I want to show you something small that changed how I read our own curriculum frameworks. I went looking for the word each one uses for me, the person standing in the room with the children. The three central documents gave me three different answers.

The Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics (2016) calls me an early childhood professional. It defines that as a person who works professionally with or on behalf of children and families. What strikes me is how the Code is written. Its sections are a run of statements that begin “I will.” They read as promises in my own voice. The Code names me as a professional, then asks me to claim that name by committing to it.

The national framework, the EYLF, uses a different word. It calls me an educator. It builds my professionalism out of what I do, describing educators who make professional judgements by drawing on their knowledge, the context of each child, and critical reflection. The word educator holds the degree-qualified teacher and the Certificate III educator inside one term. Which is very inclusive… I also think it created shared language for us.

Here in Victoria, the VEYLDF also says early childhood professional, and it uses the term most broadly of the three. In that framework, the word covers anyone who works with children from birth to eight, and it names nurses, teachers, family support workers and allied health staff alongside educators. Victoria treats the profession as a community of many disciplines. I like the approach of community of practice, this makes ECE profession “relational”.

So notice what happened. Three documents, and I was handed three names before I had chosen one for myself. None of them made teacher the obvious default.

Here is what I would ask you to think about. Find the word each of these documents uses for you, then sit with the one that fits you least. Whose definition of your role have you been carrying without noticing?