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Re-Thinking Discourse of Teacher Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: An Australian Perspective

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Book cover Contemporary Issues and Challenge in Early Childhood Education in the Asia-Pacific Region

Part of the book series: New Frontiers of Educational Research ((NFER))

Abstract

The professionalism of early childhood teachers has been the subject of increasing attention globally for over a decade (Moss in Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1), 30–41 2006; Osgood Narratives from the nursery: Negotiating professional identities in early childhood. Oxon, UK: Routledge 2012; Urban in Professionalism in early childhood education and care: International perspectives. Oxon, UK: Routledge 2010). While understandings of professionalism have often been harnessed to discourses of quality in early childhood research literature (Urban in Quality, autonomy and the profession: Questions of quality. Dublin, Ireland: Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education 2004; Penn Quality in early childhood services: An international perspective. Berkshire, UK: Open University Press 2011), there has also been increasing attention to the ways discourses (based on the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault) produce understandings of being professional, becoming professional and constructing professionalism. Foucault (The archaeology of knowledge (A. M. Sheridan Smith Trans.). London, UK: Routledge 1972/1989) conceptualised discourses as ways of speaking, thinking or understanding that come to be accepted as truths. This means that discourses regulate possibilities for what can be spoken, thought or understood.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Australian policy the term ‘child care’ often encompasses a range of early childhood contexts. This is not always the case and a key policy that is drawn upon in this chapter New Directions (Rudd and Macklin 2007) refers to both child care and long day care. Yet, the requirement central to this policy for four-year degree qualified teachers to work in centre-based long day care, does not apply to other prior to school contexts—family day, occasional care and so on. Therefore in this chapter the discussion of child care focuses on centre-based child care or long day care and as such the term ‘centre-based child care’ is used.

  2. 2.

    Even in 2013, Australia’s investment in early childhood education was still only around 0.4 %. This is 0.3 % lower than the OECD average (OECD 2013), and 0.6 % lower than the minimum recommended by UNICEF (2008).

  3. 3.

    An exception was in New South Wales (NSW), where, for some time, degree-qualified early childhood teachers had been required in centres with an enrolment of over 30 children (New South Wales [NSW] Government 2004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Megan Gibson & Lyn Zollo

  2. School of Teacher Education, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia

    Tamara Cumming

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  1. Megan Gibson
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  2. Tamara Cumming
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Correspondence to Megan Gibson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Minyi Li

  2. Australia Catholic University, Sydney , Australia

    Jillian Fox

  3. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Susan Grieshaber

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Gibson, M., Cumming, T., Zollo, L. (2017). Re-Thinking Discourse of Teacher Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: An Australian Perspective. In: Li, M., Fox, J., Grieshaber, S. (eds) Contemporary Issues and Challenge in Early Childhood Education in the Asia-Pacific Region. New Frontiers of Educational Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2207-4_12

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