The notion of "professional" is built on a concept of traditionally male professions and patriarchal social orders. ECEC (early childhood education and care), however, is a female-dominated field characterised by its unique caring practice. This study investigated how a group of Australian early childhood preservice teachers presented…

This paper explores teacher enjoyment and the notion of the intentional teacher in early childhood education. The research is part of a wider interrogation challenging existing discourses associated with the intentional teacher. A mixed-method research design was used to gather perspectives from early childhood teachers in relation to their…

Encouraging pre-service teachers to perceive early childhood teaching as an inherently attractive career option remains an issue in the early childhood profession in Australia. Following a Research by Design methodology with iterative modifications, this paper uses a professional identity theoretical lens to analyse survey and interview data from…

In China, recent social and economic development have resulted in further attention being given to the development of preschool education. Culturally, many Chinese parents have held high expectations of their children's early learning and academic success in later studies. Hence, a high-quality preschool service has become a contentious issue. The…

Although the discussions on the care responsibilities of preschool teachers have been going on for years, it has flared up during the pandemic process. For that reason, the aim of the current study is set to examine in depth the views of preschool teachers and parents of preschool students on the caregiver role of preschool education. This…

This study examines how interpretations of mentoring by trainee mentors (TMs) changed over the course of a mentor training programme, and how this contributed to the TMs' professional development. The context of the study was a mentor training programme for preschool teachers who mentor early childhood teacher students during their practicums.…

Three Australian Government commissioned reports from 2011-2017 convey a longstanding child development theory-practice gap in early childhood education. This study explores what informs mentors' discussions of theories of child development with early career preschool teachers. Grounded in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, themes relate to…

In this three-year longitudinal qualitative case study, the authors investigate a) the emergence of the professional supervisor identity, and b) the dynamics of evolving supervision practices by analyzing the case of two female supervisors from international backgrounds working within an early childhood education (P-3) program in a large…

There is a standardised neoliberal inspired notion of what professionalism entails for early childhood educators. These standards tend to infiltrate much of the literature, reporting and pre-service educator training, creating a notion that educators are never quite good enough at what they do. Although constant reflection and aiming for…

Early childhood teachers face many challenges as they interact with children, their parents, fellow teachers and the early childhood community. The responsibility to meet the needs of a diverse group of people is critical to the teacher's development as a professional. This paper discusses the quantitative findings of a survey that examined the…

In Australian early childhood teacher education programs there is typically a greater focus on the age group of kindergarten children compared to that of infants and toddlers (Garvis, Lemon, Pendergast and Yim, 2013). As a consequence, pre-service teachers may have little opportunity to interact and learn about this important age range. This paper…

The aim is to investigate the links between job satisfaction of Finnish early childhood professionals (ECPs) and the appreciation they receive for their work, and how these are associated with their competence to work with children with diverse needs and backgrounds. Data was collected via nationwide online survey for practitioners (n = 885)…

In this paper, we, four students with diverse social locations, explore the development of preservice educators' professional identities as political resisters. Through our experiences in an Ontario college, we found commonality in our emerging need to resist "alarming discourses" (Whitty et al., 2020, p. 8). By dissecting and analyzing…

Self-constructed perceptions of early childhood educator professionalism were explored in a small-scale mixed-method survey using convenience sampling. Fifty-four educators in Ontario, Canada participated in the study and shared their views related to professionalism. A mixed-methodology was employed using an electronic questionnaire composed of…

We explore how two "happenings" representing different political, social, historical and economic influences converge to shape the narratives of preservice teachers and teacher educators in West Virginia. These happenings are the 2017-2018 edTPA roll out and the teacher strike of February 2018. We use the framework of sensemaking to…