Teacher decision making in early childhood education

The study investigated early childhood teacher decision making at the preschool level in the state of Victoria, Australia. Victorian teachers at the preschool level were in an interesting position in 2004. Unlike most other Australian states Victoria did not have a curriculum framework guiding educational content and pedagogy. Consequently, this study was able to take advantage of this situation and examine teacher decision making at a time when early childhood teachers were relatively autonomous in deciding curriculum content. The opportunity to study teacher decision making in this way has since passed, as Victorian preschool teachers are now regulated by newly introduced state and national curricula frameworks. To identify influences affecting teacher decision making three preschool teachers were interviewed and curricula related policies were analysed. The data were analysed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) technique. Critical discourse analysis enabled a close analysis of influences on teacher decision making illustrating how discourse is legitimated, marginalised, and silenced in certain curricula practices. Critical theory was the underpinning framework used for the study and enabled taken-for-granted understandings to be uncovered within early childhood policies and teacher interviews. Key findings were that despite there not being a government-mandated curricula framework for Victorian preschool education in 2004, teachers were held accountable for their curricula practice. Yet as professionals, early childhood teachers were denied public acknowledgment of their expertise as they were almost invisible in policy. Subsequently, teachers’ authority as professionals with curricula knowledge was diminished. The study found that developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) was a dominant discourse influencing teacher decision making (TDM). It operated as legitimated discourse in the 2004 Victorian preschool context. Additionally, the study found that teacher directed practice was legitimated, marginalised, and silenced by teachers. The findings have implications for early childhood teacher decision making at the practice, research, and policy levels. Findings show that the dominance of the DAP discourse informing teacher decision making limits other ways of thinking and practising

Teachers in early childhood policy

This paper examines teacher accountability and authority in early childhood policy. It reports on data from a study that investigated the influences affecting early childhood teacher decision-making at the preschool level in Victoria, Australia. Using a question raised by Ball ‘Where are the teachers in all this [policy]?’ provided a starting point for the critical discourse analysis into how forms of control, teacher authority, obligation and constraint within policies potentially influenced teachers’ curriculum decisions. The study found that despite no government-mandated curriculum framework at the time, teachers were held accountable for their curricular practice. Yet as professionals, early childhood teachers were denied public acknowledgement of their expertise as they were almost invisible in policy. In the four policies analysed, proprietors of early childhood settings and preschool agencies held authority over curriculum. Subsequently, teachers’ authority as professionals with curricular knowledge was diminished

Intentional pedagogies: Insights from the past

CONTRIBUTING TO RECENT RESEARCH findings and discussion about educators’ multiple understandings and enactments of intentional teaching, this paper sheds light on why early childhood educators might find the practice of intentional teaching problematic. It presents research findings from a study conducted in the state of Victoria a decade ago that investigated how dominant discourses influence teacher decision making in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study found that teacher-directed practice was legitimated, marginalised and silenced by teachers in the study. Through the process of looking back to look forward, insights gained from a critical discourse analysis illustrate why intentional pedagogies, such as intentional teaching and teacher-directed practice, might be difficult pedagogical practices in ECEC in Australia

The intensification of performativity in early childhood education

Operating within a neoliberal education reform context, performativity and teaching in schools has been a focus of study for a number of years. However, less is known about the effects of performativity on teaching and curriculum in the early childhood (preschool) context. Making a case for the intensification of performativity in Australian early childhood education, this paper reports on findings from a doctoral study and draws on research literature from the past fourteen years to illustrate how performative measures have increasingly affected teaching and curriculum. The way that performativity has intensified is discussed in three chronological phases, performativity emerging, consolidating and normalised. Teacher interview transcripts and curricular related policies were analysed using critical discourse analysis and Ranson’s typology of accountability regimes. Findings reveal that early childhood teachers have different ways of responding to performativity, with the teacher featured in this paper displaying three types of performative accountability: anxiety, confidence, and disregard. An implication arising from this paper’s findings illustrates how the effects of performativity on teaching and curriculum can be complex, contradictory and at times, unintended

Tablet technologies in early childhood: pedagogical possibilities and limitations

Drawing from recent research literature, this article analyses the paradigmatic and pedagogical shifts occurring in early childhood education due to the emergence of new digital technologies. Over the past decade the role that computers and other digital technologies have played in supporting young children’s learning have been well documented. However, new pedagogical possibilities to support children’s play, learning and inquiries are arising due to tablet technologies (For example, Apple iPads, Kindle or Google Chrome OS). This article has reviewed and analysed recently published research findings in the Australian early childhood context (preschool through to the first year of primary school) considering how tablet technologies are used and understood in this environment. A critical discourse analysis has identified pedagogical possibilities and limitations experienced by teachers, children and their families, when tablet technologies are used as a resource to support children’s play and learning

Repositioning developmentalism

This chapter looks at the notion of the \u27developing child\u27. it commences with a discussion about critical thinking and questioning.Next, it provides an overview of what child development and developmentalism are in the ECEC context, and it critiques the way developmentalism is relied upon to inform practice in ECEC. In the final section readers are introduced to the concept of postdevelopmentalism (Blaise, 2005; Edwards, 2009) and how a postdevelopmental framework (Nolan and Kilderry, 2010) can reposition developmentalism