Gender and Education

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Performing the (religious) educator’s vocation.

Becoming the ‘good’ early childhood practitioner
in Chile

Ximena Poblete Núñez

To cite this article: Ximena Poblete Núñez (2018): Performing the (religious) educator’s
vocation. Becoming the ‘good’ early childhood practitioner in Chile, Gender and Education, DOI:
10.1080/09540253.2018.1554180

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2018.1554180

Published online: 09 Dec 2018.

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GENDER AND EDUCATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2018.1554180

Performing the (religious) educator’s vocation. Becoming the

‘good’ early childhood practitioner in Chile
Ximena Poblete Núñez
Psychology Department, Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In this paper, I discuss how professional identities in early childhood Received 28 November 2017
education in Chile are performatively constituted within the Accepted 16 November 2018
interplay between a religious discourse of vocation and gender.
KEYWORDS
‘Having the vocation’ has become a regime of truth that regulates Vocation; professional
and governs educators’ behaviours, motivations and relationships identity; gender;
in their workplace. By deconstructing the concept of vocation performativity; early
through a poststructuralist and feminist theory, I show the arising childhood education
tensions in this discourse, emphasising that it positions female
early childhood educators as a subject of both exploitation and
admiration. Vocation shapes early years practitioners not only as
nurturing and caring, but deeply altruist, devoted and self-
sacrificed women seeking (eternal) salvation. Exposing the
contradictory nature of this discourse, the article highlights its
tensions with the professionalization of the early years workforce.
Whilst vocation situates practitioners as good educators and
morally good women, it allows for workforce exploitation,
trapping them in hazardous working conditions.

Introduction
During the last decade, there has been exceptional interest in the professionalism of the
childcare workforce, as they are recognised as the main actors of quality in early childhood
education, or ECE (OECD 2006). Consequently, what it means to be a ‘good practitioner’
has become a major concern in public policies internationally. This has been especially rel-
evant, since the childcare workforce has been traditionally been considered the ‘Cinderella
of the educational system’ (Miller, Dalli, and Urban 2012, 3), being widely undervalued, and
childcare workers continue to work under poor conditions and receive lower salaries than
in other professions (OECD 2006).
Exploring this issue, an important array of literature has highlighted gender and class as
two relevant features of the early childhood workforce that are in tension with the notion of
professionalism and which may have a role in the precarious conditions of this occupation
(Ailwood 2007; Moreau, Osgood, and Halsall 2007; Osgood 2004, 2010; Skeggs 1997). The
gendered nature of early childhood education does not solely refer to the overwhelmingly
female composition of the workforce, but also to the type of tasks it involves, traditionally

CONTACT Ximena Poblete Núñez xpoblete@cepinfancia.cl Psychology Department, Universidad Andrés Bello,
Fernández Concha 700, Santiago, Chile
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

considered to be ‘women’s work’ (Cameron, Owen, and Moss 2001, ix). This ‘feminine’ prac-
tice assumes the inherited ‘naturalised’ abilities of women to care for others, being altruistic
and able to invest and display their own emotions in their job (Colley 2006; Nias 1996;
Osgood 2005, 2012; Skeggs 1997; Vincent and Braun 2010, 2011). In this context, the
‘good’ practitioner is depicted as a nurturing, caring, and committed woman.
Various academics have signalled that women working in childcare come mostly from a
working-class background and usually receive short and mediocre training that restricts
their opportunities for social mobility (Osgood 2005, 2012; Skeggs 1997; Vincent and
Braun 2011). Osgood (2005) stresses that gender and class are interrelated categories
that should be analysed together. Likewise, Skeggs (1997) argues that working-class
women who have failed or are marginalised in schools see caring occupations not as
much as an opportunity for social mobility, but ‘a prevention of slipping downwards’ in
terms of their economic and cultural situation (58).
Although some authors have acknowledged the importance of the gendered nature of
ECE (Osgood 2004; Vogt 2002; Harwood et al. 2013; Osgood 2010), it has also been
acknowledged that what are considered ‘feminine’ attitudes may be undermining the
social status of ECE as professionals, especially considering the classed nature of the child-
care workforce (Cameron, Owen, and Moss 2001; Colley 2006; Osgood 2005; Skeggs 1997).
Various scholars have warned about the consequences that gendered and classed dispo-
sitions imply for the professional identities and working conditions of early year prac-
titioners. Colley (2006), for instance, has explored how ‘emotional labour’ could be used
to control and exploit women’s emotions for the interest and profit of their employers
(15). Paradoxically, some authors argue that these poor conditions are not necessarily con-
sidered to be obstacles in practitioners’ professional life, but rather they are embraced and
valued as they provide them with purpose and meaning in their personal and professional
lives. For instance, Skeggs (1997), in her research about working-class women on caring
courses, emphasises respectability as a marker of class and therefore as the main aspira-
tion of these women. The author analyses how working-class women are required to
adopt personal dispositions to being recognised as respectable and good ‘caring subjects’.
These personal attitudes, such as being altruistic and selfless, or adopting the correct dress
code, are assumed to be part of the ‘culture of care’ (Nias 1996) and being willing to
endure low pay and difficult working conditions would imply they belong to this culture.
Hence, gender and class have been studied widely as two important discourses framing
the professional identities of early childhood practitioners. However, most of this research
has been conducted in Europe and English-speaking countries. Only a few studies have ana-
lysed how these notions are constructed in Latin America (Abett de la Torre Díaz 2013; Pardo
and Adlerstein 2016; Viviani 2016). This research is timely and original as it explores the dis-
courses that shape the professional identities of practitioners in Chile. In particular it dis-
cusses the notion of ‘having the vocación’ (vocation), as in the study this was highlighted
as the most relevant attribute of a ‘good educator1’. Investigation of this notion not only
unearthed gendered and classed discourses, but also revealed a religious discourse that
constructs a particular kind of ‘good’ practitioner in the early years in Chile.
This paper aims to deconstruct the notion of ‘having the vocación’ to understand how
gender is deeply entwined with religious discourses in ECE in Chile. Furthermore, it ana-
lyses the ways in which this religious discourse is still reproduced through the daily prac-
tices of early years educators in this study. By reviewing this notion, I expect to reveal how
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 3

the gender is deeply entwined with a religious discourse in Chile governing educators’
thoughts, actions and emotions and promoting the exploitation of the ECE occupation.
From this deconstruction I hope to illustrate alternatives to understand and consider edu-
cators as professionals.

Theoretical framework
Underpinned as Foucauldian, this paper understands identities as discursively constituted.
This implies a particular understanding of discourse as being productive and related to
power. Discourses are productive in the sense that they produce and operate as
‘regimes of truth’ (Foucault and Gordon 1980) governing individuals’ behaviour, thoughts,
and how are they considered in society. Power is inherent in the productive function of
discourse. It operates through discursive practices in everyday interactions that constitute
discourses and which are simultaneously constituted by it. Therefore, discourses are pro-
ductive as individuals only come to exist as subjects of the relations of power within dis-
courses (Foucault 1982).
Foucault proposes the notion of ‘disciplinary power’ as productive and formative
(Youdell 2006). Disciplinary power is not held or acquired, but exercised within ‘the inter-
play of non-egalitarian and mobile relations’ (Foucault 1990, 93–94). It governs individuals
by the use of diverse regulatory ‘technologies’ of power that make them subject to power
relations. Therefore, individuals are made subjects through technologies of power. Power
operates on subjects through everyday practices, which categorises him and ‘imposes a
law of truth on him which he must recognise and which others have to recognise in
him’ (Foucault 1990, 212). These concepts are relevant in this study as they illuminate
how discourses operate as regimes of truth in the early childhood education sector.
This provides new insights about how power operates, governing people’s actions and
thoughts and how they are positioned as particular subjects within these power networks.
Furthermore, Butler’s understanding of performativity (1997) is used here to analyse
how identity is discursively constituted. Performative refers to the ‘the discursive practice
that enacts or produces that which it names’ (Butler 2011, 13). Therefore, the subject must
be understood as produced, or enacted performatively within discourse. The performative
is derivative, as it builds on pre-existing meanings and discourses as ‘an inherited set of
voices, an echo of others who speak as the “I”’ (Butler 1997, 93). Through the continuous
reiteration of discursive practices the subject is produced, regulated, and constrained. In
the context of this study, the ‘good educator’ is such because they are so named or desig-
nated by others, and because they recognise themselves as such. A poststructuralist
approach helps to reveal the multiple aspects in the construction of professional identities
of childcare practitioners, providing the tools to display the main discourses and relations
of power that are reproduced in early years settings in Chile.

Methodology
This analysis draws from a doctoral study about the construction of professional identities
of early years practitioners in Chile. The research used a qualitative and interpretative
approach to examine discourses about being a good early childhood professional in
different ECE services in the Metropolitan region of Chile.
4 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

The data were collected during six months in 2015. A total of 23 personal interviews and
17 focus groups (FG) were conducted with practitioners, head teachers – or Principals in
the case of nurseries – practitioners’ assistants and parents from 24 nurseries and 16
pre-schools. It worth mentioning that Chilean early years workforce is divided between
professionals and assistants. The former must follow a formal initial teacher education pro-
grammes at a Higher Education institution, leading to a bachelor degree qualification. This
enables them to teach in nurseries and schools as well as work in administrative roles –
principal and head teachers- at ECE institutions. Conversely, assistants in ECE are trained
either in the last two years of compulsory school or at tertiary education institution. As
they are not qualified professionals they work either at nurseries or schools under the
supervision of professionals’ educators (Ministerio de Educación de Chile [MINEDUC]
2013).
This paper only includes the data from the 38 practitioners and 13 head teachers as
they are the only ones that hold a bachelor degree in ECE – as opposed to assistants
and parents – and therefore are the only considered as ‘professionals’ within Chilean regu-
lation, emphasising the relation between vocation and professionalism is more evident in
their case. Participants were recruited through a snowball sampling strategy in order to
represent the range of ECE settings in Chile (Emmel 2013). The criteria implied that edu-
cators and head teachers should have at least five years of work experience and be cur-
rently working at a school or nursery.
FG were chosen as a tool to provoke interaction between participants regarding the rel-
evant issues of their job and to yield shared views and difficulties (Denzin and Lincoln
2011). With the aim of forming homogeneous groups of people to facilitate in-depth dis-
cussion, the FG were conducted separately with practitioners while interviews were held
with head teachers, as their experiences differ greatly. The groups included between three
and eight participants in order to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate
and engage in in-depth discussion (Adams and Cox 2008; Denzin and Lincoln 2011).
One-to-one interviews were conducted with head teachers in order to ensure a free
and non-intimidating in-depth discussion about the apprehensions of practitioners’
work. Furthermore, interviews were conducted to gather more detailed and in-depth
data about the personal experiences of ECE practitioners in Chile (Denzin and Lincoln
2011). Field notes were taken during and after the interviews and FG, as they are relevant
tools to foster reflection about the role of the researcher, making explicit my own assump-
tions, based on which I approach this study (Creswell 2009).
Drawing on a Foucauldian theoretical framework, this research does not aim to reveal a
truth about what vocation is and what a ‘good’ early childhood educator should be, and it
is assumed that there is no such thing as a ‘good early childhood educator’ or ‘vocation’.
On the contrary, it refuses an objective and neutral point of view, and highlights the mul-
tiple perspectives, complexities, tensions, and contradictions within contexts. Therefore, it
is relevant to acknowledge that the roles of researcher and participants are utterly inter-
twined, and the data are not ‘collected’ but produced through the discourses that are
accessible to the researcher.
Consequently, as the study hereafter aims to explore the dominant discourses shaping
the professional identities of early childhood practitioners’, this exploration should be con-
sidered as one subjective understanding of the topic based on the discourses available to
the researcher. This paper aims to interrogate the present and disentangle the discourses
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 5

that guide the understanding of good professionals as having the vocation. According to
Foucault, exploring how what is now considered to be the truth has come into being
enables the possibility of educators being considered differently (Foucault 1982).

The religious meaning of vocation

The origins of the notion of vocation are rooted in Christianity and it remains the primary
affiliation (Dawson 2005). Vocation was used to indicate a call from God to an individual to
use his or her gifts to serve others through their work (Dawson 2005; Elias 2003). It referred
to the lifestyle of monks and nuns who renounced their mundane life to follow this calling
and serve God’s will and live a life of self-sacrifice to achieve eternal salvation. Elias (2003)
describes four characteristics of vocation in Christianity:
A person is called for a specific purpose to which he or she must make a commitment; the
called person has a special gift for accomplishing this purpose; a vocation presumes a
person who calls, Yahweh, God, Jesus; and finally, to accept a vocation means to live a life
of sacrifice, to live with faith in darkness (Elias 2003, 298)

However, the religious understanding of the word was gradually abandoned in English-
speaking countries and it began to be associated with broader and more secular meanings
related to the purpose of work as a source of personal and professional meaning (Dawson
2005; Dik and Duffy 2009; Elias 2003).
In education, vocation is not a new concept and its relation with teaching as a pro-
fession has been widely discussed in the literature (Elbaz 1992; Estola, Erkkilä, and
Syrjälä 2003; Hansen 1994, 1998; Roebben 2016; Schwarz 1999). Numerous scholars advo-
cate for an understanding of teaching as a vocation rather than as a profession to empha-
sise the moral and emotional elements of this occupation (Elbaz 1992; Hansen 1994). While
when considered as a profession the focus is on the specialised knowledge and skills, stan-
dards of performance and level of expertise of the members of the profession (Macdonald
1999). Therefore, vocation is an important concept within the education field. Some scho-
lars have argued that teaching should be understood as a vocation, that is, a way of life to
which the person is committed (Bolin and Falk 1987; Hansen 1994), while for others, voca-
tion implies a call by children that teachers should learn to hear (Van Manen 1991). Hansen
(1994) claims that vocation is central to the teacher’s job because ‘the idea of teaching as a
vocation calls attention to the personal and moral dimensions of the practice that draw
many persons to it from the start, and that keep them successful within it despite adversity
and difficulty’ (261). Furthermore, in early childhood education authors such as Vincent
and Braun (2011) and Colley (2006) have studied the ‘vocational habitus’ of childcare
workers, highlighting the emotional and classed nature of this occupation.
Nevertheless, during this study the meaning of the word ‘vocation’ seemed to vary from
its English use. Indeed, as this study was conducted in Chile – a Spanish-speaking country –
it became necessary to translate the word ‘vocación’ into English. The translation of the
word is of particular importance in this analysis because, although the word is similar in
both languages, the meanings with which it is associated differ subtly but significantly.
Indeed, vocación derives from the Latin term vocatio, which means the action of calling.
According to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española (2014), its meanings are: ‘(1)
Inspiration with which God call one to a particular state, especially that of religion; (2)
6 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

Dedication; (3) Inclination towards a state, a profession, or a career; (4) Convocation,

calling’. On the other hand, the most direct translation in English is the word vocation.
However, this concept is detached from the religious element. The Oxford English Diction-
ary (2010) defines vocation as ‘(1) a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or
occupation; (2) a person’s employment or main occupation, especially regarded as
worthy and requiring dedication’. Therefore, the use of the word vocation does not
refer to a religious discourse as in Spanish, but instead refers to a secular meaning
related to an occupation. Looking for a term that was closer to its use in Spanish, the
English word ‘calling’ was considered to be a more suitable translation; ‘a strong urge
towards a particular way of life or career; a vocation’ (Oxford English Dictionary 2016).
Although this word does not entail a religious meaning either, it provides the implicit
idea of an external agent that calls upon a particular person ‘into a particular way of
living life’. Having considered the difficulty of translation, in this paper the English
words calling and vocation will be used to refer to the notion of vocación.
The different meanings associated with this concept are of relevance in this study, as
they may have implications on the discourse about teaching as a vocation and how the
identities of practitioners are constituted within it. The initial exercise of translation
sheds the first light on the religious discourses implied in this notion. Then, understanding
how this word has appeared and been used in the Chilean education field is necessary to
grasp a better understanding of the historical influence that constitutes the notion of the
‘good-educator-has-the-vocation’ in Chile. It is argued in this study that the diverse mean-
ings and repeated uses, within and outside the education field, have loaded the concept
with a religious element that is characteristic to the concept.
The following sections discuss the discourse of vocation and how it is performatively
deployed in ECE in Chile. First, I explore how an educator’s calling is unwittingly evoked
in the ECE field and revealing religious understandings of the concept. Second, I
analyse how vocation acts as disciplinary power – pastoral power – positioning prac-
titioners as ‘the chosen’ ones to assist the most vulnerable in society. Likewise, in the
third section the study focuses on how educators subjectivate themselves within the
power relations, highlighting their discursive performativities that portray them as
‘martyrs’ for early years.

The discourse of the Chilean educator’s vocation

‘Having the vocation’ is considered one of the most salient attributes of the good educator
in Chile. In this study this concept was widely agreed upon by parents, school head tea-
chers, educators, and assistants in ECE. By their accounts ‘having the vocation’ seems to
be a requisite that comes first and foremost, ahead of the need to acquire the specialised
pedagogical tools for the occupation.
Interestingly, despite the extensive acknowledgement of the relevance of this attribute,
the meaning of the notion escapes the different actors referring to it. It is a discourse oper-
ating and ‘referenced through the meanings, associations and omissions embedded in the
historicity of apparently simple and benign utterances and bodily practices’ (Youdell 2006).
As discourses also operate through silences and omissions, analysing their non-verbal
elements is crucial to understanding vocation not only as being gendered and classed,
but also as a religious discourse in Chilean educators. For instance, it was common that,
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 7

when asked, most participants would express difficulty in providing a definition of ‘voca-
tion’ and while attempting to explain it they would make facial and bodily expressions.
When I asked them what “vocation” means, educators remained silent for a few seconds; they
looked at each other and smiled silently. They immediately made exclamations: “oof!”,
“mmhh” and recognised that it was hard to explain. (Fieldwork notes, Santiago, private-sub-
sidised nursery, March 2015)

In this study vocation is understood as a discourse that creates a particular type of subject
in the ECE field. Educators’ vocation is mainly deployed bodily. Due to the difficulty in
explicitly referring to it, the embodiment of the word is crucial to deconstruct this dis-
course and reveal its historicity (Butler 1997). ‘Having the vocation’ is understood in this
study as a performativity or ‘a stylized repetition of acts’, an imitation of the dominant con-
ventions of what vocation entails (Butler 2006, 191). The difficulty in verbally explaining
the meaning of vocation implies that there is no single and stable way of ‘having the voca-
tion’. The discursive practices that conform to the idea of vocation ‘are internally discon-
tinuous … [so that] the appearance of substance is precisely that, a constructed identity, a
performative accomplishment which the mundane social audience, including the actors
themselves, come to believe and to perform in the mode of belief’ (Butler 2006, 192).
This allows different interpretations of the way in which the educator’s vocation may be
performed. Therefore, the vocational discourse is fluid and contradictory. Having the voca-
tion involves educators enacting an ideal that is impossible to attain.
The performative constitution of practitioners as religious and gendered, and as sub-
jects is derivative from the historical meanings and uses of the concept (Butler 2011). In
this study, the religious elements of vocation are both intentionally and unwittingly
deployed by participants.
Some of them, trying to explain the concept, moved their hands to the chest/heart and then
opened their arms, extending them as symbolising an act of giving it to others. (Fieldwork
notes, Santiago, public school, April 2015)

The moment I entered the nursery I saw four young women in a blue uniform with a matching
headscarf that had a ribbon on the front. They were cleaning and decorating a small library in
the hall. Their outfit immediately reminded me of either religious women – nuns – or maybe
housekeepers. They were practitioners who, as I learned later, were in charge of the library and
decoration of the nursery as part of their community work in the institution. (Fieldwork notes,
Santiago, private-subsidised nursery, April 2015)

The embodiment of vocation through these particular gestures described above indi-
cates something deeply personal being exposed and offered to others. It is an act of
giving one’s heart, one’s life and love to the other, in this case the most vulnerable.
When asked to rationalise this concept and describe what this ‘attribute’ implies, educators
find themselves lacking the vocabulary to describe it ‘They look at each other and smile
silently’. This complicity is a way in which the discourse is deployed through silence, the
‘unsaid’. These performatives cite a gendered and religious discourse as a sign of humility,
since vocation should be recognised by practitioners’ behaviour and not boasted by them-
selves (Butler 1997; Youdell 2006). Indeed, within the catholic religion it would be con-
sidered improper for a woman to highlight her own attributes, as their role is passive,
humble and patient (Yeager 2007). They perform their vocation by acting as mediators
and silent enablers of others’ successes. In this case vocation is understood as an attribute
8 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

and advantage is expected to be noticed by others in their actions, their devotion and
deep commitment to (their?) children.
Once they are identified as ‘having the vocation’ they are inaugurated in the discourse
and perpetuate its religious meanings through the permanent reiteration of their acts.
Educators become subjected to the power relations of vocation, which simultaneously
constitute them as ‘good’ practitioners, whilst constraining them as humble and
‘devoted’ women (Butler 1997, 2006).
It is particularly interesting how educators’ uniforms are indicative of the religious
discourse of vocation. The uniform with the headscarf, their bodily gestures, and the
tasks in which they are occupied are powerful performatives that implicitly cite the
historical meanings of the vocational discourse linking this occupation to the religious
role of women in Chilean society. In effect, the emergence of ECE in Chile at the turn of
the 1900s was concurrent with the new social role of the Catholic Church that
changed women’s role in public life. Serrano (2003) states ‘it was a new way to live
the catholic charity in the sense that it aimed to regenerate [the poor] through edu-
cation and health’ (351). Young women became activists in propagating religious
values and being ‘apostles to the poor’ (Yeager 2007, 208). In this context, the role
of early childhood practitioners was deeply informed by their spirit of vocation, prais-
ing self-sacrifice, devotion, and love, particularly in the most difficult conditions, as
characteristics of strong catholic women (Yeager 2007; Abett de la Torre Díaz 2011).
The religious endeavour of practitioners was a crucial purpose of ECE and the most
relevant task of educators was considered ‘the development and care of your
pupils’ moral and religious feelings’ (Abett de la Torre Díaz 2013, 418). In this case
the uniform of educators unwittingly cites those aspects of religious women at the
service of the most vulnerable, accomplishing their gendered, social and moral
work in society.
Although the religious purposes of ECE have faded over time in favour of a more econ-
omic drive in the field (Apple 2010; Galdames 2017), it is possible to recognise these reli-
gious understandings in the discursive practices of educators when they refer to their
calling.

If you don’t have the vocation you wouldn’t know what to do. Vocation as a
religious gift
Even today, women are naturalised as profoundly social and altruistic, and therefore
considered to be essentially more ‘suited’ to selflessly assist the most vulnerable
(Abett de la Torre Díaz 2013). Vocation is an essential aspect of this role and it highlights
the religious elements that are intertwined within the gendered discourse in Chilean
ECE. Vocation turns practitioners’ job into a transcendent occupation and themselves
into special subjects, endowing them with the necessary skills to ‘save’ children. Their
task is not only about providing education and care, but having an attitude of love
and compassion is also essential, as has been studied elsewhere (Colley 2006; Gibson
2015; Page and Elfer 2013; Stonehouse 1989). But when it is understood in terms of
vocation, practitioners’ emotional investment is considered far superior. It is perceived
as a spiritual, transcendental force that infuses them with what they need to exercise
the job.
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 9

I think the most important [feature] in this career is to have the vocation. With it you can solve
so many problems children have. Sometimes you say ‘I can believe this happens to them’
[referring to family violence and abuse], but with this strength you say ‘I can solve this, I
can save them, keep them safe to enjoy their childhood. (School principal, public nursery)

A lot of people can have social skills, but being a good educator depends on how far you want
to reach. It depends on your vocation … Nobody forces you if you don’t want to visit the
family … but you know that here if you don’t help the children … they will turn out to be
like their parents, they will be delinquents. With (the vocation) you make the difference. (Edu-
cator, private-subsidised nursery)

First of all you need to have vocation and then you can tolerate all the adversities of this pro-
fession … which are plentiful! And that’s it … you need to have this spirit to go on every time
that … when something gets cloudy … it doesn’t matter! The sun always will come out!
ALWAYS. But you need to help the sun to come out. (Educator, public school)

From these quotes it can be understood that vocation is not only related to an
emotional investment, but it is deeply associated with a duty to ‘rescue’ children from
the precarious environments in which they live. Furthermore, for these practitioners voca-
tion is considered to be a special gift that only certain special people receive and they have
chosen to follow it. This evokes the religious understandings of the notion, in which God
calls upon a few subjects and endows them with a special talent, to be used to help others
(Elias 2003). This gift gives practitioners the necessary strength to deal with otherwise
unbearable situations, allowing them to save others – children – and bring out the ‘sun’
even in the hardest times. Vocation allows them to do what would otherwise appear
impossible to bear and, interestingly, it seems that they may trust more in this spirit
than in the knowledge or skills they need to perform the job, as if their professional com-
petence depends on the vocation that they have. Therefore, an educator’s vocation
becomes central to any other aspect of their occupation and subjectivises these women
as the chosen ones, assimilating them to the Christian apostles who received the gift to
save others and face the difficulties that they came across on their path.
In this sense, vocation is considered here as a form of pastoral power (Foucault 1982; Fou-
cault and Gordon 1980). This type of disciplinary power is considered as the ‘power of care’
(Foucault 2009, 127), and its main purpose is the eternal salvation of subjects, both of the
flock and the pastor himself. Pastoral power is applied in the everyday life of Chilean prac-
titioners, entailing strong contradictions between the professional and the vocational dis-
course. Through discursive practices educators position themselves as shepherds, in the
service of others without expecting a reward. Far from being dreaded, strong commitment,
abnegation, and selflessness are praised in this field. According to Serrano (2003), these
characteristics are a way for Catholic women to achieve their own salvation, especially as
they provide their service to the most vulnerable. Practitioners themselves value these
characteristics of their role as they provide meaning and purpose to their professional
and personal lives and help them overcome the difficulties of the occupation.
Nevertheless, simultaneously most of the practitioners recognised that the most
difficult aspect of their job is that it is socially unappreciated and therefore they struggle
with low salaries and precarious working conditions. This tension is a constant in their nar-
ratives. However, in spite of feeling genuinely angry and upset about the underestimation
of their role, their demands for better conditions are always paired with selfless arguments
about the wellbeing of children or presented as something secondary to their calling.
10 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

I love what I do … but at the same time when you give yourself to this work, because I give
EVERYTHING for these children and for this school … I love to work for this school helping chil-
dren to shine and succeed despite everything that’s against us, that the children can learn the
most that they can. But sometimes the conditions aren’t the best; you don’t have proper con-
ditions to work. And the fact that you see non-interest from authorities, it feels bad. They don’t
even take us into account at the school. I wish they would consider us a bit more! I am not
asking for much … Anyway, you know that if you work here it’s not for the money … (Educa-
tor, public school)

Pastoral power assumes that only selected subjects have this special talent to guide or
save others, but it is a power that should not be assumed from a position of superiority
or sovereignty (Foucault 2009). On the contrary, this power is displayed through an atti-
tude of passion, abnegation, and service. Vocation acts as governmentality, regulating
and governing practitioners’ behaviours and the ways they think about themselves as fol-
lowing their calling and being selfless and committed to their children and workplace.
Vocation also regulates early childhood workers’ social status, as it positions them and
this occupation as humble servants of society.
Here the salvation discourse in ECE becomes key to understanding the religious dimen-
sion of vocation. When practitioners and head teachers recognise that not everyone can
work in such vulnerable settings, they are assuming and validating the need for this special
spirit. Furthermore, as they emphasise that vocation is a gift that only the chosen ones
receive and which therefore cannot be acquired or developed, it implies that is provided
by a mystical entity with a more transcendental purpose than educating or caring for
children.
As pastoral power, vocation acts as a normalising judgement that compares, divides,
and classifies practitioners within a religious discourse between the ‘chosen’ ones and
those lacking the vocation (Foucault 1990). Once being inaugurated in this discourse by
the notion of ‘having the calling’ (Butler 1997) it opens up possibilities for educators to
self-constitute themselves as being the ‘chosen ones’, the shepherds responsible for the
salvation of their flock.
However, this represents a permanent tension in their professional status. On the one
hand, it provides a transcendent meaning to their professional and personal lives, and pos-
itions early years educators as good workers. On the other hand, it undermines their pro-
fessionalism, allowing the exploitation of their work due to their attitude of service and
abnegation. The vocational discourse traps early years educators within a context of
difficult working conditions, as the performativity of their calling requires them to perpe-
tually face challenging situations with strength, passion, and optimism (Butler 2006).
Therefore, asking for better wages or complaining about dangers and difficulties jeopar-
dises their identity as ‘good’ educator since it would question their calling.
In this occupation you need that character, because it’s not easy … sometimes there are situ-
ations that upset you, that make you angry or sad, but one has to have that capacity to laugh
at the problems, to have the strength to move forwards and I feel that that’s essential. (Edu-
cator, private school)

This educator clearly explains what it is expected from them regarding the difficulties of
their work. There is no questioning of the issues they face at work or a desire to change
these situations, but the focus is instead on the educator’s positive attitude to face the
challenges. These discursive practices differentiate them from the ‘other’, from those
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 11

lacking the calling and therefore working in ECE for the ‘wrong’ reasons. In this religious
and gendered discourse, lacking the vocation implies being considered selfish, uncom-
mitted, and even lazy (Butler 1997).
I think that this is the main problem today in Chile, that most of the people studying to be an
early childhood educator do it because they don’t have another option … they don’t have the
calling, so pre-service practitioner students arrive here [at the school] to do their practice and
they do nothing, they don’t know what to do … they come to do nothing … so they don’t
have that spirit of vocation … (Educator, public school)

Lacking this gift implies that these people are not suited to working as educators. Their
lack of vocation implies that they are confused about how to deal with children and how
to face the challenges in the workplace. Educators identify themselves as different from
those ‘others’, who are described as distant, careless, and always complaining about the
difficulties of the job. Moreover, this attitude is also combined with a lack of pedagogical
knowledge, reinforcing the idea that knowledge is subordinated to vocation, assuming
that this gift provides them with the skills to work in the ECE field. This emphasises the
religious understanding of the calling as a divine force that provides the skills needed
to fulfil their purpose of salvation. Practitioners feel empowered and protected by this
spirit. However, perhaps because of this, they are aware of the dangerous situations
that this discourse entails, as the only way to carry out the vocation is through self-
sacrifices that on numerous occasions put educators’ lives at risk.

‘I would happily immolate myself for my children!’ the performativity of

early years martyrs
Foucault argued that one of the characteristics of the Christian pastorate involved the
permanent obedience of the shepherd ‘and renunciation of one’s will’ (Foucault 2009,
xxv). In the same way, the performativity of the educator’s vocation requires them to
continuously ‘direct all [their] care towards others and never towards [themselves]’ (Fou-
cault 2009, 128).
In this study, practitioners shared numerous experiences in which they dismissed their
problems for the sake of children’s happiness. In their narrative it is possible to expose the
religious and patriarchal discourse that subjectivise them as servants/saviours – shep-
herds- of society. This power exercised over those women praises their extreme vulner-
ability and devotion and here it is evidenced how vocation functions as self-governance
technology, that provoke the need and sense of obligation to follow their calling to the
point of sacrificing themselves in the exercise of this occupation.
I was in mourning, but that day was the celebration of Chilean independence in the nursery.
We had prepared a circus with the children (to present to the parents) and I was supposed to
be directing it. I had to be joyful and cheer everybody on with all the joy that this implies … It’s
like ‘the show must go on’ you know? So I had to do it and I did it … Not everybody would
have done that, no! So I think that’s a commitment, this is what [a good educator] has to
do. (Director, private-subsidised nursery)

I had made a promise to my family [after I had suffered from cancer], that when I went back to
work I would only work two days a week so I wouldn’t get too stressed out again … . That was
a lie! That never happened, with luck I might take two days off this whole year, and why?
Because my priority will always be here. (Director, private nursery)
12 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

Self-sacrifice is an important feature of ‘the good educator’ that is closely related to the
gendered and religious discourse that vocation implies. This attribute was revealed in this
study to be highly valued in the field, not only in terms of the high workload or the
absence of resources and adequate infrastructure. Constant self-sacrifice performatively
constitute educator’s vocation as it evokes religious meanings of the role of shepherd
looking for the missing sheep (Foucault 2009; Butler 2006). Educators take a ‘leap of
faith’ venturing to visit children’s homes when they suspect that there is child abuse or
negligence on the part of the families. This might take place in the most dangerous neigh-
bourhoods, in many cases without the organisational backup and protection that this
should imply. This entails a strong tension between feeling ‘protected’ by this gift but
rationally acknowledging their profound vulnerability. Regardless, most participants in
this study claimed that they take the risk to visit children in dangerous places. This
‘faith’ and feeling of protection is a performative of the religious vocation, it is constructed
and perpetually reproduced discarding or diminishing the rational argument and the
safety measures against dangers in the workplace (Butler 2006).

Ana: Take for example the case of the visits to children’s homes [in] areas that are
really dangerous. You enter the house but you don’t know who’s inside.
Fernanda: And the most common thing around here, the gunshots in the street … what if
we’re walking on the street and a gunshot hits you? Nobody will protect you, not
even the uniform protects you here. We’re very committed to our work, but we’re
exposing our lives here. That’s why our role is very social. You need to have an
important vocation to work in these sectors because not everybody likes to be
here or risk themselves as we do. (Educators, private-subsidised nursery)

In this narrative it can be observed how these educators resist and reproduce the discur-
sive frame of vocation, this resistance was widely shared by most educators as they are
positioned in a contradictory discourse that simultaneously praises and defies their ‘voca-
tion’ Educators are subjectivated in the vocational discourse and fulfil their role in it by
risking their lives while recognising the danger it represents. It is interesting to see for a
brief moment the rational counter-discourse that understands vocation as being unable
to shield them from the ‘real’ danger. Nevertheless, this is immediately covered once
more by reinforcing the need for vocation in order to be able to face this kind of
danger. Is only in this transcendental discourse that these brave and fearless actions
can take place, otherwise they could be considered irrational or abnormal. The embodi-
ment of these practices is similar to that expected from religious women, being
devoted to their students, serving others, and making themselves or their families the
least of their priorities.
Therefore, the discourse of vocation renders the exploitation of practitioners legitimate,
to the point of risking their lives and ‘become a martyr of ECE’. During a focus group in a
nursery, there was a gunshot drill. In the middle of the interview the four educators ran
into their classrooms ‘to protect the children’, as they shouted when making their exit.
When they returned to the room they made jokes about the drill:
“You have to give your life for the children … you know this is what vocation is!” “It doesn’t
matter if you die. I would happily immolate myself for the children” “You just give until it
hurts”. (Educator, private-subsidised nursery)
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 13

The spontaneous reaction of the educators and the later ironies they used about it
show how they performatively (re)produce the self-sacrificed subject. After the drill they
acknowledged that it was wrong to run to the classroom, as the procedure for gunshots
requires them to get onto the floor wherever they are to avoid putting themselves at risk.
However, they did not follow the rules, as for them that was the only possible and accep-
table action. They unwittingly cited the regulation and the ‘condensed historicity’ (Butler
1997, 3) of vocation, constituting themselves as martyrs, offering their lives to save others,
and themselves from being considered to be ‘lacking’ the vocation. By remaining on the
ground and staying safe they would have risked being considered as selfish within this dis-
cursive framework. This is especially emphasised with the phrase ‘you have to give until it
hurts’ this educator is quoting St. Alberto Hurtado, a priest canonised in 2005 who pro-
motes the Social Catholicism in Chile at the beginning of twentieth century, a movement
that ‘turned Chilean women into religious activists’ (Yeager 2007, 215). This phrase praises
the act of self-abandonment for the sake of others but also refers to the role of pain in
Catholic religion, implying that the act of giving is dignified because it hurts. Vocation is
performatively reproduced through the choice and use of this particular phrase and
others jokes about immolating themselves as they expose how the religious meanings
of the discourse of vocation are still strongly present and governing educator’s pro-
fessional identities. These anecdotes expose the regulatory, constraining and dangerous
consequences of this construct that (re)produce them according to the historical religious
meanings associated to vocation. Indeed, these through these exclamations and beha-
viours they are performatively (re)constructing their vocation. Through their utterances
about vocation practitioners perform the catholic romantic model of young and passio-
nate (martyr) woman that were the symbol of the Church in Chile in early 1990s
(Yeager 2007).
Vocation operates as a technology of self-government that positions educators as
morally good women, as the saints willing to giving it all for the salvation of children
and their own. Vocation must ‘hurt’ otherwise the practice is not important and lacks of
a superior purpose. It demands risk, self-abandonment and faith that everything will be
provided, although there is no certitude about it.
This understanding of vocation subjugates them to the power of a patriarchal, classed
and religious society that determines not only what an educator should know to be a ‘pro-
fessional’ but also importantly how she should dress and behave to be considered a
(morally) good (female) educator.

Conclusions
Having vocation has become a hegemonic discourse for early childhood educators to not
only be considered good practitioners but also ‘good women’. Drawing on Foucault’s
work, I have explored how vocation works as pastoral power (Foucault 2009), governing
educators’ actions, thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, in this study vocation is under-
stood as a performativity that positions early childhood workers as ‘good’ professionals
in the ECE field (Butler 2006). To become recognised as ‘having vocation’ implies that edu-
cators must constantly reiterate discursive practices that encompass the historical mean-
ings of the religious understanding of women’s role in Chilean society, emphasising love,
devotion, abnegation, and self-sacrifice.
14 X. POBLETE NÚÑEZ

With this study, I revealed that vocation is far from a neutral discourse. Vocation is a
complex and contradictory rhetoric that, on the one hand, provides meaning to prac-
titioners’ professional and personal lives, stressing the feminine characteristics of care
work. With this study, I revealed that vocation is far from a neutral discourse. Vocation
is a complex and contradictory rhetoric that, on the one hand, provides meaning to prac-
titioners’ professional and personal lives, stressing the feminine characteristics of care
work.
Educators are performatively constituted in the religious discourse of vocation. They
act their place in the discourse when they pay for children or school materials or when
they – against the protocol of gunshot – run to protect children and refer to it as the
need of ‘immolating’ themselves for children life, they are performing their religious
calling. Educators are recognised in their acts of vocation and these performatives
render them intelligible as professionals within the (early childhood) educational
system in Chile differentiating them from those who do the job without a real reason,
without the calling. The productive power of this religious discourse creates the good
educator in the interplay of power relations between a patriarchal and religious dis-
courses. On one hand, vocation subjectivise women as powerless in a relation of
power that demands their ‘permanent obedience and renunciation of one’s personal
will’ (Foucault 2009, 123). On the other hand, vocation as a transcendental gift situates
practitioners in a powerful place, understood as the ‘chosen’ ones working for an altruist
and relevant purpose. It not only gives them a professional role, but it makes prac-
titioners unique by endowing them with the strength to face adversity, especially in
the most precarious situations. Therefore, adversity is not only a constitutive part of
vocation but a condition praised in this discourse as it is makes the vocation stronger.
The religious discourse of vocation assumes an idealist view of the ECE context that nor-
malises workplace precariousness, especially in the most vulnerable and dangerous
areas. Educators are expected to deal with a lack of resources, infrastructure and organ-
isational support while maintaining a stoic attitude of servitude and humility and being
strong, loving, and grateful, thereby making it difficult to improve working conditions.
Consequently, vocation contributes to the exploitation of these women hindering the
possibility of improving educators’ working conditions and salaries as the expectations
of head-teachers and school principals rely on a practitioner’s calling to face the negative
characteristics of the job.
Likewise, this discourse endangers the occupation of practitioners. The role of ‘servi-
tude’ not only undermines and trivialises the importance of their work by ascribing prac-
titioners’ skills to a mystical attribute; it also puts early childhood educators in physical,
psychological and emotional danger. With practitioners subjectivised as ‘shepherds’,
their sacrifice is romanticised, thus undermining the difficulties, dangers and rough
working conditions as well as contributing to the ideal view of the early years educator
as ‘good’ and docile women permanently available to sacrifice themselves for the salvation
of others. Deconstructing and challenging this discourse is relevant and necessary in Chile
in order to demonstrate the contradictions, dangers and impossibilities it entails for
practitioners.
It is important to understand vocation not as a stable and universal attribute but rather
as a relation among socially constituted subjects in specifiable contexts (Butler 2006, 14).
Exposing the network of patriarchal, classed and religious power could help contribute to
 GENDER AND EDUCATION 15

relinquishing the deeply religious and individual understanding of this calling. Challenging
this discourse could promote a more social and relational approach in which the educa-
tor’s vocation is conjointly constructed and ensured. This reconceptualisation of vocation
could contribute to the design of policies that would ensure the necessary institutional
conditions to further enhance educators’ passion and commitment to their work.

Note
1. I use the terms educator and practitioner indistinctly, as the former is used in Chile to refer to
professional ECE workers and differentiate them from school teachers and assistants.

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Dr Guy Roberts-Holmes and Prof. Phil Jones (UCL Institute of Education) for their
supervision of this study and the thorough review of this manuscript and Dr Ximena Galdames
(Faculty of Education, Universidad Diego Portales) and the two anonymous reviewers of the
journal for her helpful comments.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding
The research of this paper was funded by the CONICYT-BECAS CHILE PAI/INDUSTRIA 72140251 and
sponsored by the Centro de Investigación Avanzada en Educación – CIAE.

Notes on contributor
Ximena Poblete Nuñez is as lecturer in the Psychology department at Universidad Andres Bello in
Santiago (Chile), while finishing her PhD in Education at UCL Institute of Education. She holds an
MA in International Education and Development from University of Sussex (UK) and a BA in Psychol-
ogy at the Pontificia Universidad de Chile. She is also a founding member and researcher at the
Centre of Studies in Early Childhood (CEPI) in Chile. Her research interests are early childhood edu-
cation and teacher training and development.

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