A well-qualified, well-paid, stable workforce with high psychological and emotional wellbeing is critical to the provision of quality early childhood education and care, yet workforce shortages and high turnover persist in Australia and internationally. This paper uses ecological theory to conceptualise and make sense of findings from research…

Early childhood educators are key to delivering early childhood education and care (ECEC) for the benefit of children, their families and society alike. For the benefits of ECEC to be realised, however, the educators who deliver these services need to be well. Despite growing attention to attracting and retaining a high-quality early childhood…

Children's engagement in risk-taking has been on the agenda for early childhood education for the past 10-15 years. At a time when some say the minority world has become overly risk averse, early childhood education aims to support confident, competent and resilient children through the inclusion of beneficial risk in early childhood education.…

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 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…

Both the concept of well-being and the work of early childhood educators are complex. To date, research concerning educators' well-being has lacked a comprehensive conceptualisation that reflects these complexities. With increased research, policy and practice attention, a clearly articulated conceptualisation is now needed to guide empirical…

Provision of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) supports children's learning with strong agreement that early childhood teachers (ECTs) are central to quality provision. In many countries, it is mandatory that ECEC services employ ECTs. However, Australian ECT employers report that early childhood graduates are not always…

Children's risk-taking is increasingly acknowledged as an important part of early childhood education. Previous research has predominantly focussed on children's engagement with, and educators' perspectives on, children's risk-taking in outdoor physical play. However, little attention has been paid to how educators conceptualise children's…

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…

Children's well-being has received extensive research attention and has a central role in early childhood policy and curricular guidelines. However, the well-being of early childhood educators has received fragmentary research attention and is unacknowledged in policy and curricular documents. Given the seemingly self-evident links between…

A considerable body of research suggests that knowledgeable and skilled educators are key to the quality of early childhood services. However, the skills and knowledge of educators is subject to being underestimated and contested. In response, the Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work Study has been designed to bring to light the distinctive…

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…

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.…

Studies of early childhood educators' perceptions of work intensity and complexity have shown that ensuring a good balance between workload and the time needed to complete the work is critical for work quality, work satisfaction, and staff retention. This article explores the possibilities of time-use data for making visible the diversity and…