Understanding the caring professional dispositions of the early childhood education teacher assistants in Chile.

This article examines the professional dispositions of early childhood education (ECE) teacher assistants in Chile, a group that plays a critical yet under-recognized role in classrooms but is largely excluded from national teaching policies. Through qualitative analysis of focus groups and interviews with sixteen assistants from two urban public ECE centers in Santiago, the study finds that assistants primarily frame their work through an ethics-of-care perspective—emphasizing practical vocation, attentiveness to children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual needs, and affective dispositions such as love and joy—while only marginally engaging with mainstream technical approaches to pedagogy. The findings highlight a tension between caring and technical models of professionalism, suggesting that teacher assistants reinforce the caring dimension of ECE teams but also express a willingness to develop pedagogical knowledge, a potential constrained by their exclusion from formal policy frameworks. This research contributes to understanding the diverse roles within ECE workforces and calls for inclusive policies that recognize and support the professional development of teacher assistants in Chile.