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Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I IV V I Is ss su ue e 1 1 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 10 09 9 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w Abstract This research applies institutional ethnography to childcare by employing participant observation, interviews and text examination at two childcare research sites. The initial focus of this work describes the daily happenings in childcare utilizing a grounded theory approach and makes connections between what happens in childcare and the structures and institutions that dictate those experiences. The construction of work was found to be a major contributor to childcare experiences. I conclude with an examination of U.S. childcare policy and suggestions for improving these policies and offerings. Keywords Institutional Ethnography; Childcare; Work and Family; Social Policy Childcare as Experience Both as a female and single parent, I became enmeshed in the issue of childcare because it readily impacted my daily experiences. It was the continual struggles of physically locating appropriate childcare options as well as performing the emotional work (Hochschild 1979) of bringing myself to the place where I could manage my feelings of guilt, by leaving my son with another person, while I worked. More than that, however, it was coming to terms with the resentment that overwhelmed my daily childcare experiences, connected to simultaneously juggling all these issues, which completely enveloped me. The invisibility of these daily struggles left me wanting to understand, "why do I feel completely unsupported and alone," as I engaged in combining work and parenting. I was left with the conclusion that the romantic ideal of motherhood packaged so pristinely and elegantly did not fully live up to its promise. Based on this personal experience, I wish to understand why there is seemingly no room for promise, and it is this desire that motivates my research in childcare. Theoretically and methodology, this omission of experience is likely connected to the inadequacy of methodological and analytical frameworks that do not completely examine and validate all societal knowledge Institutional capture limits inquiry and data gathering techniques because more powerful groups can only articulate their own experiences, and their experiences are not reflective of other groups. When researchers frame a single group's perspectives and/or experiences as the only knowledge base that exists, they engage in the act of privileging. Much like my own childcare experiences presented above, other experiences are not represented and documented, but nonetheless still serve as potential knowledge sources surrounding childcare. The outcome is that issues are consequently framed and thus defined in a partial and distorted manner. Because of this partiality and distortion, complete understanding of any issue or experience cannot be achieved. A possible solution, according to In sum, the application of institutional ethnography avoids institutional capture, as researchers honor the knowledge of the insider as an avenue to discovering the power of institutions. According to Ruling relations seek to uncover the ways that institutional power is part of and located in people's everyday activities and experiences (Smith ibidem). The examination of ruling relations ideally begins with experience moving to processes such as government regulations that take form in everyday, doing practices. Institutional ethnography is neither a distinct method nor theoretical perspective, but instead is conceptualized as a combination of the two. The work of institutional ethnography can be exiguous because examples of its application are not widely developed. This research provides such an example by applying institutional © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 00 08 8 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I IV V I Is ss su ue e 1 1 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 11 1 ethnography to childcare. I do caution the reader that this research should not be considered a complete ethnographic account of childcare but rather as a template of how institutional ethnography can be implemented. I began the work of exploring childcare and how things work by spending several weeks engaged in participant observation at two childcare settings. One setting, I refer to as, Sunnyside, was a family-style childcare. Family-style childcare is characterized by care giving within the home of the childcare provider, meaning that work and home occupy the same physical space. The second research setting was a daycare center meaning that care is provided in a separate facility that is not a private home. In the pages that follow, I refer to this site as, the Center. Within each research setting, there were ample opportunities for me to collect and analyze various childcare texts such as newsletters, mission statements of each facility, parent handbooks, menus, postings, notes to parents and caregivers, artwork from children and incoming phone calls. The final component of this research involved interviews of three caregivers, three parents, an administrator and group interviews of the children observed in each setting. Childcare Literature and Structure: Examining the Text Contemporary literature dealing with parenting and childcare has focused on women, particularly the problems of combining the status of mother with that of provider Parenthood is oftentimes portrayed as a struggle-or a gulf between expectations and daily-lived reality (Galinsky 1999). One mother, for example, explains this situation as " [a] conflict between having this idealized vision of what a great job is and having this idealized vision of what being a great parent is. And the higher the bar gets raised on either of those fronts, the more difficult it is to meet those expectations" (Galinsky ibidem: 201). Brown's (1998) ethnographic research of a daycare center found that women get caught between expectations of motherhood and workforce participation essentially combining need and guilt and thereby making for a potent and potentially explosive mixture. Work and family conflict research addresses childcare as a family/work conflict and one of two distinct domains. For example, a depletion argument suggests that increased adherence to either a work role or parental role results in less absorption of the second role Beyond work and family literature, other research has focused on childcare cost, quality of care and the types of childcare traditionally available Since the purpose of institutional ethnography focuses on connecting experience to structure, it is useful to have an understanding of formal childcare structure. Childcare is a commodity that is bought and sold. At its most basic level it is bound by a capitalist economic system. In its purest form, a capitalist economy is characterized by the market-driven activity of profit making and the individual choice of service/product offering and consumption. This orientation posits childcare as a service where profits must be realized in order to be successful which means that childcare offerings in quantity and quality are impacted by a profit motive. Beyond our economic system, an acknowledgement of the structure that regulates its production and consumption is necessary. In essence, childcare is regulated in a layered fashion. At the macro level, childcare is regulated in part by the federal government. Federal regulation occurs via funding requirements. Funds by the federal government are released to individual states, states then make the decisions on how the funds will be used and distributed. The overwhelming majority of direct federal funding is appropriated to low-income families as part of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Long and Clark 1997). Indirect childcare funding, which is primarily utilized by middle and upper income families, occurs via tax credits and reimbursements. Individual states are the primary regulation entities directing childcare. In Michigan, the state in which the research data were drawn, childcare services receiving remuneration must be licensed. Licensing focuses on and is limited to issues such as staff training/education, age of caregivers, criminal record of caregivers, inspection of physical structure, caregiver-to-child ratios, disciplinary procedures, nutritional content of meals served and type and presence of equipment The final layer of structure relative to childcare delivery stems from the facility itself as directed by the State. Facility regulations can include but are not limited to © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 00 08 8 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I IV V I Is ss su ue e 1 1 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 13 3 pricing schedules, late fees, hours of operation, illness guidelines, care giving philosophies, disciplinary guidelines and food guidelines. In the childcare settings I observed, for example, the philosophies involved modified versions of Montessori styles of learning. In interview and observation, I found that these styles generally refer to children learning at their own pace, child-directed activities and the nurturing of both learning and independence. The modified component of this style refers to a higher level of organization that is normally part of a Montessori style of learning and care giving. My work in the childcare setting began with the question, "what is happening here," as is the practice of emergent theory. Emergent theoretical frameworks and/or concepts are discoverable within or through an examination of the data itself The work of documenting a typical day of childcare transpired via the production of field notes of observations and interviews from each of the two research settings. Based on these data, I began an initial open coding analysis to uncover the patterns within the behavior and verbalization of the stakeholders. The initial open coding led me to the practice of memoing, the goal of which Glaser (1992) identifies as directing the researcher to a higher level of abstraction of data to the extent that saturation occurs. Saturation is realized when researchers find that continued analysis of transcripts or field notes produce no new insights to the memoing process. My next step involved a review of sociological as well as childcare literature. Through an examination of this literature, I was able to identify several major concepts that I argue both fit and explain the data uncovered in the childcare research settings. It is, after all, the goal of ethnography generally to discover new concepts within the research setting that were not evident or identified in past research (Buchbind et al. 2005). In fact, I found that institutional ethnography specifically lent itself to the application of this inductive style of grounded theory explaining childcare experiences. Through an examination of the sequence process surrounding people's daily doings in childcare settings, I began to empirically explore how these layers are knitted together to form a social organization based on the relations of the ruling. I identified the major processes occurring throughout the day as, arrivals of the children, meals/snacks, different playtime/activity styles, naptime and departures at day's end. While I do not present all research data discovered, I instead use vignettes of this work to illustrate points of intersection between people's actual activities and those institutions impacting those experiences. Inside Childcare-How Things Work: Examining Childcare Routines In examining the actual relations of childcare, immediately evident is the incredible amount of care giving for children that is steeped in routine. Other researchers have also documented the routinous nature of childcare In fact, those very routines of childcare, and the stakeholders' knowledge of those routines, are a significant dimension of childcare informing this research. A usual childcare day tends to include routines characterized by arrivals, breakfast, play and learning time, lunch, napping, snacks, playtime and, finally, © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 00 08 8 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I IV V I Is ss su ue e 1 1 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 14 4 departures. Throughout the childcare day, home and daycare are significantly integrated; childcare workers, parents and children all engage in connecting processes. The childcare routines themselves begin even before the first child arrives in daycare. Caregivers come in early and stay late in order to organize materials, food, activities, and plans for the days and weeks ahead. Thus, as the first parents and children arrive at the childcare setting, often before daylight, they walk into rooms where activities are already going on: favorite morning videos, toys set up, and games set up. These caregiver activities are crucial aspects for understanding how home and work are interdependent and how all work connected to care giving is done. One of the arguments I make is that commonsense knowledge of the daily routines in childcare is a vital part of how working parents and their children manage to integrate their home, work and daycare roles. For example, parents use knowledge of routines to anticipate, plan and strategize their morning leaving process; they draw on this knowledge as they transition from parent to worker for themselves and as they assist their child's transition from home to daycare. As Schutz (1967) noted, we transition from direct to indirect social experience of another person; that such a change is a gradual progression, a temporal process involving a continuous series of experiences. Rather than seeing the morning drop-off as abrupt, for example, it instead can be perceived as a process of moving from the realm of immediate experience of a person to experiencing that person only in imagination and memory (Schutz ibidem). Of course, this knowledge can only be useful if stability in childcare exists. With attention focused on this issue of stability and routine, I begin by presenting description of the childcare arrival process; a critical albeit understudied component of childcare The day begins very early indeed. The late winter morning is brisk with the sun still making its way out to greet the day. It is 6:25 a.m. on a Friday morning. Caregivers, Rich and Leslie Sylar explain to me that when the children begin arriving, it occurs quickly and this statement proves to be quite accurate. The first child, Molly, arrives at 6:55 a.m. Molly is 18 months old. Her mother informs the Sylers that they had gone to bed late last night and both are a bit grumpy. Molly's mother removes Molly's pink snowsuit and places it in the cubbyhole located in the entranceway. Molly's mother also removes Molly's shoes and they are placed neatly against the wall in the entranceway opposite the cubbyholes. Molly and her mother say a goodbye lasting only about 30 seconds. Molly quickly strolls into the living room and begins to interact with Rich. While Molly's mother is still there, Timmy and Courtney arrive with their mother. Of the group, Timmy is the youngest at twelve months of age and Courtney is the second oldest. Timmy's mother is explaining that he had received five immunizations yesterday but despite the shots he seems to be feeling fine with no elevated temperature today. Timmy's mother and Leslie discuss the type of food Timmy should eat today. As Timmy and Courtney's mother leaves, another parent enters before the door is shut. Next, Jessica and her father arrive. Her father helps Jess off with her coat and shoes following the same routine as the other parents and children. At the sight of me, Jess moves closer to her father and grabs his arm. Jess, a three-year-old, holds a book up, showing me what she brought. Jess's father saying, "give me a hug," leaves the house. It is 7:01 a.m. Six minutes have passed and four children have arrived at Sunnyside. © ©2 20 00 05 5--2 20 00 08 8 Q Qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve e S So oc ci io ol lo og gy y R Re ev vi ie ew w V Vo ol lu um me e I IV V I Is ss su ue e 1 1 w ww ww w. .q qu ua al li it ta at ti iv ve es so oc ci io ol lo og gy yr re ev vi ie ew w. .o or rg g 1 11 15 5 The importance of routines in childcare is central to this research. For example, the seemingly innocuous activity of stowing a child's shoes provides support for this assertion. Both Molly and Jess's parents engaged in this familiar routine of carefully placing their child's shoes against the hallway wall. Molly, looking up at me, does seem tired, as her mother had explained. I noticed how very early some of the children must arrive at childcare because their parent's work schedule requires them to do so. The children's schedules, which in part determine their daily doings, are not just connected to the rules of the childcare facility but the hours of operation are connected to the demands or rules of the economy. It should be noted that in most cases when referring to the economy, I make the connection of work as being an outcome of and bound to our economic institution. Thus, this example demonstrated the centrality of the economy relative to determining a toddler's schedule. In this way, I begin connecting the actual relations (Smith 1987), or the daily doing of things in people's lives to the ruling relations, those institutions that impact, direct and even predetermine those experiences or actual relations. This initial endeavor started the work of translocal mapping (Turner 2006: 140-1) the purpose of which connects experiences to institutions-that is the very foundation of institutional ethnography. Returning attention back to the actual relations (Smith 1987), at the Center it is now 7:15 a.m. Tanner, an older three-year-old arrives with his father. His father brings in an extra sweatshirt and puts it in the child's cubbyhole located in the middle of the room. Tanner's father waves goodbye to him but Tanner does not notice because he is busy at play. Darla, an office worker, arrives for work and walks through the main room. Darla is followed by the arrival of Sarah who is accompanied by her mother. "Bye Sarah banana," says her mother. Sarah, an older three-yearold, replies with a, "no, no, no." Sarah whines a little and shuffles her feet but begins to engage in play as her mother leaves. Linda arrives with her mother and is carrying a ball. Linda shows me the ball saying that the character on the ball is evil. Linda is finished showing her new toy and now wants her mother to read her a story before she leaves. Her mother says that she can't because she must now go to work. Linda, on the other hand, with only a little whining, is able to convince her mother to read a short story. They sit on the small couch under the loft and Tanner soon joins them to hear the story. This mother begins her work before she enters her "actual" work setting. Her work involves the awareness that her daughter needs a slow transition into daycare this morning. Since the concept of work is a primary focus to institutional ethnography, I offer a definition of work as anything requiring both effort and competence (Smith 1987), involving concerted and coordinated activity Emotion Work As Routine One example of how work and emotion is characterized by routine is exemplified by the arrival of Timothy, a five-year-old, who is being carried by his father. Timothy does not want to be put down and his father tries to distract him by talking about what Timothy will do today and the fun he will have. Timothy is not comforted by his father's words and is attempting to engage him in conversation hoping to extend his father's stay. His father leaves and Timothy watches him exit from a window overlooking the entranceway. Timothy now quietly goes to the coloring table and begins drawing a picture. For Timothy and others, emotion work (Hochschild 1979) is performed throughout the day. Emotion work involves managing the feelings of others to produce the right emotion based on a social setting. For example, parents informing children how much fun they will have during the day, children waving through the window as their parent leaves and caregivers dispensing physical affection and "I love you [s]" to children is all work activity. While this work is not usually acknowledged as such, emotion work is a major component of childcare that tends to go unnoticed. Oftentimes, emotion work is performed as goodbyes or glances cast through what has become known as a "waving window" (Brown 1998). A waving window provides a transitional space for many of the children and has become part of many childcare settings. The window usually overlooks either a walkway or parking lot. The child can stand at the window and wave a final "goodbye" to a parent. Not all children and parents make use of the window, but many do. Timothy was performing emotion work as his father was leaving the daycare. A series of easing Timothy into the childc