THE NatioNal Quality Framework (nQF) has been heralded by the Australian Government as a significant reform that will raise the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) across the country. Drawing on Foucault's (1991) conceptualisation of governmentality this article critically analyses the NQF. From this analysis we conclude that while overall, children in ECEC settings across Australia will be somewhat better off, the NQF nonetheless falls well short of its intended outcomes. Sumsion's (2006) conceptual framework for political activism in the ECEC sector is used to propose one way forward for early childhood advocates and activists to work for policy reform that may more effectively meet the Government's goal of giving children the best possible start in life. Central to our proposal is what we believe is currently lacking in early childhood policy: a bold, innovative vision for children's right to a high-quality early education.

The article reports on a study investigating influences on Australian politicians' decision making for early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy. The astronomical concept of dark matter is utilised as a metaphor for considering normalising, and therefore frequently difficult to detect and disrupt, influences implicated in politicians' decision making for ECEC policy. The concept of dark matter connects with and extends Foucauldian conceptualisations of knowledge, power and discourse. The paper argues that maternalist discourses continue to shape the policy landscape for ECEC, though these are largely unacknowledged.

Guided by feminist research principles, the study reported in this article contributes to the growing research dialogue on early childhood teachers' experiences with, and perceptions of, the impact of regulatory requirements on their teaching and on their perceptions of themselves as professionals. Specifically, three teachers from metropolitan Sydney (Australia) offered insights into their experiences working under the state of New South Wales (NSW) Children's Services Regulation 2004 ('the Regulation'), a mandatory Regulation applicable to all children's services in NSW. Three early childhood teachers participated in research conversations and a visual/textual enquiry process, which involved teachers collecting, developing and constructing seven panels using photography, artefacts, text and visual art media, to represent their 'sense of place' in their work environment in light of the impact of the Regulation. Themes emerging from the data were identified and considered in light of the regulatory intent for children's services, and possible unintended adverse consequences for teachers. The themes include regulatory tension, mistrust, surveillance, sacrifice, resistance, compliance, relationships, interpretation and ambiguity, and the stifling of an educational focus. The findings suggest that early childhood teachers may operate behind a metaphorical regulatory 'fence', which contributes to their perceptions of safety but impinges on their professional freedom, integrity and passion for teaching. Clause 45 (1) Any part of the premises of a children's service that is designated for outdoor play space must be fenced on all sides. (2) The design and height of any fence or gate on the premises must prevent children from scaling or crawling under or through it and must inhibit or impede intruders from entering the premises … (4) ... All gates leading to or from the premises of a children's service must be designed so as to prevent children from entering or leaving the premises unsupervised. (Extract from the Children's Services Regulation, 2004 [Parliamentary Council NSW, 2004, Clause 45]) Fences Six feet in height four inches wide Teachers' Experiences with Mandatory Regulatory Requirements 31 dog-eared on top wood pickets line my yard. Three stories high thirteen rooms each gables on top twelve houses line my block. Seven miles wide fifteen miles long trains running through black pavement lines my town. Wide open space umbrella sky antelope graze barbed wire lines the range. One day, I swear, I'll take myself out to a place where nothing lines the world.

THIS ARTICLE EMPLOYS A method known as 'eventalisation' (Foucault, 1988) to investigate influences on politicians' decision making for early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy in Australia. Eventalisation involves looking for multiple perspectives on the one 'event' and calls for a questioning of what might otherwise be thought of as self-evident (Foucault, 1988). The National Reform Agenda, an extensive program of national reform in the areas of competition, regulation and human capital, while seemingly developed by the Rudd Labor Government after their 2007 election win, was in fact a long-term policy agenda largely originating in the Australian state of Victoria circa 2004-05. This article presents an excavation of the National Reform Agenda policy undercurrent since the early millennium to illustrate the significant influence it had on ECEC policy 2006-09. Using a case study design involving interviews with politicians and key early childhood policy activists and advocates, this eventalisation argues that human capital discourses, while highly influential and widely disseminated in national ECEC policy reform, have limited capacity to support the generation of policy that comprehensively addresses fundamental policy problems in the ECEC field.

Politicians play a key role in determining policy content and outcomes for early childhood education and care (ECEC). As a result, the quality of formal ECEC provisions for children rests considerably on the policy decisions of politicians. Despite direct and indirect effects of politicians' policy decisions for the ECEC field, few studies explore influences on politicians' policy decisions, and fewer still pertain to ECEC. In light of the significant gap in the research investigating how and why politicians make the decisions that they do, the authors present a case for a research agenda to investigate politicians' policy decision-making processes in ECEC. A review of the literature pertaining to influences on political decision making reveals some possible influences on politicians' decision making generally, but not for ECEC policy specifically. Using the policy sphere of ECEC to illustrate the complexities of social policy development and implementation in a democratic political system, the authors put forward a conceptualisation of policy that generates a wide range of questions to inform the development of a research agenda. They conclude with a discussion of the possible implications that a research agenda investigating politicians' policy decisions in ECEC might have for the early childhood field.