Interrogating the construction of professional knowledge in early childhood education

<p dir="ltr">This study interrogated the dominant systems of professional knowledge in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) through the lens of Foucauldian governmentality. A qualitative poststructural approach examined how political, economic, and socio-cultural discourses, operating through technologies and mechanisms of productive power, (re)construct professional knowledge and regulate the conduct of individuals across diverse roles and qualifications within the sector. Data were generated through discourse analysis of national policy documents, including the National Quality Framework (NQF), workforce policies, and two in-depth interviews with 16 early childhood professionals holding qualifications from an entry level to a university bachelor's degree in ECEC. Discourse is conceptualised as a strategic mechanism and technology of power, knowledge, and 'truth', classifying and ordering what can be thought, said and done and producing the conditions for the formation of the subject. The analysis demonstrated that workforce policy and the National Quality Framework operate as a duality, a calculated solution to economic productivity and the strategic professionalisation of ECEC. Within this ordering, professionals are (re)produced as fundamental to society, yet their knowledge is often misaligned, perpetuating augmented and administrative policy narratives of assessment and improvement, performativity and efficiency. Amidst ongoing workforce shortages, characterised by low wages, poor working conditions, and intensifying demands for administration, compliance, and accountability, this inquiry offers a timely contribution to understanding how professional knowledge in ECEC is governed and affected by policy, regulatory, and institutional discourses and conditions. The study is positioned in possibilities and potentialities for thinking and reflecting on the 'truth', producing discourses that shape professional knowledges in ECEC Australia.</p>