Democratic Discourses in Higher Education : Australian Preservice Student Teacher Perceptions of Quality Early Childhood Education

This chapter reports interview findings with preservice student teachers in Australia on aspects of quality in early childhood education (ECE). A total of 14 interviews were conducted with 5 interviewees in 2017 across a university semester, with 3 interview points for most participants, to capture the influence of higher education and professional practice practicum placement. The observations and reflections of preservice student teachers provide important evidence of how contemporary and historical views on children, childhood, and children’s rights as citizens are applied in contemporary early childhood practice.

Our analysis of the interview recordings and transcriptions clarified that all the participants were in-between several concepts: certainty and uncertainty, plurality and uniformity, and personhood transformation. These reflections indicated tension between theory and aspirational conceptualisation of quality and the reality of experience and observation. The discussion of quality ECE indicated that the preservice student teachers intentionally searched for positive examples of specific practices and strategies, alongside their experience of varied quality in their practicum placements and their reflection of complexity in real-life practice. Positivity and responsiveness to diverse context are important in ECE professional practice; however, advocacy for children’s democratic right to quality in ECE is also a critical aspect to foster in the teachers of tomorrow.

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