This article focuses on Inspector Lydia Longmore and 29 infant mistresses who were leading South Australian infant schools in the interwar year era. During 1926/1927 Longmore and each infant mistress in the state school system were interviewed by a journalist about her career path and current role, and profiles of their work featured week by week…

Intercultural competence among educators has long been recognised as important, especially in contexts characterised by growing and shifting cultural diversity such as Australia. However, the capacity to be interculturally competent has only recently been enshrined in teacher standards in Australia, and research into this field among early…

Systemic splits between pre-compulsory and compulsory early years education impact on transitions to school through discontinuities in children's experience. This paper presents data from a critical participatory action research project about transitions between pre-compulsory and compulsory early education schooling in Australia. The project aim…

This paper discusses a recent Australian study of boys' education using case studies to determine successful practices. It focuses on an early childhood site where access to "discourses of power" for students and parents and a valuing of students' "action knowledge" created a particular democratic culture achieving improved…