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Global early childhood education workforce shortages have highlighted the importance of recruitment and retention. The development of effective leadership has not been a retention policy focus even though effective leadership has been identified as an important driver for improving working conditions and supporting educator retention. The aim of this research was to investigate what factors affect retention focussing on retention challenges for leaders in an under researched context. Participants were 34 early childhood educators in the Northern Territory of Australia. A constructivist grounded theory methodology framed the research and the data analysis, and a constant comparative method was used to generate categories. The lack of learning on leadership, coupled with competing priorities, were identified as critical factors that contribute to increased attrition. However, informal mentoring was found to support both the positional and emerging leaders, increasing the probability of their retention regardless of their access to leadership development.

Leadership is a relational practice that influences early childhood teachers' (ECTs) capability for agency. Agency contributes to the job satisfaction, wellbeing, and retention of ECTs-which are of pressing importance in a climate of global early childhood workforce sustainability challenges. Empirical insights presented in this paper explore the qualities of supportive relationships between positional leaders and ECTs which afford agency. Findings from a qualitative multiple case study that analysed the relationship between ECT agency and retention are provided. Data were collected from six ECTs, five service leaders, and two policy agents working in Victoria, Australia. Through the theoretical lens of Sen's Capability Approach and Gramsci's theory of hegemony, it is argued that positional leaders must cultivate supportive relationships with ECTs despite the neoliberal hegemony that fosters a culture of managerialism. Supportive relationships involve leaders who recognise ECTs' personhood, cultivate encouragement, trust, and respect, and prioritise emotional and psychological safety.

Leadership competencies in early childhood (EC) education present an intricate policy and practice landscape. This article provides insights into these complexities and shares a novel survey evaluation tool that can be used in services for identifying leadership competencies and gaps for ongoing professional development. The research employed a two-phase approach involving thematic analysis of governing documents and focus group interview data. This resulted in the development of five core domains of leadership competencies represented throughout a survey tool. The subsequent validation of the survey revealed both self-identified roles and demonstrated competencies among educators in Western Australian EC services. The article sheds light on discrepancies between perceived and observed leadership, suggesting the need for tailored professional development and succession planning. Insights into these dynamics contribute to a deeper understanding of effective leadership practices, offering a foundation for ongoing discourse and continual enhancement of leadership competencies in the context of EC education.

Educators working in early childhood education play a critical role in enhancing outcomes for children and families through active leadership. However, there are persistent paradoxical perceptions regarding the practical implementation of followership alongside leadership. This article addresses this followership paradox, as a key finding drawn from a larger doctoral study that explored followership practices in Australian early childhood education settings. By examining educators' understandings of followership through the lens of established followership theories, and employing multi-site ethnography and reflexive thematic analysis, contradictory understandings were unearthed. Despite observing educators enacting effective followership behaviours, participants predominantly hold negative connotations associated with the role. These findings highlight the urgent need to acknowledge and appreciate the role of followers and their impact in co-creating quality workplace outcomes in early education settings. The article argues for integrating followership training alongside leadership development to foster more cohesive early childhood environments.

Rapid technology advancements and global responses to sustainability have had a transformational impact on education in the 21st century. As early childhood teachers in Aotearoa/New Zealand respond these challenges, many have recognised the potential inquiry-based project learning (IBPL) has to transform learning for children through empowering them to discover answers through collaboration, representation, reflection and dialogue. This paper explores a current research project in Aotearoa/New Zealand examining how early childhood teachers have interpreted global and local discourses on IBPL and how this impacts children's learning. The research utilised narrative inquiry to examine the experiences of six early childhood communities using this approach. The study found that IBPL contributes to environments of wellbeing and sustained focus for both children and teachers when relationships and time are prioritised and inquiries are focused on place, and that this approach can create pathways for early childhood teachers to enact rich bi-cultural practice.

This article discusses infant-toddler educators' perspectives of using the Observe, Reflect, Improve Children's Learning tool (ORICL) in practice. ORICL is a new tool informed by implementation science and co-designed with Australian early childhood education and care policy-makers, practitioners, and service providers. It aims to support infant-toddler educators to observe, reflect on, assess, and improve the quality of individual children's learning experiences. Twenty-one educators working in Australian long day care and family day care services participated in the study, with a total of 66 ORICLs being completed for children ranging from 7 to 33 months of age. Educators also participated in an interview to share their experiences of using ORICL in practice. Findings show that ORICL enhanced educators' understandings of infants' and toddlers' learning, development and wellbeing, and educators' critical reflection. ORICL also helped educators to notice interactions, document and plan for children's learning, and communicate children's learning to others.

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 focus groups with 52 centre directors/educators of ECE services in regional and remote areas of NSW, followed by a survey completed by centre directors/educators in 37 services, to identify the most relevant and pressing barriers to children's participation, and their views on what can be done to support children's participation. Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (1995), multi-tiered barriers to children's participation were identified, revealing that the entrenched problem of children's non-participation in high quality ECE requires a nuanced and holistic policy approach that operates at the familial, service, community and socio-political level, targeting the specific challenges faced by communities.

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 participated in semi-structured interviews to explore the experience, processes and resources that supported the implementation of Acknowledgement practices. Acknowledgement practices were not limited to a daily protocol but embedded in each centre's physical place and programming. Wanting to be respectful yet fearing offending Aboriginal people, most educators expressed feelings of uncertainty and under-confidence about what to do. Developing relationships with local Aboriginal people and identifying resources were also concerns. Acting from the heart with good intentions was regarded as a way forward together, with commitment, resources and a strong distributed pedagogical leadership culture, where educators felt supported to take small yet foundational steps.

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 children. Various conceptualisations of play and play-based learning influence the decisions adults make about the provision of play in early childhood. This can make it difficult to support adults in their understandings of the need for play in young children's lives. We propose that more needs to be known about what significant adults think play is. This new knowledge would enhance professional learning and parent education programs in the early childhood education and care sector for increasing children's opportunities to learn through play.

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 biographical interviews from an Australian Research Council Linkage project Identifying Effective Strategies to Grow and Sustain a Professional Early Years Workforce. Research reported here applies a social constructivist framework to investigate the personal and structural characteristics of educators studying at Certificate III, Diploma, Bachelor and Master levels of Australia's regulated qualifications and training system. An important finding is that the legislative provisions of Australia's National Quality Framework is a key driver for educator engagement in education and training. The paper highlights the importance of clear qualification pathways in raising the professionalism of the ECEC workforce in Australia.

It has been well-established that highly gendered, early childhood education workforces face major temporal, material, physical and psychological barriers to being well. This issue is particularly pressing in this political moment: a national childcare policy program is being rolled out for the first time in Canadian history. It is in this context that we take a grounded theory methodological approach, rooted in feminist care ethics, to centre and analyse the voices of early childhood educators in both conceptualising well-being and identifying ideas and strategies for moving closer to it. We suggest that concurrently addressing the material and discussive value of early childhood educators is necessary to disrupt existing social structures that rely on early childhood educator's exploitation. We conclude that truly dismantling what is and building a something better can only be done when early childhood educators' voices and embodied experiences are centered in the decision-making process.

This paper explores how leadership is addressed within Australia's National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy (ACECQA, 2021). The Workforce Strategy has been widely welcomed, arriving at a time of unprecedented workforce pressures in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. Yet, on close examination there appears an absence of focus on leaders as a distinct group within the ECEC workforce. Considering leadership is unequivocally central to retaining and sustaining early childhood educators, this absence of focus is noteworthy. First, the paper unpacks what is currently known about ECEC leadership. Then, how leadership in the policies under consideration is constructed as a problem in relation to quality and capability. Next, silences and ambiguities in how the strategy addresses the retention of leaders and their wellbeing is discussed. Ultimately it is argued that we need more understanding of the experiences of leaders as a distinct subset of the ECEC workforce.

Early childhood (EC) professionals are valuable educators and teachers, and their work involves being caregivers, yet the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the lack of 'caring about' and 'for' EC professionals. With the increasing focus on educator wellbeing, this paper explores how eight EC professionals understand the role of care for their wellbeing. Drawing upon a feminist ethics of care, this paper interrogates the role of care in the everyday professional work lives of educators. The findings reveal that while EC professionals understand the importance of self-care, however, their self-care is more likely to be prioritised when it is promoted by leadership (e.g., centre directors, organisational). This study also found that EC professionals need to receive care through recognition by parents, centre leaders and colleagues.

Internationally, there are growing concerns about the work-related well-being of early childhood teachers. There is currently limited guidance around specific practices teachers can use to support their well-being when challenges arise while teaching. Mindful self-compassion practice, which has elements of mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness, has been found to have benefits for supporting holistic well-being both 'in the moment' and in the long term. This paper reports on a research project in Aotearoa New Zealand which used a qualitative methodology of mindful inquiry to explore 12 teachers' experiences of the practice of mindful self-compassion. Findings identified that being mindfully self-compassionate supported teachers' self-awareness; enabled recognition of their common humanity; and supported the teachers to respond to challenging moments with self-kindness, which contributed to their well-being. These findings have implications for initial teacher education, those who work in the early childhood sector, and early childhood leaders and policy makers.

The NOURISH:ECE project explored the role of maternal and child health nurses (MCHNs) in early childhood education and care (ECEC) through the design and pilot of professional learning (PL) regarding responsive feeding practices. Eight focus groups were conducted in Queensland (MCHNs, n = 20; educators, n = 29) to explore attitudes regarding partnerships, PL, and feeding practices. Subsequently, a PL module was developed - incorporating videos, group discussion and reflection -- and delivered to 64 educators by a MCHN. Educator practices were compared pre- and post-PL. The proportion of meals at which an educator was observed to use responsive feeding practices increased (praise for eating healthy foods, 11.3%-29.2%), but educators were observed pressuring children to eat more often (19.9%-40.1%). NOURISH:ECE provided promising preliminary results regarding PL. However, adequate resourcing and workforce issues in both sectors are barriers to developing effective partnerships across education and health.

Recent research suggests there is a lacking presence of assessment and its role in informing intentional teaching in the practice of play-based pedagogy. Formative assessment can be effectively embedded in pedagogy when practitioners are geared with practical tools that can be implemented within naturalistic settings. In recent times, there has been growing recognition of the importance of mathematics learning in early childhood education as foundational for later learning. This newly developed assessment -- the Numeracy and Mathematics Block-Based Assessment (NUMBBA) -- aims to embed formative assessment practice within multiple pedagogies for play and learning. The results from the qualitative component of a larger mixed-methods study examined how this validated tool was used by 16 early childhood educators. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed shifts in educators' knowledge of mathematics, perceptions of children's abilities, attitudes towards mathematics and assessment, and approaches to intentional mathematical pedagogy and practice

Despite the role pedagogical leadership plays in quality early childhood education and care services, limited research to date has explored the appointment and enactment of educational leaders in Australia. This qualitative study explored the role and influence of two educational leaders in a high-quality rated service. Findings revealed that these educational leaders' exercising of distributed and transformational leadership enabled ongoing quality improvement. Appointing the 'right' person; a supportive, effective and cohesive team; the whole-of centre valuing of the educational leaders and their role; investment of resources; and professional autonomy, were identified as key enablers of quality education across the service. As the first study to investigate the educational leader role in an 'excellent'-rated service in Australia, this study highlights that the effectiveness of an EL is dependent on the person in the EL role and the context in which they are working. Implications for policy and service providers are discussed.

The goal of this qualitative study was to understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on early childhood educators' well-being in Australia and to identify strategies for supporting educator well-being throughout this crisis. Data were gathered using a multi-site case study with five Senior Managers or CEOs of early childhood education and care organisations. Using elite interviews, participants were asked how the pandemic impacted educator well-being and what strategies their organisations implemented to support educator well-being. Guided by a phenomenological framework, thematic analysis was used to interpret the interviews. Participants reported that educator well-being was negatively impacted by exposure to physical risk, fear and anxiety, financial stress and feelings of betrayal. Participants reported supporting educator well-being through crisis-planning, increased and focused communication, support for physical safety, well-being resources and programmes, and advocacy for and recognition of educators' contributions to society. Implications for critical incident planning in ECEC are discussed.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) educators' well-being and emotional demands during COVID require careful attention. This article explores the emotional demands experienced by ECEC educators in Australia during ongoing periods of lockdown. A survey was designed to gather quantitative and qualitative data and participants were asked to participate in in-depth interviews. Thirty participants were interviewed to explore personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic; of these, a selected sample of six participants is presented, drawing on Honneth (1995) as an analytical framework. The findings show ECEC educators struggle for recognition and how solidarity amongst educators emerged as a key response. Implications provide impetus for the active recognition of the early childhood profession. Solidarity as a new concept in ECEC includes the recognition of the early childhood profession at a societal level, recognising the significant professional work early childhood educators accomplish, and their struggle during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Autism is a developmental condition that can be detected in early childhood. Early intervention can improve outcomes, though many children are not identified until they reach primary school. Early childhood educators are well placed to monitor children's development and identify those who may benefit from additional supports, though implementation of standardised tools and processes is limited. The National Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia has increased the onus on educators to support families to access funded services. A workshop on evidence-informed practice in early detection for autism was provided for early childhood professionals. The theory of practice architectures informed development and analysis of pre- and post-workshop surveys to explore changes in early childhood educators' perspectives on factors influencing universal developmental monitoring and referrals to early intervention supports using an evidence-based tool, the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance-Revised (SACS-R). Post-workshop increases in early childhood educators' perceived knowledge and confidence are evident, though recent policy reforms present challenges. Population surveillance using SACS-R in early childhood education is effective for identification and referral for children who have autism, and capacity building for professionals to use SACS-R is recommended.

This paper reports from a pilot study investigating the ways digital documentation platforms are changing educators' work in early childhood education. Digital documentation platforms are secure websites or application software, enabled by computer, smartphone, or tablet technologies, allowing educators to record observations of children's learning as text or in visual forms, to which interpretations or commentary from educators, family members, and children are added. This paper examines how these platforms orient the ways educators see and articulate young children's learning. Video stimulated recall interviews with educators (six in total) at four ECE sites across Australia and New Zealand were analysed. Key concepts are offered in relation to how digital platforms shape the learning that is seen by early childhood educators: tag-ability, trackability, completeness, and co-constitution. Each of these concepts is problematised in relation to contemporary ECE practices and the persuasiveness and ubiquity of the visual in discourses of documentation.

While early childhood educators' use of digital applications (apps) to document children's experiences and support parent communication is increasing, there is limited empirical research about the impact of these applications on children's experiences and educators' practices. This article provides a critical analysis of the findings from this body of research with a focus on affordances and challenges. While the research supports potential benefits for parent engagement and pedagogy, a range of challenges relating to content, access, equity, workload and ethics are highlighted. Features of the neoliberal contextual that may enable the increasing use of apps and shape the way they are used are considered, and opportunities for future research to further critique, enhance understandings and inform practice proposed.

Early childhood teachers' professional learning and development (PLD) is a significant factor in the provision of quality early childhood education (ECE), yet gaining a full picture of PLD in the New Zealand ECE context is problematic. Information about government-funded PLD programmes is available through evaluations, however, teachers access PLD from a range of providers, many of whom are not government-funded, nor subject to regular monitoring for quality. Teachers' reports, therefore, represent important sources of insight into PLD. We surveyed New Zealand early childhood teachers about their experiences of PLD, including topics, delivery, and facilitation. We analysed 345 responses. Workshops were the most commonly experienced PLD model. Many respondents had also experienced job-embedded support, but may not have experienced the types of facilitation strategies likely to prompt shifts in teaching practice. This article reports the survey results, examines implications and discusses features of PLD that support shifts in teaching practice.

A child's right to high quality education not only relies on a competent and skilled workforce, but one in which educators are well. Supporting a well workforce requires governments, organisations and educators to attend to work environment quality. This attention needs be based on sound, relevant evidence. In this paper we contribute evidence of educators' well-being from the survey component of an Australian study with 73 participants. We map results against international guidelines, and policy openings in Australia's "National Quality Standard" to understand how educators' work environments are affecting their well-being. We conclude that existing policies on quality in early childhood education in Australia attend to only some features of work environments, with a notable absence of attention to supporting educators in the relational complexities of their work. To enable educators to provide high quality education and care, greater attention is needed by organisations and governments to what quality work environments might look like.

Visual arts provisions are central to children's holistic, play-based learning, yet the visual arts self-efficacy beliefs and subject content knowledge of early childhood educators influence pedagogical choices. When early childhood educators lack the visual arts confidence, skills, and knowledge required to effectively support children's visual arts learning and engagement, children's learning in the visual arts domain may be restricted; resulting in a negative cycle of influence whereby the next generation are denied their right to access visual languages. Qualitative case study research explored the visual arts beliefs and pedagogy of 12 degree qualified and vocationally trained early childhood educators. The conceptual framework, designed to to interpret and analyse the research data, aligns Dewey's philosophies of democracy, education and art with the philosophy and visual arts praxis of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. The research findings suggest educator's low visual arts self-efficacy beliefs develop during childhood and are not improved by pre-service training, resulting in limited visual arts skills and knowledge. The research participants' visual arts pedagogy appeared to be strongly influenced by the experiential 'baggage' they carried into their pre-service training and practice contexts, by the participants' theoretical beliefs about children's development and by a range of divergent beliefs about the purposes of visual art in the early childhood context. Although training has the potential to broadly inform knowledge and practice, this study suggests that unless limiting visual arts self-efficacy beliefs are disrupted by constructivist theoretical knowledge and combined with practical skills and knowledge, the visual arts curriculum offered to children may be significantly compromised.

Extant literature on Early Childhood educator workplace well-being focuses on the disease model of well-being, with studies mainly addressing stress and burnout. There is a paucity of research conceptualising healthy workplace well-being for educators and an absence of theorising to frame, understand and enhance Early Childhood educator workplace well-being. This paper reports on Phase 2 of an exploratory sequential mixed methods study, which aimed to explore the individual, relational, and contextual factors influencing healthy workplace well-being. Using Phase 1 interview findings (Author, blind for review), a survey was developed to investigate predictors on workplace well-being in early childhood services in Australia. The survey drew on the sub-theory 'Basic psychological needs' of Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that autonomy, relatedness, and competence predicted workplace well-being even after controlling for demographic and organisation variables.

With an unprecedented number of children in early childhood education and care in Australia, demand for early childhood teachers is increasing. This demand is in the context of recognition of the importance of the early years and increasing requirements for more highly qualified early childhood teachers under the National Quality Framework. Increasingly, evidence shows the value-added difference of university-qualified teachers to child outcomes. Within Australia there are multiple ways to become an early childhood teacher. Three common approaches are a 4-year teaching degree to teach children aged birth to 5 years, children aged birth to 8 years, or children aged birth to 12 years. There is, however, no evidence of how effective these degree programmes are. This paper presents the perspectives of 19 employers of early childhood teachers in New South Wales regarding how well prepared early childhood teacher graduates are to work in the early childhood sector in Australia. Although participants noted the strengths of new graduate early childhood teachers, they also identified several areas in which they were less well prepared to teach in the early years.

This paper argues that whilst inclusive education in early childhood is gaining wider acceptance in the equity and diversity movement, the value and contribution of educators' voices about what is working and challenging are frequently ignored. This small-scale research explored five early childhood educators' understandings and experiences of inclusive education in two kindergartens in Victoria, Australia. A thematic analysis of the data highlights inclusion as a right to belong and fully participate; the need for modifications to orchestrate a culture of acceptance, diversity and inclusion; a lack of support and inadequate professional learning; and supporting effective practice through relationship with families, experts and children. The findings draw implications of evidence-based professional learning that is less focused on the interests of academic researchers and policy makers and more on the everyday needs of early childhood educators.

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.

Research highlights that early childhood teachers (ECTs) hold varied opinions on the value of superhero play (SP) to young children's learning and development. This study sought to investigate how ECTs in Victoria are responding to superhero play, and to examine the beliefs that underpin their responses. Interviews were conducted with eight ECTs from the Bayside area in Melbourne. The study revealed that while the majority of the teachers interviewed responded to children's superhero play in a variety of ways, there were a number of barriers to supporting superhero play in early childhood education and care settings. This paper concludes by identifying the value of ECTs engaging in critical reflection to ensure that their responses to superhero play are based on professional knowledge that is informed by theory and research.

Mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect is a complex yet essential responsibility tasked to many professional groups working with children, including the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. This paper provides a narrative review synthesising the empirical literature on factors influencing ECEC educators' reporting of child abuse and neglect, including knowledge and training, attitudes, thresholds for reporting, work experience and context, inter-organisational co-operation and self-efficacy. These factors can act as barriers and facilitators to effective reporting practice and are likely to interact in dynamic yet modifiable ways. Findings from the review may be useful for informing future education and training initiatives for the ECEC workforce. Further research is warranted in this area.

With Australia's overwhelming 'Yes' vote on marriage equality in November 2017, the need for early childhood educators to ensure that understandings of 'family' reflected in early childhood education and care settings include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) parents and their children, is further reinforced. Here, a review of recent literature is framed by an ecological systems approach in order to identify key influences on the lived experiences of LGBTIQ parents and their children in the context of early learning centres. Attention is drawn to the need for further research that identifies how best to equip early childhood educators to ensure that all children and their families feel a sense of belonging and representation in their early childhood education settings.

Historically, research on educator wellbeing has focused on ill health including stress, burnout and emotional exhaustion. There is a dearth of research examining healthy workplace wellbeing among early childhood educators, which makes developing strategies to support their wellbeing difficult. Moreover, there is a lack of clarity about the concept of educator workplace wellbeing and a lack of understanding of the complex interplay between factors supporting and thwarting wellbeing within long day-care centres. This two-phase study used a mixed-methods research design. Presented in this paper are the findings from phase one. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 early childhood educators in long day-care centres reflected on educator workplace wellbeing as a broad concept encompassing social, emotional, physical and economic factors. Educator 'voices' provided insight into the individual, relational and contextual elements impacting on their personal workplace wellbeing.

This paper engages with multiplicity in methodology through reflections on a dance and risky play research project in a shared problematisation of children's physical activity. A research-practitioner team explored perspectives on physical activity and risky play through dance. This project aimed to distance itself from the idea of an expert other in both research and professional development -- an approach that employs a Foucauldian reading of power/knowledge to make sense of the multiplicity of agendas around dance and physical activity. One early childhood centre teaching team participated in two focus groups (pre and post) and a workshop. The workshop conducted in the centre was designed in response to the first focus group, applying creative dance elements within the Aotearoa New Zealand curriculum concept of people, places and things, indoors and outdoors. We reflect on how the relationships to expert knowledge emerged and aligned with the research aims and design.

Evidence was gathered from an Australian long day care project 'Educators of babies and toddlers; developing a culture of critical reflection'. A cultural-historical theoretical approach was sensitively interwoven with visual methodology. The innovative combination of visual methodology and cultural-historical theory involved the creation of three Collaborative Forums. The Collaborative Forums aimed for participants to collectively unravel their pedagogical knowledge. The visual methodology involved research tools such as video observations, images, collaborative drawings and group interview transcripts. The research tools of mapping promises and collaborative drawing provided opportunity to imagine and map educators' pedagogical practices. The act of collaborative drawing was an improvised and imagined activity that strengthened understanding of the multiplicity of educators' promises. The collaborative drawing elicited discussion that created an expansive collective agenda. Collaborative drawing offered an innovative research tool with ongoing capacity to generate expertise for imagining ideal practices for infant-toddler research. The findings suggest that collaborative drawing with educators is a creative and imaginative tool for expanding the infant-toddler research agenda.

National Assessment Program for Numeracy and Literacy (NAPLAN) is the national assessment programme for literacy and numeracy in Australia administered to children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each year. The testing process was introduced in 2008 and is described by the developers as low stakes, however, research has highlighted that this is not the case. This paper examines the perceptions of teachers in the early years of school on the impact NAPLAN has on wellbeing of stakeholders, and the pedagogy and curriculum in early years teachers' classrooms. Through focus group interviews, the early childhood teachers in 10 independent Western Australian school sites were asked about their experiences of NAPLAN in terms of their wellbeing and that of the children and families with whom they interact. Findings highlight that early years teachers describe that the impact of NAPLAN is felt in the lower years of school by all stakeholders-parents, children and teachers. This study highlights the need for additional research in this area, particularly in diverse settings, to gain evidence of impact that could inform the practice of the NAPLAN testing programme.

There is growing evidence that coaching early childhood educators leads to higher quality teaching practices and improved child learning outcomes. Despite this, there is a lack of Australian evidence on the impact that coaching in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams in early childhood education and care settings has on teacher effectiveness and by extension child learning. This paper will draw on data from two collaborative interdisciplinary research projects -- the "Victorian Advancing Early Learning Study" and the "Every Toddler Talking Initiative" -- to explore the features of coaching, collaboration and interdisciplinary partnerships that support early childhood educators to engage in the process of continuous improvement. We argue that governance and leadership is critical in enabling interdisciplinary teams to engage in a collaborative process of continuous improvement and that threshold conditions are required within early childhood education and care services to foster interdisciplinary coaching collaborations in a sustained manner.

Educational change is dependent on the practices and perceptions of educators. Yet efforts to sustain teacher's adoption and implementation of reform packages often deteriorate over time. Monitoring educators' engagement across the reform process, and making adaptions to reflect key findings, is central to successful implementation. This cultural-historical study explored trends in early childhood educators' perceptions of an Australian nation-wide educational reform, making recommendations based on the findings. Results from the Baseline Evaluations of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) represented the initiation phase, whilst an online questionnaire explored educators' attitudes and concerns four years on. Data analysis included a thematic and content analysis where the dialects of everyday concepts and scientific concepts helped give meaning to the clusters found. Whilst findings show an overall positive orientation towards the EYLF, concerns are evident at both moments in time. Although this initially suggests educators have not progressed in their implementation of the framework, a theorisation of the results suggests educators are seeking effective means of transforming professional concepts of the EYLF into practice.

It could be suggested that persistent workforce problems in the early childhood (EC) field in Australia -- such as job satisfaction and turnover may be related to ineffective leadership practices, low pay and lack of professional acknowledgement. In this article we report on a small qualitative study completed in 2017, investigating 12 educators' experiences of what could be described as 'dark side' leadership practices. Purposeful sampling was used to select educators who had expressed dissatisfaction with leaders on a Facebook forum for early childhood educators. Findings revealed all of Oplatka's elements of 'dark side' leadership practices and ideologies at work, with the addition of two new types of 'dark side' leadership practices -- 'acts of courage' and 'meat in the sandwich'. The evidence these data provide of regulatory breaches, discrimination and bullying highlight the critical need for action by employers, regulatory authorities and unions to better support educators and their leaders in their work environments.

This article describes a study of early childhood teachers' understanding of teaching and learning in children 4 and 5 years of age in technology education. The research aimed at assisting teachers' understanding of learning in technology using a developed framework. This study investigated the development of dispositions and attitudes including the building of children's confidence and self-belief in their capabilities, within four aspects of learning and across five predetermined behaviours relevant to technology education. The study employed qualitative research methods to assist teachers with the use of an observation and conversation framework aimed to improve their ability to assess formatively their children and their own ability to give specific feedback. Observations and interviews were used to gauge teachers' developed understandings of children's learning in technology. The study shows that the framework used benefitted teachers and children. It allowed for insight into understanding how and what children learn in technology and teachers' understanding of technology.

Smooth transitions through the early years of education are recognised as pivotal to later personal and academic success. However, for children considered outside the mainstream, these transitions can provide extra challenge for them, their families and educators. This paper reveals the findings of two qualitative studies investigating early years' transitions. The first study focused on the transition of children with disabilities into early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres; the second explored transition to school for emergent bilingual children. These studies highlight 'strengths-based' perspectives (Perry, Dockett, & Petriwskyj, 2013), wherein participants are understood as experts in their own lives bringing strengths as well as challenges to the new context. Despite the differences in participants, timing and methods, key themes were evident across the studies: parent perceptions of transition; educator attitudes; and home/centre or home/school relationships. These themes are significant to all educational transitions for children considered outside the mainstream.

There is well-established evidence that the quality of early childhood education workforce impacts upon children's learning. Attracting qualified teacher graduates to work in early childhood centres is an essential component towards the provision of quality care. Significant investment by the Australian Government has been made to prepare early childhood teachers, yet teaching at this level is characterised by poorer working conditions compared with primary school teachers. Various programme models qualify applicants as early childhood teachers, yet there is no evidence of the most appropriate model. Our study's focus was to identify reasons for entering a teacher education programme, career intentions and satisfaction of pre-service teachers enrolled in early childhood/primary degree programmes at two Australian universities. Findings demonstrate that the degrees were not fulfilling the government investment goals for increasing early childhood teacher numbers, nor were the degrees meeting student expectation for an early childhood teaching career. We argue that renewed policy strategies are required to support new early childhood graduates and professionals, and attract teachers to work in early childhood education.

The special issue of the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood focuses on the theme of leadership in early childhood education. The articles challenge traditional notions of leadership based on assertiveness and heroism, emphasizing the need for leadership that addresses complex challenges in the contemporary world. The collection of papers explores various aspects of early childhood leadership, including competencies, relational dynamics, agency, followership, recruitment, and retention strategies. The issue also pays tribute to Professor Manjula Waniganayake, whose work has significantly influenced the field of early childhood education leadership. [Extracted from the article]

This paper describes a case study using quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate student engagement and retention within an online early childhood teacher education program at a regional Australian university. Two key interventions, the identification and support of disengaged students and the Embedded Tutors Program are described and examined. Initial findings on these retention initiatives, developed to support Early Childhood Education undergraduates studying in the online environment, are presented. Additionally, discussion of the findings through the theory of practice architectures highlights the practices and institutional arrangements that create the conditions to support student retention. This study is significant in planning for Early Childhood Education workforce quality and supply. It may offer guidance to institutions for their retention practices with early childhood teacher undergraduates studying in the online environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid technology advancements and global responses to sustainability have had a transformational impact on education in the 21st century. As early childhood teachers in Aotearoa/New Zealand respond these challenges, many have recognised the potential inquiry-based project learning (IBPL) has to transform learning for children through empowering them to discover answers through collaboration, representation, reflection and dialogue. This paper explores a current research project in Aotearoa/New Zealand examining how early childhood teachers have interpreted global and local discourses on IBPL and how this impacts children's learning. The research utilised narrative inquiry to examine the experiences of six early childhood communities using this approach. The study found that IBPL contributes to environments of wellbeing and sustained focus for both children and teachers when relationships and time are prioritised and inquiries are focused on place, and that this approach can create pathways for early childhood teachers to enact rich bi-cultural practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the challenges faced by the early childhood workforce, including workforce shortages, turnover, and the impact of COVID-19. Topics include research efforts to move beyond identifying problems to finding solutions, critiques of existing strategies, and proposals for alternative approaches.

Early childhood pedagogical practice in primary schools is often challenged by academic demands, debate about best practice and ongoing change through new policy initiatives. This paper reports an investigation of how early childhood pedagogical leaders assist early years teachers in schools to embrace change and embed early childhood pedagogy. Framed within a constructivist epistemology, this paper reports on findings from three case studies drawn from a larger mixed-methods study from Perth, Western Australia. Data collected through shadowing pedagogical leaders, undertaking contextual interviews and analysing school documents revealed that pedagogical change was promoted, encouraged and sustained through a number of strategies. These included utilising early childhood champions, developing relational trust with staff, establishing communities of practice and empowering teachers as decision-makers. This paper highlights the critical role early childhood pedagogical leadership can play in recognising the professional capability of early childhood teachers to drive ongoing improvement in school contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]