Leadership practices that enable and constrain retention in early childhood education and care settings in Australia

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.