Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Australia is facing a workforce crisis. A knowledge gap around educators studying to pursue a career in ECEC, particularly in long day care (LDC), has prompted research with Australian educators who engage in further education and training while working in LDC services. The paper examines 32…

Past studies have shown that kindergarten teachers find it challenging to integrate science into their instruction, but little is understood about factors that influence their science teaching in Indigenous areas. Our study aimed to investigate the associations between kindergarten teachers' experiences, attitudes, self-efficacy, outcome…

Adults, including early childhood teachers and caregivers (i.e., parents, carers, kinship members), have an important role in supporting young children's learning through play in early childhood. However, little consideration has been given to the relationship between these significant adults' perspectives of play and the play experiences of young…

Risky play promotes learning for children but can be challenging for adults who may then avoid providing these opportunities for children. Research about educators' intentional teaching for risky play is limited. The focus of this paper is a project where educators sought to change practice by embedding intentional teaching within children's risky…

This review explored the impact of physical literacy programs designed to engage two- to five-year-old preschool children. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used. Six EBSCO host databases were searched for the period 2011 to April 2021 using the search terms "physical literacy,"…

This article explores the practices of 'Acknowledgement to Country' in Australian early childhood education contexts. Acknowledgement is a process of seeking out and honouring local Aboriginal Country and knowledge and investing in local resources of language, art, stories, nature and songs. Twenty educators across six early learning centres…

Aim: To investigate developmental trajectories in early childhood and predictors of class assignment. Methods: Data were available for Gen2 infants at 12 (n = 2275), 24 (n = 1845) and 36 (n = 2110) months of age in the Raine Study. Latent growth class analysis was used to identify developmental trajectories based on the Ages and Stages…

Realist research is increasingly used to evaluate complex interventions. However, it can be challenging to codify and implement, with few examples to guide the process. This article describes how a team of social care leaders, practitioners and researchers developed initial program theories for the Trauma Consultancy Service (TraCS) in early…

Creativity is recognised as a key facet of the suite of 21st century skills driving education worldwide. Understanding its existence outside of The Arts is vital for recognising young children's creativity. However, what constitutes creativity and what it 'looks like' is not always clear. As a result, inconsistency and lack of efficacy when…

'We're not useless, we know stuff!', said a four-year-old when asked why adults should ask him what he thinks about his experiences at his early learning centre. This paper describes the literature and methods used to gather children's voices in early childhood and education (ECEC) settings across Stage 1 and 2 of the 3 stage national Learning…

This qualitative study aimed to investigate enablers and barriers facing community-playgroup families in the provision of play opportunities for children throughout periods of lockdown restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used a capabilities approach, focussing specifically on the concepts of resources, capabilities and…

The literature on play and learning attests many developmental benefits for children. The Australian curriculum endorses play-based learning (PBL) as an age-appropriate teaching pedagogy. However, what enables or prevents PBL in the classroom is not well documented. The present study examined the responses of 334 teachers currently employed in…

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected children's care and education worldwide. This article reports on patterns of participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) across Australia as influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and national policies. Using ECEC data from Xplor -- a software platform used across Australian childcare…

Little is known about children's participation in early childhood education (ECE) in regional and remote areas in Australia. This research addresses this gap by investigating the perspectives of early childhood centre directors and educators who work directly in ECE services in these areas. The study used a two-stage mixed methodology, including…

This study aimed to examine associations between gross motor skills and executive functions (EF) in a large sample of Australian preschool-aged children. Of 566 children (mean age = 3.2 ± 0.4 years, 51.2% girls), locomotor, object control, and total skill competence were significantly associated with visual spatial working memory and inhibition (p…