If You Haven't Been There, You Don't Know What It's Like: Doing Day Care

This article examines Sarason's (1995) political principle-“if you are going to be affected, directly or indirectly, by a policy, you should stand in some relationship to the decision making process”-in the work lives of teacher-caregivers in a day care center in a small Midwestern town. Based on ethnographic research, the article explores the face-to-face interactions of teacher-caregivers in the larger highly asymmetric and highly regulated relational system within which day care is situated. It concludes that they have little say in the decisions that affect their daily work lives.