Visual arts provisions are central to children’s holistic, play-based learning, yet the visual arts self-efficacy beliefs and subject content knowledge of early childhood educators influence pedagogical choices. When early childhood educators lack the visual arts confidence, skills, and knowledge required to effectively support children’s visual arts learning and engagement, children’s learning in the visual arts domain may be restricted; resulting in a negative cycle of influence whereby the next generation are denied their right to access visual languages. Qualitative case study research explored the visual arts beliefs and pedagogy of 12 degree qualified and vocationally trained early childhood educators. The conceptual framework, designed to to interpret and analyse the research data, aligns Dewey’s philosophies of democracy, education and art with the philosophy and visual arts praxis of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. The research findings suggest educator’s low visual arts self-efficacy beliefs develop during childhood and are not improved by pre-service training, resulting in limited visual arts skills and knowledge. The research participants’ visual arts pedagogy appeared to be strongly influenced by the experiential ‘baggage’ they carried into their pre-service training and practice contexts, by the participants’ theoretical beliefs about children’s development and by a range of divergent beliefs about the purposes of visual art in the early childhood context. Although training has the potential to broadly inform knowledge and practice, this study suggests that unless limiting visual arts self-efficacy beliefs are disrupted by constructivist theoretical knowledge and combined with practical skills and knowledge, the visual arts curriculum offered to children may be significantly compromised.

This paper articulates John Dewey's socio-political and historical influence upon the foundation and evolution of the world-renowned Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. It proposes that the pedagogical depth, influence and endurance of the Italian project are grounded in Dewey's philosophies of education, aesthetics and democracy. An analysis of scholarly and original sources outlines the socio-political climate in post World War II Italy, the work undertaken by several progressive Italian educators and the Italian translations of Dewey's work during this period to reveal new insights about Dewey's enduring influence on the pedagogical values which underpin the Reggio Emilia educational approach. In so doing, it acknowledges the direct Deweyan influence on the work of Italian reformers Borghi, Codignola, Malaguzzi and Ciari and on the developing Reggio Emilia project. This revelation of Dewey's progressive values as interpreted by educators in Reggio Emilia offers inspiration to educators in contemporary early childhood contexts, to researchers and to students of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.

COVID-19 has impacted Early Childhood Education (ECE) globally. The cancellation of a final year leadership practicum presented an opportunity to partner with pre-service teachers as co-researchers to investigate the leadership experience of four service directors during COVID-19. A multi-case study design included four focus groups consisting of one early childhood sector leader, final year pre-service teachers and one academic mentor aimed to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on service leadership while identifying the leadership strategies that offered protective mitigation for the risks posed by the pandemic. Leadership challenges included shifting health orders, support for the home learning context and disseminating policy shifts to staff and families, all while maintaining viability, managing anxieties of staff, parents and children, while negotiating lockdowns and service restrictions. Findings spoke to the complexity of the situation for leaders, while spotlighting the protective function of high-quality practice; strong service-based philosophy; and prioritisation of relationships.

Although visual arts pedagogies are considered central within early childhood education programs, teacher self-efficacy has a direct impact on the quality and delivery of visual arts curricula. Until recently, the visual arts self-efficacy, pedagogical knowledge, and practice of in-service early childhood teachers have remained largely unexplored. The authors of this paper present a qualitative, iterative re-analysis of their three PhD studies which broadly focussed on early childhood visual arts praxis and specifically examined the visual arts beliefs and pedagogy of early childhood teachers in Australia and New Zealand. A thematic analysis of the intersecting self-efficacy findings raised in the three studies identifies the powerful influence of self-efficacy on teaching practice in the visual arts domain and offers new understandings about visual arts self-efficacy amongst early childhood teachers. The combined findings reveal several factors that restrain or enhance teachers’ visual arts self-efficacy across time, including the impact of childhood experiences, pre-service training and epistemological beliefs. The paper also identifies several enabling conditions that appear to support teachers to develop and maintain positive visual arts self-efficacy beliefs, including practical engagement with materials, sustained professional learning, relational trust and intentional leadership. These enabling conditions offer practical strategies and research recommendations in service of positive visual arts self-efficacy to enhance quality visual arts teaching in early childhood contexts.

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