This article builds on conversations about the nature of a pedagogy specifically for babies, which are defined in this paper as 0–2 year olds. To do this, we explore articulations of social purpose and social pedagogy among 15 baby room educators working in UK nurseries. Our findings suggest four types of social purpose and four types of social pedagogy that inform what baby educators do, how they do it and why they do it. The baby educators in our study articulated their social purpose in terms of providing a secure foundation for childhood and adulthood; acting as a support system for parents; enabling healthy early development; and inspiring learning across the lifespan. Correspondingly, they identified their social pedagogy in terms of giving care and nurture to meet physical and emotional needs; cultivating parent partnerships; planning activities, interactions and resources around developmental goals; and creating provocations to stimulate learning based on individual interests. We hope that this typology helps to deepen our understanding of what baby educators experience and the pedagogies they enact day to day, as well as acting as a reflective tool for baby room educators to use to deepen their practice.

本文建立在关于专门针对婴儿的教育学性质的对话之上，在本文中，婴儿被定义为 0-2 岁儿童。为此，我们在英国托儿所工作的 15 名婴儿房教育工作者中探讨了社会目标和社会教育学的表达。我们的研究结果表明，有四种类型的社会目标和四种类型的社会教育学，它们告诉婴儿教育者做什么、他们如何做以及为什么这样做。我们研究中的婴儿教育者阐明了他们的社会目的，即为童年和成年提供安全的基础;充当父母的支持系统;促进健康的早期发展;并激发整个生命周期的学习。相应地，他们确定了自己的社会教育学，即给予照顾和养育以满足身体和情感需求;培养家长伙伴关系;围绕发展目标规划活动、互动和资源;以及根据个人兴趣创造挑衅以刺激学习。我们希望这种类型学有助于加深我们对婴儿教育者所经历的内容和他们每天实施的教学法的理解，并作为婴儿室教育者用来深化实践的反思工具。