Workplace Violence in Early Childhood Settings: A Counter-Narrative

The article begins with a counter-narrative that focuses on the workplace tensions experienced by an Australian pre-school teacher. Drawing on Van Soerst & Bryant's conceptualisation of violence, the author deconstructs the counter-narrative to identify a range of forces (individual, organisational, structural-cultural) that may contribute to workplace violence in early childhood settings. The author's underlying assumption is that we need to problematise prevailing non-critical constructions of early childhood settings as exemplifying communities of care if we are to work more effectively towards realising this ideal.