This paper explores the role of autonomy in teachers' Continuing Professional Development (CPD), specifically through practitioner research in the UK Further Education (FE) sector. By addressing challenges such as performativity and 'best practice,' it argues for a model of CPD that emphasises teacher autonomy, allowing for self-reflection,…

The Victorian Government has engaged in multiple reforms in early childhood education and care, marketed to support quality education and increase investment in social reform. Initiatives accompanying reforms, aiming to assist teacher knowledge and skills. However, with each new initiative more pressures are placed on early childhood…

Early childhood teachers utilise a variety of strategies to promote movement and physical activity (MOPA) in ECEC settings. However, less is known about the processes that underpin these strategies. Using the ecological view of teacher agency, we explored how early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers from the Philippines actively…

The aim of the research was to investigate the methods used by preschool student teachers when developing their educational programmes at pre-primary level (ISCED 02). Data were collected between 2020 and 2021 using a questionnaire with 355 part-time students from nine universities across the Czech Republic. Most of the respondents were also…

Research Findings: This study explored the relationship between family-work conflict and autonomy support among Chinese kindergarten teachers. Autonomous motivation and ego depletion were considered as the mediator and moderator, respectively. A total of 859 kindergarten teachers were recruited and surveyed online. The results showed that (1)…

Job crafting is the process of individuals redefining and adjusting their job in personally meaningful ways to improve their work experience. In this multiple case study, we explore how a group of kindergarten teachers conducted job crafting and examine its potential outcomes. Based on criterion sampling and purposeful selection, we recruit 28…

In this paper, we ponder the ecologies of spacetimematterings folded into resistance practices and their relationality with figurations of agency outside and beyond datafication agendas. Accountability cultures bound up with datafication have consequences that include a diminished agency for both children and educators. We take inspiration from…

This article explains how early childhood education (ECE) teachers in Chile participate in ECE teachers' Professional Associations and Unions (ECEPAUs), building professionalism amid a constraining context composed of an entirely feminized workforce, and educational policies influenced by neoliberalism. Following the Constructivist-Grounded Theory…

Neoliberal reforms have transformed the early childhood education (ECE) landscape worldwide. The purpose of ECE, what counts as early education and care, and "in" ECE has been dangerously narrowed to the production of human capital and rationalised by the myth that investing in young children (human capital) will guarantee a better…

Physical classroom environments for young children and the quality of those environments have typically been studied by utilizing various rating scales. Research is limited on early childhood educators' perspectives and decision-making processes in striving to create optimal physical classroom environments during the school year. This qualitative…

This article honours Amy Levai, nee O'Donoghue (1930-2013) who was a member of the Stolen Generations and South Australia's first Aboriginal woman to qualify as an infant teacher. Beginning with Amy's childhood at Colebrook Home and schooling, the article highlights her agency and resilience in countering racism to qualify and teach in the South…

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…

Issues of Early Childhood Teacher (ECT) shortages, recruitment, and retention are of concern in many nations, with ECT attrition being a contributing factor. Simultaneously, scholars argue that neoliberal influences are restricting the agency of ECTs. This article explores the relationship between ECT attrition and agency by re-examining…

This study explored changes in preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching in early childhood education during teaching practicums in China. Data from four preservice teachers' beliefs were collected through interviews and reflection journals. Based on Bronfenbrenner's theory, an ecological system framework was used to explore the change factors.…

Scholarship remains divided about whether emotional labor is 'skilled'. Interrogating gendered skill constructs that render emotions in work invisible, I examine two organizational contexts in the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector: family and center-based care. I draw from 43 interviews, primarily with Latina and White women…