform upon the existing workforce as well as its disparate impacts upon women. By widening the critical lens through which we can understand the disenfranchisement of the ECE workforce, I contribute to a meaningful shift and politicization of reform that centers the material realities, labors, and potentials of working-class women of color.