ERIC Number: EJ1401928
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1836-9391
EISSN: EISSN-0312-5033
"If We Can't Advocate for Ourselves, Nobody Else Will": Teacher Agency during Early Childhood Reform
Robertson, Natalie; Bussey, Katherine Anne; Morrissey, Anne-Marie
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, v48 n4 p281-293 2023
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 professionals. Throughout 2021 and 2022, a group of early childhood teachers employed in kindergartens across Melbourne participated in focus groups and interviews, sharing experiences of working with these initiatives and providing recommendations for their roll out. The Capability Approach has been used to analyse their experiences and recommendations to identify how teacher's agency was enabled and constrained. We identified three key recommendations for Governments to consider during current and future early childhood reforms to support an agentic profession. Specifically, focused support for teachers, an urgent need for increased consultation with the EC community and new opportunities for career progression were identified.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Advocacy, Professional Autonomy, Early Childhood Education, Educational Change, Kindergarten, Preschool Teachers
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A