Sustaining the Employment of Early Childhood Teachers in Long Day Care: A case for robust hope, critical imagination and critical action

Source: Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 35, Issue 3 August 2007, pages 311 - 327

This article is concerned with the sustainability of the employment of qualified teachers in the Australian long day care sector in the light of the dual pressures of poor pay and conditions, relative to schools, and the commercialisation of the sector and consequent vested interests in containing staffing costs. Eschewing the usual, narrow focus on teacher attrition, it instead conceptualises the long day care sector as rhizomatic with multiple entry points for addressing the staffing shortfall and the sustainability of teacher employment.

Identifying emerging critical communities of early childhood teachers as a potential entry point, the article focuses on teachers in long day care who are seeking to address a source of their job dissatisfaction. In challenging regulatory requirements that they perceive to be excessive, these teachers embody "robust hope", "critical imagination" and "critical action".