This article both supports and complicates the positioning of reconceptualists who frame the regulation of early childhood services as repressive. Drawing on Foucault's construction of power and, in particular, his notion of an "analytics of power", the authors analyse findings from an Australian study investigating university-qualified…

This research examined exposure to classroom noise of 25 full-time teaching staff in 14 preschool settings located across Western Sydney. The results indicated that one teacher exceeded the maximum permissible level of daily noise exposure for employees under the health and safety legislation. Three staff approached this level and 92% of teachers…

Patterning is an essential skill in early mathematics learning, particularly in the development of spatial awareness, sequencing and ordering, comparison, and classification. This includes the ability to identify and describe attributes of objects and similarities and differences between them. Patterning is also integral to the development of…

The approaches to teaching and learning mathematics in Australian preschools and schools can be quite different. These differences arise from what can be termed different "cultures" within the prior-to-school and school settings. Even the first years of school can be characterized by teacher-centered, syllabus-driven lessons and written,…

Early childhood teachers in Victoria, Australia face increasing cultural and "racial" diversity among the children and families with whom they work. A small-scale exploratory study found that many teachers were uncertain about how best to respond to such diversity and a mismatch between social expectations that teachers would encourage…

The regulatory environment in which long daycare centres are required to operate plays a key role in determining what early childhood professionals do and how they go about doing it. This paper reports findings from a state-wide survey undertaken in New South Wales, Australia, which shows how early childhood professionals position themselves on…

This paper is the result of collaboration among early childhood education researchers from different cultures on opposite sides of the globe. The project sought to identify what practitioners in both preschool and primary school settings in Iceland and Australia regarded as successful transition to school practices. Independently developed surveys…

Support for reflective practice (Dewey, 1910; Schon, 1983) as a way of reviewing, articulating and informing practice, is well-established within teacher education and research, though there is still much to learn from the individual experience of the practitioner who grapples with the reflective process. This paper highlights the deliberations of…

Young children's views are heard rarely in public debates and are often subordinated to adults' views. This article examines how early childhood staff could support and enhance young children's participation in public decision making. We argue that when early childhood staff use their expertise in young children's physical, social and cognitive…

Early Childhood teacher educators at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have been engaging with online teaching and learning since the mid 1990s. On campus students have lectures and tutorials supported by information and communication technologies via QUT's home grown learning management system, Online Learning and Teaching (OLT). We…

Growing international interest in the early childhood years has been accompanied by an expansion of public programs in Australia targeting young children and their families. This article explores some of the influences and rhetoric that frame these initiatives. It encourages critical examination of the discourses that shape the nature of early…

This paper investigates the effects of a sustained professional development project in South Australia in which a small group of preschool educators worked with the authors to develop their own knowledge and skills in facilitating young children's mathematical learning. Through the development of an approach to pedagogy that linked the mandated…

This paper reports case study investigations of themes in three kindergarten teachers' curriculum construct systems. Curriculum, in this instance, is viewed as involving people, space, time, and things that become endowed with meaning as a classroom culture is established. Three classrooms in one school district, each constituting a separate case,…

Describes the changing ways child observation is being used by preschool teachers in the United States and Australia in relation to the accountability movement pressuring young children and their teachers in both countries. Explores the costs of the accountability movement in early childhood education. Calls for genuine accountability based on…

This paper describes an investigation of Australian early childhood teachers' sustainment in their profession, focussing on those factors which enhance professional commitment, job satisfaction and occupational motivation. Utilizing qualitative methodology this study also identified key factors early childhood teachers consider crucial to…