W(H)Ither the Early Childhood Teacher: Tensions for Early Childhood Professional Identity between the Policy Landscape and the Politics of Teacher Regulation

Over the last decade teachers, teachers' work and teacher education across all domains of education have been subject to increasing surveillance and regulation. Recent developments in the Australian regulatory context are signalling the emergence of a strengthening bifurcation between prior-to-school and schooling contexts that is forcing a narrowing construction of ‘teaching’ as work that is only undertaken in schooling contexts. This trend seems likely to have serious implications for the professional identity, status and professional preparation of early childhood teachers and the potential to reposition early childhood contexts as marginalised and non-pedagogical spaces. This article traces some recent developments in teacher regulation and locates an analysis of possible implications for the field of early childhood against a backdrop of emerging trends in the early childhood policy landscape. The emerging tensions invite questions about the potential gains and losses should the current trends become entrenched. The article concludes with a consideration of naming and framing as elements of possible action.