Puppets have a long association with early childhood education and have played a much-loved role in children’s learning and development. This paper tells the research story that investigated how the magical creature of a puppet facilitated connection, play, communication, and engagement with children who experience disability. We discovered how puppets can be combined with drama approaches and utilized in group activities for enabling literacy development by early childhood educators. In being with a puppet, adults found new ‘ways’ of supporting all children’s interest, meaning making, and contribution to group learning experiences. Puppets were found to invite children into conversations, to encourage their expression and creativity, in a way that was uniquely their own. Educators found that being with a puppet supported their relationship with the children to one that was more playful and positive as it altered their perception of the children and their ability to recognize their non-verbal communication.

Early childhood education is a sector often mis-represented in the media and public domain, depicting a sector beleaguered by low salaries, lack of professional recognition and inadequate working conditions. Missing from this depiction is the fullness of the everyday teaching and learning experiences of early childhood educators, and subsequent joy experienced in working with young children and families and the significant contribution of this emotion to educator practice and sense of wellbeing. Using an online survey, educators were invited to share their perspectives of factors that are contributing to the crisis in the field, their daily encounters with children and the moments, both big and small, that shaped and guided their pedagogy. Findings suggested that while the concept of joy was embraced and validated by educators, it was also elusive and hard to define. Suggestions for validating the place of joy as central in early childhood education conclude the paper.

The benefits of puppetry for children in therapeutic and educational contexts are well established, with puppets shown to have improved children’s learning, their relationships with adults and other children, and their self-confidence and communication. Adding to this research is an emerging body of evidence that shows the many benefits of puppets for autistic children both as a form of early intervention and as a teaching strategy in the early years of schooling. This paper examines the qualitative literature that describes the value of puppets for autistic teenagers and young people to see how the object of puppets may maintain relevance for older students in secondary school and as they transition out of school and how puppets can enhance the already established advantages seen in younger children. An online search was conducted of peer-reviewed journals through the university library, followed by an additional search using the same keywords on Google Scholar. The review highlighted the possibilities of puppetry for many educational purposes and the wellbeing of autistic adolescents and young people. Also found were a significant gap in the research and the need for further studies that apply puppetry to this diverse population.

The early childhood sector supports the realisation of inclusive education through a range of recommendations, policy statements and resources. With such a clearly mandated movement for inclusive practice it is imperative that educators are equipped with the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary to ensure the full participation of all children. Despite this understanding, a discrepancy exists between the recommendations and the confidence or capacity of early childhood professionals to realise inclusion with authenticity. This paper highlights findings from my PhD research that showed how early childhood professionals and drama educators working with young children can apply the creative arts for inclusive practice. Drawing upon the methodology of portraiture, a series of vignettes illustrate how drama, puppetry, and movement can be applied to address barriers to authentic inclusion in early childhood contexts and create a culture that embraces all children.

This research tells the story of an interpretation of joy particular to early childhood education. For writer Zadie Smith, joy comes in many iterations; it may be a small pleasure or a grand affair, experienced internally or relationally, and, most importantly, has the capacity to increase rapidly when children are involved. The joy that accompanies children is much more than a feeling, it arrives unexpectedly at times of discovery and important moments in relationships. This chapter reports the findings of a qualitative research project involving early childhood educators in Australia that sought to identify the presence and significance of joy in their professional lives. This phenomenological study examined how educators felt about joy, how they experienced joy in their daily practice, with results revealing a joy that is particular to the field, and one that could be a valuable point of focus in early childhood education. This chapter re-defines and outlines this version of joy, and in doing so, proposes how attending to joy through an aesthetic lens can create a new narrative of the early childhood profession, one that is sustainable through the practice of joy.

This paper explores the methodology of portraiture as a participatory approach to research with young children. At its core, the study is rooted in the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989), which affirms children’s rights to express their views in matters affecting them and to have those views taken seriously. In particular, the research is framed using Lundy’s (2007) model of voice, which provides a practical framework for realising Article 12 of the UNCRC. According to Lundy, meaningful participation by children requires four key elements: Space (children must be given the opportunity to express a view), Voice (they must be facilitated to express their views), Audience (those views must be listened to), and Influence (those views must be acted upon, where appropriate).