Exploring the role of theory in sustainable early childhood professional learning and practice

Abstract

This research investigated how a group of educators in early childhood learning settings in Sydney, Australia used theory to inform their pedagogical and critically reflective practices to sustain futures-oriented professional learning. I explored the lived experiences, professional identity and subjectivity of the educators while engaging with them in capacity-building participatory practitioner research along a theory-practice continuum as nomadic professionals. I explored the impacts this had on their professional learning practices involving relational theory use in collective pedagogical partnerships. My nomadic cartographic methodology, developed from the nomadic theory of Rosi Braidotti (2011a, 2011b) facilitated new professional knowledge production as we used theory and practice knowledges to bring about change in pedagogical practices. We achieved this by using theory in relational and transformative ways, reconnecting theory to practice-based knowledges within collective pedagogical partnerships. Despite the growing advocacy and research efforts of early learning educators to gain comparative professional recognition, early childhood education remains marginalised within professional, theoretical, and political discourses. This has broader social, economic and policy implications resulting in issues of status, pay inequality and equity that impact on the early learning profession within dominant educational discourses. My research investigated how we can move beyond commonly held assumptions and beliefs about the field of early learning that continue to marginalise educators and their professional identities.

Date of Thesis submission	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Sponsors	Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
Supervisor	Susanne Gannon (Supervisor) & Christine Woodrow (Supervisor)