Exploring pedagogues’ understanding and detection of vulnerability in Danish early childhood education and care

Abstract The conceptualisation of vulnerability among Danish pedagogues in the context of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is framed by both Danish legislation (Dagtilbudsloven, 2020) and key pedagogical concepts such as well-being, learning, development and formation (Ministry of Children and Education, 2020). Employing a phenomenological approach, this study investigated how pedagogues perceive vulnerability through interviews conducted with 15 informants. Drawing on Abbott’s key concepts of jurisdiction, diagnosis, inference and treatment, the collected data are operationalised to discern pedagogues´ different understandings of vulnerability. The findings highlight the inherent ambiguity surrounding pedagogues’ comprehension of vulnerability, closely tied to their primary responsibilities within the ECEC setting, namely, promoting well-being, facilitating learning, fostering development and enabling formation. The implications of the study shed light on the challenges faced by pedagogues in identifying vulnerability within ECEC, which encompasses both “traditional” and “new” understandings. Pedagogues tend to focus on detecting individual factors, such as personality traits and developmental disorders, or contextual factors related to a child’s family background, without considering the institutional context as a potential source of vulnerability production. This study emphasises the importance of re-evaluating current approaches to vulnerability detection in ECEC, particularly with regard to children in vulnerable positions.