Present-day early childhood educators face the challenge of producing their professional identities in highly neo-liberal contexts, negotiating contested discourses on professionalism, education quality and the overall purpose of early childhood education. While it has been suggested by critical scholarship that the early childhood workforce…

This article describes an experience of collaborative work between scientists and preschool teachers in the format of a scientific congress of preschoolers in Chile. The participating preschool teachers evaluated the initiative positively based on: (1) it stimulates the preschool teachers to develop science teaching projects, (2) it makes visible…

This article unpacks ECE professional associations and unions (ECEPAUs) pathways of resistance to a 'Universal Nursery Policy Project' (UNPP) and how ECEPAUs have reconceptualized the professionalism of the nursery within the Chilean neoliberal agenda. Drawing on a post-qualitative methodology, with three datasets of participant observations,…

In this paper, I discuss how professional identities in early childhood education in Chile are performatively constituted within the interplay between a religious discourse of vocation and gender. 'Having the vocation' has become a regime of truth that regulates and governs educators' behaviours, motivations and relationships in their workplace.…

In early childhood education, teacher professional development is crucial due to the impact of teachers on children's learning. This study presents the experience of action-research included in a teacher professional development program focused on improving pedagogical interaction from a sociocultural perspective. From 2012 to 2015, three cohorts…

This article presents the results of a study on professional development in Chilean state-funded early childhood education. Based on a multiple-case study design and drawing on qualitative methods we explored teachers' perspectives on professional development at two early childhood educational centers. Two centers' directors and four early…

The aim of this study was to explore the different ways in which a number of Chilean stakeholders conceptualise the "good early childhood educator" in Chile. In a context where new foreign narratives are increasingly dominating the field and the recent standardisation of the educators' professional role is being implemented, this…

Introduction: The aim of this work was to determine whether the type of feedback given by the preschool teacher during class impacts the children's metacognitive control. For this purpose, the children's behavior was analyzed while teachers provided feedback during collaborative learning sessions. Method: A quasi-experimental, cross-sectional…

This article problematises emerging tensions in Chile, in relation to the discourses of early childhood teachers and public policies aimed at improving the quality of early childhood education. The aim of the analysis is to contribute to developing more nuanced understandings of these tensions, through the analytical lenses provided by the…

Based on evidence derived from studies conducted mostly in the United States, many low- and middle-income countries are investing in early childhood education (ECE), with high expectations that it will improve academic outcomes, increase human capital, promote economic growth and reduce economic inequality. In Chile, there has been a great…

"Un Buen Comienzo" [A Good Start] was a professional development program implemented with prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers in Chilean public schools serving low-income families. In a randomized trial, the program showed moderate to large impacts on classroom quality but no impacts on targeted child outcomes. To unpack these…