Examining the contribution of relational professional learning and development to family day care educators’ pedagogical leadership : an Australian embedded case study

<p dir="ltr">The broad aim of the research reported in this doctoral thesis was to examine effects of a specifically designed and researcher-facilitated professional learning and development (PL&D) experienced by family day care (FDC) educators. In particular, the research sought to investigate cognitive changes related to their understanding and enactment of pedagogical leadership as defined in the national policy guide <i>Educators’ Guide to Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework </i>(Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, DEEWR, 2010b) and the changes in epistemological and ontological beliefs (EBs and OBs) that may have contributed to any shifts that occurred. The DEEWR (2010b) policy guide was put in place following the introduction of <i>Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia </i>(<i>EYLF</i>) as a core curriculum framework for FDC educators under Australia’s <i>National Quality Framework </i>(<i>NQF</i>) and necessitated the development and delivery of <i>EYLF</i>-related PL&D in the FDC sector. Finding ways of identifying changes that occurred when FDC educators participated in such PL&D provided an impetus for this research. The use of EBs and OBs to investigate cognitive changes is appealing, especially as such beliefs are associated with a constructivist ECEC pedagogy (Brownlee & Berthelsen, 2008), as highlighted in the <i>EYLF </i>(DEEWR, 2009), and with decision-making associated with pedagogical leadership, both of which have been shown to enhance outcomes for children (Douglass, 2019).<br>A mixed method embedded case study with FDC educators in Tasmania was conducted across three levels. Data were gathered at a broad state-wide system level (Level 1) using telephone interviews with 10 FDC Scheme Managers (SMs). The data illustrated the nature of the <i>EYLF</i>-related PL&D delivered and accessed by FDC educators in Tasmania since the introduction of the <i>EYLF </i>(DEEWR, 2009). It also outlined the SMs’ perceptions of the pedagogical leadership changes adopted by educators in their Schemes. Data for Level 2 of the research were gathered from a group of six educators from one of the Level 1 FDC Schemes. Level 2 data were gathered to identify changes in constructs associated with pedagogical leadership and with EBs and OBs when FDC educators participated in a specifically designed relational PL&D. The FDC educators completed surveys and quantitative self-report measures twice prior to the PL&D and twice after their participation in the PL&D. Data at Level 3 were gathered from three members of the group, who were interviewed to investigate the EB/OB changes in more depth.<br>Level 2 findings provided evidence of the six FDC educators using a wider range of DEEWR (2010a) constructs when they described their understandings and examples of pedagogical leadership. Notably, there was further consolidation of their pedagogical leadership constructs two months after the PL&D had concluded. Both quantitative and qualitative data suggested there were changes in the six educators’ EBs and OBs over time. Changes in EBs after participating in the PL&D showed that some educators were more inclined to evaluate ECEC knowledge using objective as well as personal or practical criteria and adopted increasingly EB Relativist (Schraw & Olafson, 2008) positions. Most educators retained an EB Realist (Schraw & Olafson, 2008) position that there were some things children needed to know and do and drew reference to the <i>NQF </i>guidelines. Changes in the educators’ OBs after participating in the PL&D aligned with an increasing range of examples of the adoption of more constructivist (Arthur et al., 2015; 2018) pedagogies recommended in the <i>EYLF </i>(DEEWR, 2009).<br>The Level 3 interviews provided nuanced interrogations of the changes in three of the six educators’ EB and OB changes. These were aligned with their EBs and OBs and the changes in how they construed pedagogical leadership as identified within Level 2 findings. Level 3 findings identified a detailed mix of EB and OB positions in each educator that illustrated the complexity of such beliefs and their contribution to how each one construed pedagogical leadership.<br>Together, each level of the embedded case study contributed to understanding the PL&D system-wide (Tasmanian) response to a process quality imperative (Douglass, 2019) and how, within that system-wide response, a relational PL&D facilitated over time can contribute to the cognitive changes that support the development of educator beliefs necessary to enact process quality for young children, namely pedagogical leadership by all (DEEWR, 2010a). It is anticipated that this doctoral study will contribute to achieving future ECEC policy goals especially in FDC.</p>