Reframing Early Childhood Teacher Education to Support Equity and Access: The Practice Architectures of an Enabling ‘Degree-Qualified’ Pathway

Amidst an early childhood workforce crisis in Australia, early childhood teacher education providers are looking for innovative options to provide degree-level qualifications to encourage people to join the teaching profession. This includes upskilling opportunities for educators currently working as diploma-qualified educators in the early childhood profession. Many of these educators are from diverse backgrounds and had found the prospect of obtaining a teaching degree inaccessible before enrolling in the university-based initial teacher education program described below. The creation of initial teacher education programs that reduce barriers and provide accessible programs for educators to join the teaching profession is imperative in this workforce crisis. Using the theoretical and analytical lens of the theory of practice architectures, this study sought to understand the conditions within an innovative initial teacher education program that enabled and constrained diploma upskillers to successfully graduate as early childhood teachers. Data collected from an online survey and semi-structured interviews with students showed that whilst many elements of the innovative initial teacher education program enabled student success, there is a need for universities to work in stronger partnership with workplaces to ensure that requirements to deliver the pathway are clear and achievable.