The teaching and learning of design technology that occurs in nature-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) contexts such as nature kindergartens remains under-theorised. There is a growing body of scholarship that describes how teaching and learning occurs in these contexts as well as highlighting the benefits for young children learning…

Despite the acknowledged complexity and time pressures of early childhood educators' work, very few studies have examined the nature of this work, minute-by-minute, over the working day. This paper reports on data gathered through 10,155 time-use diary (TUD) records provided by 321 educators participating in the Exemplary Early Childhood Educators…

This article considers how teachers' encounters with a newly built learning space are complicit in the practices performed in that space. It builds on previous research into the relationship between learning spaces and pedagogical change by highlighting the acoustic aspects and how they were perceived by teachers in a primary school. Over two…

This paper presents data from interviews undertaken with teachers and parents of children who attend Australian bush kinders (kindergartens). The bush kinder approach is a recent adaptation of the European and UK forest school approaches, one that continues to gain momentum as increasingly teachers and parents come to understand the benefits…

Recent research indicates that teachers have the predominant role in organising early childhood classrooms in Australia. Not much is known about the involvement of children in organising the kindergarten classroom in Queensland, Australia. There is even less research that considers how the play equipment, utensils, resources and the classroom…

In this research, feminist post-structuralism and queer theory were used to examine Australian early childhood educators' views on children's gender identity development, and the content on gender in the Australian Government's Early Years Learning Framework. The methodology and study design were based upon qualitative phenomenological research…

Children's transition to school has been widely investigated, but most studies do not clearly define its starting point. By drawing on the cultural-historical concept of the social situation of development, and selecting 'role adjustment' as the unit of analysis, this paper seeks to clearly define the starting point of children's transition to…

Evidence shows that when young children's diverse language heritages are valued and supported, there are benefits for their linguistic and conceptual development, their sense of identity and their learning. However, there are few early learning settings in Australia which nurture young children's bilingual repertoires. And, while it is well…

The "Melbourne Declaration" (2008) set the national priorities for education with a focus on the vital role schools play in social emotional development, thus preparing students for life and citizenship. More than a decade on, there is little evidence to demonstrate how Australian schools are fostering the social emotional development of…

Based on an experiment with 5452 kindergarten school children from 15 cities, this article examines the effect of a customised spiritual education programme (SEP) on their quality of life. Results showed that treatment group kindergarteners who participated in the SEP had higher scores on the Pictured Child Quality of Life Self-Questionnaire in…

This paper reports on findings from four case studies, as part of a large-scale study undertaken to evaluate the KindiLink initiative across Western Australia in remote, regional and metropolitan communities. KindiLink is an educator-led playgroup initiative in public school sites in Western Australia targeted at Aboriginal children and their…

Recent significant changes in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analysis have a wide impact in many areas of human societies, not least in education. Advances in efficiency of new technologies, with impacts in renewable energy and transport affected by environmental concerns and climate change mitigation, demand a…

This occasional paper is the seventh in a series on the National Quality Framework (NQF). It explores the quality of children's education and care services based on the socio-economic status of the area in which they are situated. The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) is…

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…

Using both child-guided and adult-guided learning, Intentional Teaching in the early years can be a powerful tool for enhancing young children's numeracy skills. As Epstein (2009) notes, this can include providing "opportunities for children to represent things by drawing, building and moving" (p. 47). This paper investigates how…