The early phases of teachers' professional careers are multi-layered and informed by many factors, including teachers' values, their own experiences in schools, and the nested contexts of their professional employment. While in teachers' everyday lives government policies sometimes operate beneath the surface rather than overtly, these policies…

This report explores the support that early career teachers | kaiako (ECT|K) in English-medium early childhood education, primary, and secondary centres need. It includes an examination of aspects of the mentoring process that are working well for both ECT|K and their mentors and suggests ways this support could be improved. Additionally, the…

This article reports on a focus group study of newly qualified early childhood teachers' experiences during their first year of teaching. It argues that focus groups have the potential to invite dialogical engagement in ways that support teachers' exploration of their own identities, and it emphasises the significant role group context plays in…

Dominant discourses on professional development for teachers internationally are increasingly geared to the priority of ensuring individual teachers are meeting prescribed standards-based performance benchmarks which we call "performativities" in this paper. While this intent is invariably played out in individualised performance…

Relational professionalism in early childhood teaching has been described as reflecting professional ethic of care values, as well as historical maternalist views. In Aotearoa/New Zealand, early childhood teachers negotiate conflicting contexts of professionalisation and maternalism. A strategic plan for early childhood education has emphasised…

This paper draws on a 3-year evaluation of induction and mentoring in New Zealand early childhood education settings and schools conducted by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) for the New Zealand Teachers Council (the Council), now called the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. The study sought to establish the impact…

Early childhood teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand negotiate their personal professional identities within the context of a nationally organised and regulated education sector. Early childhood teaching has become increasingly professionalised. Emphasis on qualifications and professional standards has constrained possible ways of being early…

Beginning teaching is challenging; this article examines the realities of practice for beginning early childhood teachers. Fourteen participants in their first year of teaching were interviewed; they worked in private and public early childhood education settings. Findings reveal that the reality of moving from the role of the student to teacher…

Early childhood practitioners' professionalism is a contested concept, with interpretations that include professionalisms based on qualifications, on accountability, on relational skills and on critical advocacy. Understandings of professionalism as situated in ecological frameworks rather than within individuals have led to the concept of a…

This paper describes teacher responses to a framework designed to support teacher planning for technology. It includes a learning experience outside the classroom [LEOTC] and is designed specifically for five-year-old students. The planning framework draws together characteristics of technology education, junior primary classrooms and LEOTC to…