![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
The Australian government's current workforce reforms in early childhood education and care (ECEC) include a major shift in qualification requirements. The new requirement is that university four-year degree qualified teachers are employed in before-school contexts, including childcare. Ironically, recent research studies show that, in Australia, the very pre-service teachers who are enrolled in these degree programs have a reluctance to work in childcare. This article reports on part of a larger study which is inquiring into how early childhood teacher professional identities are discursively produced, and provides a partial mapping of the literature. One pre-service teacher's comment provides the starting point, and the article locates some of the discourses that are accessible to pre-service teachers as they prepare for the early years workforce. An awareness of the discursive field provides a sound background for preparing early childhood teachers. A challenge for the field is to consider which discourses are dominant, and how they potentially work to privilege work in some ECEC contexts over others.
References
Section:
| ABC Learning Centres Limited (2006) ABC Learning Centres Annual Report. Brisbane: ABC Learning Centres. Google Scholar | |
| Bredekamp, S. & Copple, C. (2009) Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs: Serving children from birth through age 8. 3rd edn. Washington, DC: NAEYC. Google Scholar | |
| Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Cannella, G. (1997) Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social justice and revolution. New York: Peter Lang. Google Scholar | |
| Deleuze, G. & Guattari, G. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | |
| Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2009b Universal Access to Early Childhood Education. Canberra: Australian Government. Google Scholar | |
| Farrell, A. (2005) Globalising Early Childhood Teacher Education: A study of student life histories and course experience in teacher education, International Journal of Early Childhood, 37(1), 9–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF03165828 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Florence, M. (1994) Foucault, in Rabinow, P. (Ed.) Michel Foucault: Aesthetics, method and epistemology, pp. 459–463. New York: New Press. Google Scholar | |
| Flores, M.A. & Day, C. (2006) Context which Shape and Reshape New Teachers' Identities: A multi-perspective study, Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 219–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.09.002 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Foucault, M. (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Foucault, M. (1981) The Order of Discourse, in Young, R. (Ed.) Untying the Text: A post-structuralist reader, pp. 48–78. London: Routledge & Kegan. Google Scholar | |
| Foucault, M. (1984) Nietzsche, Genealogy, History, in Rabinow, P. (Ed.) The Foucault Reader, pp. 76–100. Harmondsworth, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Google Scholar | |
| Fraser, N. (1989) Unruly Practices: Power, discourse and gender in contemporary social theory. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
| Grieshaber, S. (2001) Advocacy and Early Childhood Educators: Identity and cultural conflicts, in Grieshaber, S. & Cannella, G. (Eds) Embracing Identities in Early Childhood Education: Diversity and possibilities, pp. 60–72. New York: Teachers College. Google Scholar | |
| Haraway, D. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Hatch, J.A. (1999) What Preservice Teachers can Learn from Studies of Teachers' Work, Teaching and Teacher Education, 15, 229–242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(98)00038-9 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Independent Education Union NSW (2011) Teachers are Teachers Campaign. http://teachersareteachers.org.au/ (accessed September 2, 2011). Google Scholar | |
| Langford, R. (2005) Discourses of the Good Early Childhood Educator in Professional Training: Reproducing marginality or working toward social change. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, Canada. Google Scholar | |
| Lather, P. (2006) Foucauldian Scientificity: Rethinking the nexus of qualitative research and educational policy analysis, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(6), 783–791. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09518390600976006 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| MacNaughton, G. (2005) Doing Foucault in Early Childhood Studies: Applying poststructural ideas. Abingdon: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203465332 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| McArdle, F. (2001) Art in Early Childhood. The Discourse of Proper Teaching. PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. Google Scholar | |
| McArdle, F. (2010) Preparing Quality Teachers: Making learning visible, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 35(8), 60–78. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| McBride, N. (2000) Mothering Matters: Being prepared to care. PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology. Google Scholar | |
| McBride, N. & Grieshaber, S. (2001) Professional Caring as Mothering, in Reifel, S. & Brown, M.H. (Eds) Early Education and Care, and Reconceptualizing Play. Vol. 11 of Sutterby, John A. (Ed.) Advances in Early Education and Day Care, pp. 169–202. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| McWilliam, E. (1994) In Broken Images: Feminist tales for a different teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
| McWilliam, E. (1999) Pedagogical Pleasures. New York: Peter Lang. Google Scholar | |
| McWilliam, E., Hatcher, C. & Meadmore, D. (1999) Corporatising the Teacher: New professional identities in education. Paper presented at the Australian Association of Research in Education Annual Conference, 28 November-2 December, in Melbourne, Australia. www.aare.edu.au/99pap/mea99070.htm (accessed September 13, 2006). Google Scholar | |
| Moss, P. (2006) Structures, Understandings and Discourses: Possibilities for re-visioning the early childhood worker, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1), 30–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.30 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| New South Wales Government (2004) Children's Services Regulation. NSW: New South Wales Government. Google Scholar | |
| Oberhuemer, P. (2004) Conceptualising the Early Childhood Professional: Policy models and research issues. Paper presented at the European Early Childhood Research Association Annual Conference, 1–4 November, in Malta. Google Scholar | |
| Osgood, J. (2006) Deconstructing Professionalism in Early Childhood Education: Resisting the regulatory gaze, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7(1), 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.5 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Osgood, J. (2010) Narrative Methods in the Nursery: (re)-considering claims to give voice through processes of decision making, Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 1(1), 14–28. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Page, J. (2011) Do Mothers want Professional Carers to Love their Babies?, Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(3), 310–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1476718X11407980 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (2000) Queensland Government Submission to Pay Equity Inquiry, No. B1568 of 2000. http://www.dir.qld.gov.au/pdf/ir/payequity.pdf (accessed August 20, 2005). Google Scholar | |
| Queensland University of Technology (2011) Graduate Destinations Survey. Queensland University of Technology. https://qcr.qut.edu.au/pls/qcr/ags_gds_rep.gds_fac?pTabHierarchyID=959&pSecurityID=468&pType=2 (accessed October 20, 2011). Google Scholar | |
| Rabe-Kleberg, U. (2006) Beyond the Limits of Female Practice: Rethinking professionalization processes in traditionally female occupations. Paper presented at the Early Years Seminar Series, 24 May, at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Google Scholar | |
| Rudd, K. & MacKlin, J. (2007) New Directions for Early Childhood Education: Universal access to early learning for 4 year olds. Canberra: Australian Labor Party. Google Scholar | |
| Ryan, S. & Grieshaber, S. (2005) Shifting from Developmental to Postmodern Practices in Early Childhood Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education, 56(1), 34–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022487104272057 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Sachs, J. (2001) Teacher Professional Identity: Competing discourses, competing outcomes, Journal of Educational Policy, 16(2), 149–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680930116819 Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
| Sachs, J. (2003) The Activist Teaching Profession. Buckingham: Open University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Sondergaard, D.M. (2002) Poststructuralist Approaches to Empirical Analysis, Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(2), 187–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09518390110111910 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Sumsion, J. (2005) Putting Postmodern Theories into Practice in Early Childhood Teacher Education, in Ryan, S. & Grieshaber, S. (Eds) Practical Transformations and Transformational Practices: Globalization, postmodernism and early childhood education. Vol. 14 of Sutterby, John A. (Ed.) Advances in Early Education and Day Care, pp. 193–216. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Sumsion, J. (2006) From Whitlam to Economic Rationalism and Beyond: A conceptual framework for political activism in children's services, Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 31(1), 1–9. Google Scholar | |
| Sumsion, J. & Patterson, C. (2004) The Emergence of Community in a Preservice Teacher Education Program, Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 621–635. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2004.06.006 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Sutherland, G. (2001) Examinations and the Construction of Professional Identity: A case study of England 1800–1950, Assessment in Education, 8(1), 51–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09695940120033252 Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Thorpe, K., Boyd, W., Ailwood, J. & Brownlee, J. (2011) Who Wants to Work in Childcare? Preservice Early Childhood Teachers' Consideration of Work in the Childcare Sector, Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 36(1), 85–94. Google Scholar | |
| Vajda, M. (2005) Do I Really have to do a Childcare Prac? Paper presented at the Early Childhood Australia Conference, 28 September-1 October, in Brisbane, Australia. Google Scholar | |
| Viruru, R. (2005) Postcolonial Theory and the Practice of Teacher Education, in Ryan, S. & Grieshaber, S. (Eds) Practical Transformations and Transformational Practices: Globalization, postmodernism and early childhood education. Vol. 14 of Sutterby, John A. (Ed.) Advances in Early Education and Day Care, pp. 139–160. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Walkerdine, V. (1992) Progressive Pedagogy and Political Struggle, in Luke, C. & Gore, J. (Eds) Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy, pp. 15–24. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
| Walkerdine, V. (1993) Beyond Developmentalism, Theory and Psychology, 3(4), 451–469. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959354393034004 Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Wannan, L. (2005) A Cautionary Tale from Australia. Canadian Council of Social Development Briefing Session Note. http://www.ccsd.ca/pr/2005/wannan.htm (accessed April 11, 2006). Google Scholar | |
| Watson, C. (2006) Narratives of Practice and the Construction of Teacher Identity, Teachers and Teaching, 12(5), 509–526. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Watson, L. (2006) Pathways to a Profession: Education and training in early childhood education and care, Australia. Canberra: Department of Education, Science and Training. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540600600832213 Google Scholar |
