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The Quality of Early Childhood Teacher Programs

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Australian Early Childhood Teaching Programs

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education ((BRIEFSEDUCAT))

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Abstract

This chapter presents the academics’ perspectives regarding the quality of early childhood teacher (ECT) programs within Australia and in the three Nordic countries: Finland, Norway and Sweden. Within Australia, there is not one specific model for an early childhood teacher qualification; however, within the Nordic countries, there are established ECT programs to teach children aged from 9 months up to 7 years. Academics were asked about the quality of their ECT programs within their university. A post-structuralist orientation was used to analyse the data. The research highlights that the optimal ECT program structure within Australia was the birth-5 program as it focused solely on teaching children aged from birth to 5 years; however, quality was influenced by external influences, such as assessment by the accreditation authorities, which influenced internal decisions on the structure, design and delivery the ECT program. Entry into the ECT programs presented tensions: applicants into combined programs were not committed to teaching early childhood education, rather they intended to teach in primary. The Nordic countries also had this problem and had implemented screening by the way of examination, interview and aptitude testing at the entry point. The low status of early childhood education was evident in academics feeling marginalised within the university, and also impacted the students’ perspectives of early childhood education and care (ECEC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia

    Wendy Boyd

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  1. Wendy Boyd
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Correspondence to Wendy Boyd .

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Boyd, W. (2020). The Quality of Early Childhood Teacher Programs. In: Australian Early Childhood Teaching Programs. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5837-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5837-5_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-5836-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-5837-5

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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