Sanism in early childhood education and care: Cultivating space for madness and mad educators in ECEC

Abstract

This article engages with critical questions regarding the exclusion and stigmatization of Early Childhood Educators who experience madness and the presence/absence of madness in early learning settings. Through a Mad Studies analysis, we argue for more critical conversations challenging the pathologization of madness and educators who openly live with mental illness or identify as Mad. Drawing from Langford’s (2006, 2007, 2008) work on the “good” ECE, we argue that the Mad ECE is a way of re-imagining ECE identity and the professionalized ideals that regulate ECEs’ professional practices and self-presentation at work.