This article problematises emerging tensions in Chile, in relation to the discourses of early childhood teachers and public policies aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education. The aim of the analysis is to contribute to developing more nuanced understandings of these tensions, through the analytical lenses provided by the concepts of agency, power and discourses in the social construction of professional identity. The paper begins by describing aspects of the current Chilean policy context of early childhood education, and its location in the broader educational system. Tracing recent public policy initiatives focused on improving early childhood education quality; the paper then considers diverse sources of available evidence of early childhood teacher perspectives and responses to public policy discourses. It concludes by contextualising the findings of the analysis in an international literature body about early childhood professional identity.