The Professional Development of Early Years Educators

This book provides a critical insight into comparative approaches to the professional learning and development of early years educators – taken to include all those working in a professional capacity with young children in educative settings, including home-based care and education. It also analyses leadership development for the early years workforce, and the evaluation of the success or otherwise of professional development initiatives involving early years educators. The book includes perspectives on relevant policy development at local and national levels and critical consideration of research literature on the effectiveness of professional development programmes for early years educators. The book is essential reading for professionals working in early years settings, for those engaged with the professional learning of early years educators, and for academics researching professionalism in early years education. It provides international perspectives on the professional learning and development of those working in early years education. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Professional Development in Education.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Introduction: The professional development of early years educators – achieving systematic, sustainable and transformative change 1. Professional development of the early childhood education teaching workforce in the United States: an overview 2. Contemporary practice in professional learning and development of early childhood educators in Australia: reflections on what works and why 3. Implementing curriculum reform: insights into how Australian early childhood directors view professional development and learning 4. The role of motive objects in early childhood teacher development concerning children’s digital play and play-based learning in early childhood curricula 5. Preschool teachers’ informal online professional development in relation to educational use of tablets in Swedish preschools 6. Reflecting on reflection: improving teachers’ readiness to facilitate participatory learning with young children 7. Do reflections on personal autobiography as captured in narrated life-stories illuminate leadership development in the field of early childhood? 8. Preschool teachers’ insights about web-based self-coaching versus on-site expert coaching 9. The nature of professional learning communities in New Zealand early childhood education: an exploratory study 10. ‘Accept the change and enjoy the range’: applications of the Circles of Change methodology with professionals who support early childhood educators 11. Head Start classroom teachers’ and assistant teachers’ perceptions of professional development using a LEARN framework 12. Educators’ expectations and aspirations around young children’s mathematical knowledge 13. ‘The exchange of ideas was mutual, I have to say’: negotiating researcher and teacher ‘roles’ in an early years educators’ professional development programme on inquiry-based mathematics and science learning 14. The professional identity of early years educators in England: implications for a transformative approach to continuing professional development 15. Evaluative decision-making for high-quality professional development: cultivating an evaluative stance

About the Author :
Jane Waters is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Education and Communities, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK. Her research interests lie in adult-child interactions in early years education, child participation and the interplay of space and culture in shaping educational experiences of young children. Jane Payler is Professor of Education (Early Years), Deputy Associate Dean (Scholarship) and Co-Director of the Children’s Research Centre at the Open University, UK. Her research centres on early years professional and workforce development, interprofessional practice in the early years and children’s participatory learning processes. Ken Jones is Managing Editor of Professional Development in Education and an Education Consultant working internationally in the fields of professional learning and development and school leadership. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK.