Thesis abstract:

«p»This study is part of the Australian Research Council-funded Teachers in Early Education (TEE) project (DP240100249), which focuses on attracting, preparing, retaining and sustaining quality early childhood teachers (ECT) in Australia. This project aims to explore whether upskilling diploma-qualified educators can support the supply and quality of Australia’s ECT workforce. Through a mixed methods approach, the study will extract existing TEE project survey data; conduct qualitative content analysis and interviews with key informants of large early childhood education and care providers and unions; and undertake ten case studies of diploma-qualified educators upskilling to an ECT qualification involving semi-structured interviews, audio memos, supplementary documents and the administration of the TEE tool (an instrument to assess the quality of ECTs in context). Through this data, the study will explore what influences diploma-qualified educators to pursue an ECT degree qualification; what facilitates and inhibits completion of an ECT qualification and career as an ECT; and, what are the outcomes of upskilling in terms of their practice quality, career plans, and professionalism.«/p»