Leadership Practices That Enable and Constrain Retention in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings in Australia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22048784 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Suzanne Garrett (0009-0002-5351-6951, Charles Sturt University), Leanne Gibbs (0000-0001-6461-6267, Charles Sturt University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 185 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Education Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/educsci15020185 |
| OpenAlex | W4407150307 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
Australia’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector is in crisis, with educator job tenure decreasing and workforce supply threatened. Despite worsening retention rates, many highly skilled educators remain and thrive within ECEC settings, ensuring strong relationships and positive outcomes for children. While research has uncovered the complex organisational factors contributing to workforce retention, the leadership’s influence on educator retention remains under-researched. This paper describes a small-scale Australian qualitative study of ECEC leaders and educators using a social constructivist lens. The present study explored how positional leaders in two high-quality ECEC sites enabled educator retention, considering the perspectives of leaders and educators. Data from semi-structured interviews were analysed using the theory of practice architectures to uncover the practices and practice architectures that enable and constrain retention. This research discovered six key practices of leaders. These six practices were flexible approaches to managing individuals, proactive approaches to creating and building professional relationships with educators, prioritising educators’ professional growth, positioning themselves to enable educators’ practice, creating cohesive teams, and valuing educators and their work. The practices of leaders and practice architectures illuminated in this study may be employed by organisations in the sector to support the retention of educators
Early childhood education · Mathematics education · Medical education · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Education Systems and Policy · Educational and Psychological Assessments · Medicine · Psychology
Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences
Changing Practices, Changing Education
The hidden complexity of early childhood educators’ work
Attracting, retaining and sustaining early childhood teachers
Support to stay and thrive
The Theory of Practice Architectures
Doing Interviews
Thematic Analysis
Understanding who cares
Retaining Early Childcare Educators
Using thematic analysis in psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |