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This paper reports on the systematic search and review of the literature relating to the health and wellbeing of young children across the transition to school. It identified 56 papers (including empirical studies, reviews, commentaries, and reports) relevant to the research questions and completed an interpretive systematic review to ascertain the current state of the literature. The review employed the Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) method to allow for a rigorous and systematic review of a disparate literature which stretches across several disciplines. The findings are presented in seven thematic categories: current conceptualisations of health and wellbeing, assessment and measurement, 'school readiness', service integration, transition actors, 'at risk' children, and child voice. These findings illustrate the ways in which concepts have been constructed, identified, and operationalised in early years research, practice, and policy. Moreover, it highlights that 'what is known' can be used to inform the review or implementation of services, practices, and partnerships that support child health and wellbeing during the transition to school.

Abstract:In a climate of increasing regulation within the early childhood education and care services (ECECS), and the greater re-positioning of professionals within public sectors, this article seeks to extend the literature surrounding risk and regulation in early childhood. In efforts to 'push back' against the 'regulatory gaze' in the ECECS, we investigate the role that learner engagement in initial teacher education can play in empowering early childhood pre-service teachers (PSTs) as professionals. This question is explored in the reporting of the findings from an action research study which redesigned a semester-long teacher education topic to draw on PSTs' self-knowledge, applied experience and content choice, to go beyond the meeting of minimum credential requirements. Data were derived from sequential student evaluations and topic coordinators' reflections and subsequent analysis highlights significant insights in relation to student teachers' understanding of professionalism and their role within the ECECS. The implications of this repositioning of PSTs' developing sense of professionalism amidst increasing regulation are discussed.