Child Safety in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Gaps in Australia’s Accelerated Graduate Diploma Programs

Stage 1: Survival During Stage 1, which may last throughout the first full year of teaching, the teacher's main concern is whether she can survive. This preoccupation with survival may be expressed in questions the teacher asks: "Can I get through the day in one piece? Without losing a child? Can I make it until the end of the week? Until the next vacation? Can I really do this kind of work day after day? Will I be accepted by my colleagues?" Such questions are well expressed in Ryan's enlightening collection of accounts of first-year teaching experiences (3).

Teacher educators assume that the teacher education programs in their own countries provide a comprehensive scope of possible selections. Nevertheless, how teacher education is planned and implemented differs in each country. They have different practices in both early childhood education and teacher preparation programs, even though American early childhood education theories and practices have guided them. In addition, countries differ in their early childhood education teacher qualifications. Teacher education programs have been attempting to prepare global-minded early childhood teachers who can function in other countries. Teachers who are prepared with global perspectives are able to help students succeed in the interconnected world where they encounter challenges throughout their lives. The globalization of early childhood education and the preparation of teachers in the United States and other countries appear ultimately to be achieving importance, respectability, acknowledgment, and wisdom. Several countries have engaged in transforming early childhood teachers through educational reform, which calls upon countries to expand and improve early childhood care and education. Educational reform has intermittently been a main topic of discourse and seldom an emphasis of commitment in countries around the world. Frequently these reform attempts have emphasized the necessity to advance children’s knowledge, abilities, and views to help them become good citizens and productive adults. Whereas developments may not be equivalent from country to country, the movement is continuous. It is encouraging to see countries functioning to advance programs to prepare teachers of young children and to cope with the demanding difficulties and concerns of early childhood education and the preparation of early childhood teachers.

The last decade has been marked by radical curriculum and pedagogical reforms in Vietnamese early childhood education (ECE). In essence, the reforms are paradigm shifts from teacher-centred to child-centred pedagogy, and from fragmented subject-based to a holistic integrated curriculum. Studies (Phan, 2005; Le, 2009, Nguyen, 2009) suggest that ECE teachers are struggling to enact the shifts. One of the reasons is speculated as the mismatch between what early childhood teacher education (ECTE) can offer and what new ECE practice needs. Thus, this study explores how Vietnamese ECTE perceives its professional situation - the challenges and opportunities the profession may face in response to the demands of changing ECE practice. This study employs dialectics and cultural-historical theory (Marx & Engels, 1998; Ratner, 2006, Ellis, Edwards, & Smagorinsky, 2010) as the theoretical tools to explain the current professional situation of Vietnamese ECTE, and the way participants of this study perceive it. In this case study, Vietnamese ECTE’s perspectives on its professional situation are gained from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with three Deans and nine lecturers at three ECTE faculties. Their perspectives are incorporated with the viewpoints of other ECTE stakeholders, including an ECE policy maker, two employers (kindergarten principals) and four ECE teachers (ECTE graduates). This study indicates that Vietnamese ECTE is now in a crisis, characterized by three threads of enormous challenges, relating key professional aspects. The first thread of challenges is ECTE’s difficulties in professional conceptualization - in understanding the new ECE philosophies promoted by the ECE reforms, and subsequently, re-conceptualizing its professional beliefs and practice in response to changing ECE practice. The second thread of challenges is that ECTE’s legacy (in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, and management), established within Vietnamese Confucian traditions and Soviet ethos and relatively unchanged up to now, strongly contradicts with the rapidly changing demands of ECE practice. The third thread of challenges is born out of intensive interaction between conservative ECTE and the fast changing Vietnamese contemporary socio-economic context. Vietnam’s shift to a market economy and responding higher education policies to the changing context have intensified ECTE’s persistent problems and brought in new conflicts. Together, the three threads of challenges indicate tense contradictions between the need to meet the increased demands of changing ECE practice and ECTE’s current capability; between ECTE’s responsibilities and conditions offered to the profession. Nevertheless, this study suggests that the crisis, recognized by the majority of participants, provides enormous opportunities for ECTE to move forward if the profession manages to resolve the contradictions. Resolving the contradictions is expected to be very challenging. Dealing with the new ECE practice means Vietnamese ECTE must, firstly, reconcile the sharp conflict between new ECE philosophies and the cultural-historical legacy deeply embedded in ECTE’s thinking and practice. Secondly, ECTE needs more efficient higher education policies to address its persistent professional problems and resolve competing influences from the fast changing societal context.

Early childhood teacher education (ECTE) is focused on the preparation of educators who educate and care for our youngest citizens. The years from birth to eight years of age are generally considered early childhood, yet most programs of ECTE focus on the prior-to-school years and the periods variously known as infancy, toddlerhood, the young child, preschool, pre-K, kindergarten, and the early years (with the two last terms also applying to the beginning of formal schooling in some countries). Research in ECTE is also a subset of the wider teacher education research field, and ECTE researchers are engaged in many of the same debates. These debates include how best to prepare graduates to teach diverse and disadvantaged students in equitable ways, and the most appropriate forms of curriculum and pedagogy for the education of young children. For this reason, scholars of ECTE are advised to also study the related Oxford Bibliographies articles “Teacher Preparation” and “Teacher Training and Development.” Debates about ECTE are intensifying around the world at present as governments take increase their policy focus on early childhood education. Teacher qualifications are a recognized factor in the quality of early childhood programs, leading to an increased focus on the efficacy of ECTE and the capacity of teacher education institutions to attract and retain suitable candidates. Further challenges for scholars of ECTE include the wide diversity of services available for young children and their families in most countries, and the wide range of staff qualifications typically found in these services. The entries in this article attempt to navigate through this complex field but are principally drawn from descriptions of ECTE in university settings (since this environment is where most ECTE research occurs) and involving candidates who will work in the prior-to-school years. Two important themes thread through every section of this article. The first is the emphasis on describing personal and professional perspectives, particular of ECTE, within this literature. This emphasis is related to the second theme, which is the dominance of small-scale, single-cohort studies confined to individual institutions. There is a pressing need for more studies in ECTE that work with large data sets and that conduct research across institutions and across national borders, if scholars in ECTE are to respond effectively to global flows in policy, research, and practice.

The nature and form of early childhood courses in Australia varies from State to State but certain characteristics prevail and assist in illustrating the present condition of early childhood teacher education in this country. However, recently proposed changes to teacher education #opK‐12#cp, as set out by the Australian Education Council #op1990#cp, would bring about a new style of preparation for early childhood teachers in Australia. This new direction is being questioned by early childhood teacher educators and alternative plans for modification of course structures are being generated. The present study collated details of accredited undergraduate early childhood courses throughout Australia, highlighted State characteristics and proposed areas for change and issues for further debate, particularly in the face of a national movement of reform in teacher education in Australia.

Australia is typical of many western countries where the provision of quality early childhood services has become a government priority. The government initiatives in Australia include repeated demands for ‘well-qualified’ early childhood educators. As a result of these demands the pre-service preparation of early childhood educators is under intense scrutiny. This scrutiny raises many questions regarding the knowledge base considered to be essential for early childhood educators and leads to further questions about who has the authority to produce this knowledge. This article explores these questions by firstly examining some of the ways Australian early childhood teacher education is situated within the current knowledge environment. This is followed by a discussion regarding the debates about what early childhood educators ‘need to know’. The third section of the article traces some of the historical features of Australian early childhood teacher education, for the author argues that contemporary questions about ‘which’ knowledge is to be included in early childhood teacher education are best understood alongside their historical precedents. The article concludes by considering the implications of the debates for contemporary early childhood teacher education and suggests that a way forward involves reconsidering the traditional binary between theory and practical knowledge.

This paper introduces a study that examined the difficulties faced in an early childhood teacher education program at one of the universities in Jordan. A qualitative research approach has been opted utilizing the in-depth interviewing and grounded theory methodology. The study revealed that the students faced different types of difficulties in academic and financial matters, status of early childhood education, and field training. Based on the study findings, there are some suggestions to policy makers and teacher educators and specialists that could contribute to the improvement and development of early childhood teacher education. It has been recommended that further research on teacher preparation, particularly concerning early childhood education programs, is essential. Moreover, cooperation and cross-cultural studies between early childhood education specialists from different countries are required to enhance the status and quality of early childhood education.

The Elementary School Journal Volume 83, Number 2 ? 1982 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984183/8302-0009$01o.00 Teachers approach their instructional tasks with a variety of perspectives and strategies that emphasize certain aspects of teaching and deemphasize others. For example, some teachers teach language skills using organized games, while other teachers teach the same skills by direct instruction. Teachers adopt different approaches to the same subject matter partly because their teaching situations differ. Their students may have different learning problems or their classrooms may have varied resources and facilities. Even in the

This doctoral thesis is a qualitative case study of the work of six university-based infant and toddler teacher educators in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand. Research literature is presented to locate the study within early childhood teacher education as a cultural phenomenon in its institutionalised form. This thesis explores issues related to status, professionalisation, and the education of teachers, who work with infants and toddlers, and reflects the growing awareness of the importance of infant and toddler curriculum in teacher education programs. Conceptually the study is positioned within Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). This conceptual framework was chosen in order to explore the motive object of activity of the collective subject of teacher educators within early childhood teacher education. It is also acknowledged, and addressed within the thesis, that issues that are specific to the early childhood field of status and professionalisation are situated within a broader context of how relations operate between workers and employers under capital. However, in this thesis, I have used CHAT primarily as an analytic device. Each of the six participants was interviewed individually; focus conversations were also held in the two countries. Extracts from individual interviews in the other country were used as provocations in each of the focus conversations. Qualitative data analysis followed a process of iterative analysis of codes and categories. Deductive coding using CHAT concepts followed inductive analysis of further categories. Through exploring the story of the work of infant and toddler teacher educators in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand it became apparent that this thesis is a continuing story of struggle, resistance and advocacy in their work (Rockel, 2013). Findings showed that the participants in the study were involved in a series of enduring contradictions that continually frustrated the expansion of their object of activity as a collective subject, and in turn, their outcome in their activity system. Their object of activity in this activity system was to increase prominence, credibility, and acknowledgment of the needs of infant and toddler curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood teacher education, the aim being to gain their outcome, of high-quality care for infants and toddlers in extra-familial care and education in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand. The findings demonstrated that the long-standing sociohistorical contradictions that the participants experienced through the early childhood field impacted on their work. There are enduring and sedimented contradictions in the early childhood field related to an ambivalence of the presence of infants and toddlers in non-parental care and education. At the same time, as academics, they were also negotiating struggles against deprofessionalisation in teacher education. These issues eventuated post-merger of teacher education institutions from colleges of education into universities. Expectations for teacher educators changed; research outputs were required to increase without provision of any additional support. The findings established that the participants struggled to give greater prominence to infant and toddler curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood teacher education in their work in universities in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand. This struggle took various forms and is evidenced by the continual silencing experienced by the participants when they engaged in advocating for greater credibility of infant and toddler curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood teacher education. A contribution of this thesis is that it clarifies the conditions of infant and toddler curriculum and pedagogy content in early childhood teacher education in Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand. It argues that infant and toddler curriculum and pedagogy knowledge is crucial specialist knowledge essential to early childhood teacher education programs inclusive of children from birth to five years of age, offered in universities. A second contribution is the evidence presented to support the argument that advocacy is the way in which the participants in the study held their work together. Advocacy was a key concept within the nature of their work as infant and toddler specialists in early childhood teacher education. It is recognised that historically advocacy has been fundamental to the struggle of working against the ambivalence towards infants and toddlers in the early childhood field. Therefore, what this thesis identifies is that little has changed; advocacy continues to be the primary focus of the work of infant and toddler teacher educators as they resist the ongoing ambivalence towards infants and toddlers in the early childhood field.

ABSTRACTThis research reports intercultural dialogue of meaning making in literacy by lecturers, engaged with an assessment moderation process of early childhood education (ECE) preservice teacher education across Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. The purpose of the dialogue was to inform pedagogical and conceptual knowledge in their courses. The research question is: How does intercultural dialogue inform teacher education literacy practices? Methods include (1) a blind assessment review process using 30 examples from ‘high’ to ‘low’ exemplars of ECE students’ literacy assessment annotations, some from each country, and (2) textual analysis of intercultural student feedback and reflection from student forum comments and, semi-structured reflexive interviews with students about the assessment moderation process. Rich academic reflections on the data have led to our recommendations that the conceptual framework of intercultural praxis could be applied in early childhood preservice teacher education practice. Further, we suggest there are increased possibilities for the use of intercultural literacy with ECE preservice student teachers using virtual and explicit collaborations and texts as explained in this research.

ABSTRACTThe racial mismatch between teachers and students has become a salient issue in efforts to counter the historical failure of children of Color in American (pre)schools. To address this mismatch, scholars have argued for the critical need to recruit and retain teachers of Color. In this article, we propose that to successfully prepare teachers of Color so that they remain committed to the profession, we must learn from their experiences during their preservice preparation and their first years of teaching. Against the backdrop of normative institutional discourses shaping teachers and teaching, we sought to learn from the ways in which six early career early childhood teachers of Color reconciled their preservice teacher education experiences, identities, and beliefs about education with the construction of their identities as teachers. To do so, we asked: How do the discursive spaces of early childhood teaching and teacher education shape the practices, beliefs, and identities of early childhood teachers of Color during their teacher education programs and within their three first years of teaching? Through Critical Narrative Analysis of in-depth interviews, we sought to unveil the discourses that shape and are shaped by the experiences of early career early childhood teachers of Color. Findings indicate that instead of being colonized by institutional discourses and oppressed by others' perceptions, to remain in the profession, these early career early childhood teachers challenged and appropriated institutional discourses, reauthoring them agentively. Implications underscore the responsibility of teacher education programs in preparing teachers of Color to negotiate the ever-so-normative discursive space of early childhood teaching and teacher education, if they are to enter and remain in the profession.

Many within early childhood and early childhood teacher education are concerned about the changed kindergarten. At the same time, students entering early childhood teacher education programs were educated in these changed schooling systems that emphasize standards and accountability, which can impact the ways in which they make sense of teaching children. Thus, there appears to be a need to better understand how early childhood teacher educators and teacher candidates are making sense of the various types of learning experiences children are and should be having in kindergarten and what this means for the early childhood teacher education process. In this article, we begin to address this issue by sharing findings from a study of how samples of teacher educators and early childhood teacher candidates in Texas and West Virginia made sense of the instructional practices taking place in the changed kindergarten and whether they felt they were appropriate for kindergartners. Such findings bring to light the similarities and differences in their sensemaking and offers the chance to consider strategies to facilitate further cooperation between them so that they can work together to ensure all children engage in high-quality learning experiences that prepare them for success in and out of school.

This handbook synthesizes both contemporary research and best practices in early childhood teacher education, a unique segment of teacher education defined by its focus on child development, the role of the family, and support for all learners. The first volume of its kind, the Handbook of Early Childhood Teacher Education provides comprehensive coverage on key topics in the field, including the history of early childhood teacher education programs, models for preparing early childhood educators, pedagogical approaches to supporting diverse learners, and contemporary influences on this quickly expanding area of study. Appropriate for early childhood teacher educators as well as both pre- and in-service teachers working with children from birth through 8, this handbook articulates the unique features of early childhood teacher education, highlighting the strengths and limitations of current practice as based in empirical research. It concludes by charting future directions for research with an aim to improve the preparation of early childhood educators.

This chapter critically reviews the unique teacher education system in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), analyzes recent developments in teacher education, and considers the challenges facing early childhood educators. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has undergone dramatic changes and fundamental reforms since the enactment of the “open door” policy in the 1980s. A remarkable increase has been observed in the quantity of early childhood settings and educators. Improvements have been made in quality of early childhood services, and the academic and professional qualifications of teachers have been enhanced. The Chinese government wants to universalize high-quality early childhood education (ECE) by 2020. To achieve this target, millions of teachers have to be recruited, trained, and receive professional development opportunities. Accordingly, new training modes, enhanced professional training opportunities, and better-defined teacher competences and skills are needed. National strategies to address these challenges are considered in this chapter.

The purpose of this study was to analyze of the differences in play support competency of early childhood special education teachers and early childhood teachers and to determine what variables affect these differences if they are indeed present. The study involved a total of 239 participants including 124 early childhood special education teachers and 115 early childhood education teachers. The results of the study are as follows. First, there was no significant difference in the play support competency of early childhood special education teachers and early childhood teachers in all areas of curriculum operation, learning support, recording and evaluation, professional development, and relationship formation. Second, there was an interaction effect according to the subject of kindergarten establishment and the type of kindergarten establishment when it comes to play support competency of special education teachers and early childhood teachers. There was no difference between national, public, private, and corporate play support competency in the areas of curriculum operation, professional development, and relationship formation. However, national and public early childhood teachers had higher play support competency than private early childhood teachers. Third, there was an interaction effect according to the type of kindergarten on the play support competency of special education teachers and early childhood teachers. In the area of curriculum operation, early childhood special education teachers at public independent kindergarten had higher play support competency than early childhood special education teachers at elementary school annexed kindergartens. However, early childhood education teachers at elementary school annexed kindergartens had higher play support competency than early childhood education teachers at public independent kindergartens. In the future, we propse using this basic data in the pre-service training and in-service training of teachers to strengthen the play support competency of early childhood special education teachers and early childhood teachers.