A purpose of the PLP was to develop participant recognition, understanding and valuing of their leadership roles. In order to facilitate this, the PLP consisted of three core learning days which provided professional development where theories of leadership were discussed and new ways of thinking about leadership introduced. The program also included mentor visits and telephone calls between the learning days and an

Early childhood education and care have assumed importance in many government policy agendas. This attention is often accompanied by calls for greater accountability regarding the anticipated learning outcomes for young children. In Australia, the expected learning outcomes for children aged birth to five years are outlined in the recently published Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). In this article, the author examines the relationship between the EYLF's outcomes and subject area or content knowledge. The article draws from post-structural and social constructionist understandings of knowledge as unfinished, contestable and contextual. The author concludes that it is not content knowledge itself that is problematic, but it is the way the child and teacher are often positioned in relation to that knowledge that constrains the potential for effective teaching and learning in the early years. The author suggests that revisiting traditional assumptions about content knowledge extends and develops many of the ideas about teaching and learning that are identified in the EYLF, and opens up new identity positions for both children and early childhood educators.

Australia is typical of many western countries where the provision of quality early childhood services has become a government priority. The government initiatives in Australia include repeated demands for 'well-qualified' early childhood educators. As a result of these demands the preservice preparation of early childhood educators is under intense scrutiny. This scrutiny raises many questions regarding the knowledge base considered to be essential for early childhood educators and leads to further questions about who has the authority to produce this knowledge. This article explores these questions by firstly examining some of the ways Australian early childhood teacher education is situated within the current knowledge environment. This is followed by a discussion regarding the debates about what early childhood educators 'need to know'. The third section of the article traces some of the historical features of Australian early childhood teacher education, for the author argues that contemporary questions about 'which' knowledge is to be included in early childhood teacher education are best understood alongside their historical precedents. The article concludes by considering the implications of the debates for contemporary early childhood teacher education and suggests that a way forward involves reconsidering the traditional binary between theory and practical knowledge.

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Susan is a senior lecturer in the Flinders University School of Education. She has responsibility for the development and implementation of an innovative new early childhood (Birth -8) degree. Susan's research is concerned with teacher education, early childhood education curriculum and pedagogy, equity and social justice. Acknowledgements (Optional)1 Krieg, S., 2010. Novice teachers' work: constructing 'different' children. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 38(1), 57-68. Paper reproduced here in accordance with the publishers' policies.

Pedagogy in the early years has often been constructed as a choice between child-centered, play-based, or teacher directed learning. Child-centered learning is often characterized as "following the child's interests." This chapter examines this under-theorized notion by re-visiting constructivist theory, reexamining the differences between constructivism and critical social constructionism and in the process explores many underpinning beliefs about knowledge in early years pedagogy. Examples of critical social constructionist pedagogy, drawn from some of the "big ideas" in the Social Sciences are provided in an attempt to blur the boundaries between the binaries that have dogged educational reform in the early years for decades.

While much is known about the factors related to student performance beyond Grade 3 (e.g. Adams, 2012, Marks, 2015 less is known about factors that are related to student performance in early childhood education and the early years in primary school. As part of the 'I go to school' project in South Australia, this study tracked children attending integrated preschool/childcare centres -known as Children's Centres -as they made their transition to school. Results indicated that children who attended early childhood education programs that were of higher quality -as characterised by higher staff qualifications and a greater range and more engaging children's activities -showed a greater gain in cognitive development than children who attended lower quality programs. Findings also suggested that children who benefitted the most from attendance in these programs were children from backgrounds of greater social disadvantage than children from less disadvantaged backgrounds.