Searching for the relationship between leadership discourses and professional identity in early childhood education and care and finding the professional phronimos

Leadership has received broad research attention and is acknowledged as important in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy and practice delivery (Gibbs, 2020; Douglass, 2019). Professional identity in the Australian ECEC sector has been linked to leadership and quality policy by the need to prove ‘quality’ and professionalisation through gaining high quality ratings within the National Quality Standard (NQS) (Moloney, Sims, Rothe, Buettner, Sonter, Waniganayake, Opazo, Calder & Girlich, 2019). Furthermore, there are strong discourses in research and policy linking effective leadership in ECEC to the delivery of high-quality programs that positively impact on the long-term outcomes of children (Gibbs, Press, Wong & Cumming, 2020; McKinlay, Irvine & Farrell, 2018). This study presents an investigation of the relationship between leadership discourses and the professional identity of ECEC leaders and educators. The study aims to answer the research question of what the relationship between leadership discourses and professional identity in ECEC is by examining the participants’ understandings of leadership, their experiences of the Assessment and Rating process and how leadership and quality discourses influence their professional identity formation. This qualitative research is a context dependant case study involving three ECEC settings over a three-month period to analyse data and produce thematic research findings. Foucauldian concepts including, relations of power, discourse, regimes of truth, governmentality as well as a phronetic research methodology (Flyvbjerg, 2001) were utilised as analytical tools to search for systems of power within the daily practices of the ECEC leaders and educators. This thesis drew on phronesis, described by Aristotle as practical wisdom (Aristotle, ca. 340 BCE/2014), as a methodology, method and philosophical underpinning as per the studies of Bent Flyvbjerg (2001). The concept of the professional phronimos defined as a person who embodies phronesis through a commitment to reflexive practice and value-rational perspectives (Sellman, 2012; Flyvbjerg, 2001) is also used to demonstrate a reconceptualisation of professional being. Findings from this thesis argue that the human activity of the participants in daily practices remain unacknowledged in the ECEC Assessment and Rating process. Furthermore, the professional identity of the participants was more connected to quality outcomes than their daily practices when participants viewed their roles through quality policy frameworks. Analysis also found that value-rational perspectives were used by participants highlighting the moral knowledges and reflexive praxis of leaders and educators as professional phronimos (Sellman, 2012) that builds professional capacity. The notion of the professional phronimos is key to the thesis as it allows for a strengthening of professional identity through a human embodiment of value-rationally wise professional practice. The professional phronimos holds potential to reconcile the agency of the ECEC professional with the structures of regulation through transparency of power structures that exist within ECEC settings. In this thesis the professional phronimos demonstrates value-based thinking to enhance teamwork and experiences of professionality through ethically laden interactions of care, trust, support, wellbeing, empathy and individualised leadership which also enhances professional autonomy and identity.