The student is infinitely more important than the subject matter.
– Nel Noddings

A nationwide survey of early childhood professionals in New Zealand was undertaken in 2020 to explore teachers’ understandings of professional love in early childhood settings, the first survey of its kind. The results, published in a 2021 study, reported that some respondents believed a professional approach to love is important, but other responses indicated that talking about love is still viewed as unprofessional by many early educators and administrators.

In her Exchange article, “Professional Love,”Carol Garboden Murray, author of Illuminating Care, provides this reaction to the research:

“A far greater danger exists in our field than the threat of appearing unprofessional by talking about love. The threat of not naming and valuing love may pose severe consequences to the secure relationships that are essential for our youngest citizens.”Jools Page, one of the first to name professional love, draws on Nel Nodding’s ‘ethics of care’ and on attachment theory to suggest a supportive ‘triangle of love,’ involving child, parent, and practitioner. Garboden Murray supports this concept and declares it’s time to reclaim love as the center of professional practice and to deepen our understanding of what this means to our field.