The legal entitlement to childcare in the elementary school sector will lead to an enormous need for personnel that cannot be met with specialists (Rauschenbach et al. 2021). This is already leading to the fact that pedagogical laypersons or pedagogically unqualified personnel are working in all-day schools. Empirical evidence shows that qualified staff do not use the knowledge they have acquired during their training in practice. A change in pedagogical attitudes as a result of the study program cannot be ascertained either. In terms of professional policy, these lines of argumentation resemble a disaster. The article examines whether it can be empirically confirmed that pedagogical specialists act more professionally than pedagogical laypersons. Professionalism is defined by an orientation towards the child (instead of school requirements), knowledge about the quality of all-day programs, and the reflexivity of one’s own actions and the handling of pedagogical antinomies. Theoretically, this is framed by a competence- and structure-theoretical understanding of the profession. It is shown that qualification has an effect on the child orientation and the reflexivity of the interviewees.
