Transformative Pedagogies: Fostering Motivation, Enhancing Attractiveness, and Cultivating Commitment in Early Childhood Education through Teacher Education

Dear Colleagues,

The main focus of this Special Issue of Education Sciences seeks to share research findings, ideas, methods, and practices in the settings of early childhood education and teacher development. The implementation of teacher education has been shown to have a great influence on teachers’ future competencies, motivation, and, through that, the attractiveness of the career and commitment to a teaching position.

We are interested not only in the education of student teachers but also, and to an equal degree, in in-service teacher training. The continuation of ECE teacher professional development has increased in importance due to constantly growing requirements and, at the same time, often intensified working conditions. Globally, the turnover rate of ECE teachers is high, leading to labor shortages and weaker ECE quality. However, it appears that being prepared and committed, having the support of the community, and a willingness to develop oneself may contribute to staying in the profession and improving one’s enjoyment of it. Mentoring, teamwork, good leadership, and a fair apportionment of tasks are factors that need to be taught and maintained through a teacher’s professional life.

In this Special Issue, we welcome papers that deal with ECE teacher education, methods and ontological questions, motivation, well-being, the attractiveness of the career, lifelong learning, and professional development in ECE.

Dr. Lotta Uusitalo
Dr. Jonna Kan­gas
Guest Editors

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• early childhood teacher education
• lifelong learning
• wellbeing
• motivation
• future competencies

Title: Joy: A Transformational Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education

Abstract: Sometimes, joy multiplies itself dangerously. Children are the obvious example. Zadie Smith (2018) For Zadie Smith, joy can come in many iterations, it may a small pleasure or as a grand affair, experi-enced internally, relational and one that has the capacity to increase rapidly when children are involved. For Smith, joy is both a pleasure and danger. This may surprise her readers, who may interpret the meaning of her line, “joy multiplies itself dangerously. Children are the obvious example” (2018, p. 335) in the first instance, as one that suggests that the presence of children equates with an increase in the presence of joy. On further reading, another aspect of joy is revealed, an unwelcome truth, the reality that the joy that accompanies children is not unconditional, it comes with a hitch, for as a source of joy and delight, they elicit other feelings such as fear and grief at the possibility that this joy may be taken away. Our mixed methods research with early childhood educators in Australia and New Zealand learned more of this joy that is particular to our field, one that should be a point of focus in teacher edu-cation. This article defines and outlines this phenomenon of joy, and in doing so, proposes a form of joy like no other and one that our society and our children cannot live without.

Title: Professional Love in ECEC: A Multiple Case Study of Policy and Practice in Australia and China

Abstract: The notion of ‘professional love’ in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is complex. Professional love is represented by ideas associated with kindness, care, care-giving, empathy and intimacy in ECEC relationships. It is context-specific and informed by formal (and informal) ECEC principles, policies and practices. To begin with, this paper analyses ECEC frameworks from Australia and China to show how ‘professional love’ is given meaning in these documents which aim to shape ECEC practice. These two countries were chosen based on their human development index level. Case studies from these two National contexts are provided to exemplify and deepen the analysis of how ‘professional love’ is understood in these ECEC frameworks and informs practice. The findings show that these National frameworks offer an understanding of ‘professional love’ in a valued yet devalued way. We argue that the inclusion of the notion of ‘professional love’ in ECEC teacher education courses could enhance the meanings given to ‘professional love’ in the field and provide modelling for professionally loving practice that is transformative. This notion of professional love would draw upon the various lived experiences of children and their families and be grounded by critical reflection and reflexive dialogue.