Gaps, compliance or variation in Australian early childhood teacher education

In Australia, there has been rapid growth in the demand for early childhood education and care programmes, leading to strong demand for early childhood teachers. To become an early childhood teacher, potential candidates must complete an approved early childhood teacher education programme. In this paper we explore the approved programmes in Australia ( N = 102) that provide early childhood teacher education (from January 2024). We look at the names of programmes, content, entry requirements, duration, design and placement days. We also explore the current growth in international student enrolments within early childhood teacher education programmes. We make visible a number of gaps in programme provision, with our findings showing strong variation across the approved programmes despite complying with the same content and provision requirements. We conclude with a discussion on what this variation across programmes means for the workforce of early childhood teachers and for future policy directions, and postulate around possible market forces and the influence of neoliberal management on early childhood teacher education.