The Professional Knowledge That Counts in Australian Contemporary Early Childhood Teacher Education

Abstract

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 preservice 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.

Straddling the divide: Early years preservice teachers’ experiences working within dual policy contexts

“…There is a paucity of literature regarding the impact of these curricula reforms on the connectedness between the prior-to-school and schooling sectors for students. The literature available confirms that preservice teachers in both prior-to-school and schooling environments are presented with dilemmas about the application of early childhood-specific knowledge and real or perceived conflict with curriculum framework expectations (Agbenyega, 2012; Krieg, 2010).…”

Assessing Young Children's Learning: Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Re-examine a Learning Story

“…Teaching informed by child development theory is viewed as primarily responsive to the child's activities (Spatig, 2005). As has been argued previously, while child development theory has contributed to progressive educational ideas with its emphasis on exploration, investigation and active learning, its dominance has also limited the consideration of alternative sources of knowledge and learning stimuli to guide teaching and learning in the early years (Krieg, 2010b). For example, the educator's own content knowledge has been demonstrated to be an important feature of effective pedagogy in the early years, but the place of content knowledge in early childhood practice remains contentious (Hedges & Cullen, 2005;Krieg, 2011).…”

Formación para la enseñanza del lenguaje oral y escrito en carreras de educación parvularia: variedad de aproximaciones y similares dilemas

“…En este marco, el concepto de conocimiento práctico se define como el cuerpo de conocimiento (declarativo y procedimental) y de creencias (incluyendo valores y normas) que orientan el quehacer de los educadores, al proporcionarles una comprensión holística sobre las situaciones de aula y sobre los dilemas que enfrentan para llevar a cabo las experiencias pedagógicas (Krieg, 2010;Lenz Taguchi, 2007;maakestad Wolf, 1999;mcLean, 1992;mischo et al 2014).…”