Males and early childhood care and education: student, staff and parent survey evidence

The early childhood care and education workforce is overwhelmingly female dominated. Males who choose a career in education have a greater attraction to working with older (secondary and primary) over younger (early childhood education) children. We examine reasons for this phenomenon by analysing survey responses of recent education degree graduates in Australia. We also report analysis of purpose designed surveys of first-year university students, staff employed in early childhood services, and parents of children attending children's services centres in NSW. Our preliminary results failed to detect stereotypical gender attitudes as barriers to increased male participation in the workforce. While this is an encouraging result in terms of recruitment, the characteristics of the industry mean that the problem could shift to one of retention of male staff, given the resilience of the 'male breadwinnner' concept in society

Using metaphor to illuminate quality in early childhood education

This paper reports on a study in which educators from four early childhood centres used metaphor to discuss their provision of high-quality early childhood education. Qualitative mining of focus group data confirmed ‘quality’ to be complex, multi-dimensional and value-laden. Findings contribute to understandings of quality in early childhood education through four key themes: ‘quality’ as a synergetic flow; the facilitative stance and impact of leaders in the enactment of leadership; children as active contributors to quality; and the role of love. Metaphor is shown to be a valuable tool that can highlight tangible and intangible quality contributors, how these contributors link together and the contextual specificity from which quality in individual early childhood education settings emanates

Taking an evaluative stance to decision-making about professional development options in early childhood education and care

This article builds on our ongoing work in conceptualising an ‘evaluative stance’ framework to assist in understanding how leaders in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) make decisions about the selection of professional development options for themselves and their staff. It introduces the notion that evaluative mindsets can be considered in terms of attitudes towards decision-making that are based on personal epistemologies. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, it explores the mindsets of six experienced leaders in two long-established ECEC organisations in Australia with respect to their decision-making about professional development. The article concludes with a consideration of the potential utility of the framework and the coding template used in this exploratory study

National Interdisciplinary Education Framework for Professionals working in the Early Years : Helping future generations of professionals to collaboratively care for children from birth to five years

Content created by this project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.The first five years of a child’s life are irrefutably important, establishing life-long health, social and economic outcomes. The early childhood workforce is charged with delivering early childhood development services in a framework of quality and national consistency for the safety of all Australian children and their families. This requires development of a national framework for learning and teaching that incorporates common outcomes for children, an interdisciplinary map, and universal essential elements. The National Interdisciplinary Education Framework for Professionals Working in the Early Years is designed to be used to inform education curriculum for preparing early years professionals across disciplines. The framework attends to the diverse demands of multiple professions, qualification levels and workforce agendas. This National Interdisciplinary Education Framework for Professionals Working in the Early Years contains: • A statement of common outcomes for children from birth to five years that recognises various disciplinary foci • An interdisciplinary map highlighting training and professional requirements in selected children’s services professions • A statement of universal essential elements (knowledge, skills and attributes) required for working with children from birth to five years of age • A self-evaluation tool to guide reflection on how the resources are being taken up in programs and curricula within and across courses and across disciplines. These resources can be integrated individually or as a collective into existing learning and teaching curricula to provide a platform for shared understandings for workers with children from birth to five years

Researching with children : lessons in humility, reciprocity and community

The author assumed that her experience as a qualitative researcher accustomed to interviewing adults, and formerly as a teacher of young children, would be an adequate enough basis for undertaking research with children. She describes her first experience at a child care centre, when after a week, deflated and dejected, she retreated from the centre with little meaningful data, her stance as researcher severely challenged and disrupted. In this article she describes how she responded to that challenge when she returned to the centre the following year in the hope of continuing the project. The article explores how a sense of humility, reciprocity and community seemed to contribute to establishing productive relationships with children and in negotiating potentially problematic pivot points arising from power differentials between adults and children.6 page(s

Preschool children's portrayals of their male teacher : a poststructural analysis

This chapter draws on poststructuralist understandings to analyse children's portrayals of their male preschool teacher and to examine the discourses underpinning their portrayals. The study reported in the chapter had aimed to generate data that could contribute to informing policy decisions about whether efforts should be made to recruit more men into the children's services workforce. As the data revealed, however, gender-related discourses were overshadowed by regulatory discourses. The prominence of regulatory discourses raises unsettling questions about how children might perceive their teachers and construct their experiences of their early childhood settings

'Bad days don't kill you; they just make you stronger' : a case study of an early childhood educator's resilience

What enables some early childhood educators to sustain their commitment to a career in children's services despite multiple adverse conditions that lead to high rates of attrition from the field? The case study documented in this article seeks to address this question by identifying influences contributing to the resilience of an Australian early childhood educator. The findings highlight the importance of personal qualities, contextual features, and the interplay between the personal and the contextual. I conclude by suggesting that fostering resilience could contribute to efforts to address the escalating staffing shortfall in children's services in Australia and internationally.14 page(s

EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDENT TEACHERS' REFLECTION ON THEIR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRACTICE: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

During the past fifteen years there has been increasing interest in the role of reflection in professional development, especially amongst teacher educators. Yet although many preservice programs now place considerable emphasis on encouraging and assisting student teachers to reflect on their practice, reflection remaings a problematic notion. There is little consensus, for example, about what constitutes reflection, how it might be identified, and whether it can be promoted. This thesis reports a longitudinal study conducted over four years which explored the above issues within the context of an early childhood teacher education program, in Sydney (NSW), Australia. The specific purpose of this study was to investigate changes in student teachers' reflection on their professional development and practice during their enrolment in the Guided Practice component of their preservice program. A strength of this study is its focus on reflection as a multidimensional phenomenon involving far more than the processes of analytical thought typically addressed by most previous research in this area. Drawing on an eclectic range of literature, this thesis argues that emotion, imagination, intuition, and contemplation can also play an integral role. As such, it asserts that reflection can be seen, in effect, as a complex and holistic search for meaning. Conceptualising reflection in this holistic manner raises numerous methodological challenges. These challenges and the methodological decisions made in response to them are outlined prior to developing profiles of the participants' reflection. These profiles indicated that there was little consistent change in the reflection of eight of the 18 participants. For four student teachers, on the other hand, there was some change, while for six, there was considerable change. Several factors which appeared instrumental in hindering or promoting these student teachers' reflection are identified. These include commitment (or lack of) to teaching and to reflection; an epistemological perspective of received or constructed knowing; and the extent to which the learning environment was perceived as supportive. The study concludes with a discussion of some of the implications for teacher educators and for those intending to undertake further research into reflection

Putting postmodern theories into practice in early childhood teacher education

In this chapter, I describe how postmodern perspectives assist me in negotiating my multiple roles and responsibilities as an early childhood teacher educator in an increasingly complex pedagogical and workplace context. In particular, I focus on how postmodern understandings support me in theorizing my practice and envisioning productive possibilities for change. Underpinning the chapter are three interconnecting motifs that imbue my work as teacher educator - reflexivity, hope, and a commitment to transformative change. The chapter concludes with reflections about the potential of postmodern perspectives to enhance the agency of teacher educators and preservice teachers alike