Rate My Professor Tammy Williams

Tammy Williams serves as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University. She joined the university in early 2025, as announced in the Southern Cross Matters newsletters published in February and April 2025, where she was listed among new staff members contributing to various faculties including Education, Health, and others.

Williams' academic interests center on early childhood education and care (ECEC). She presented research at the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) symposium on Tuesday, 26 August 2025, during the session on Government Policy Approaches to Inclusive ECE, held from 15:40 to 17:00 in Room G118. Her study interrogated dominant systems of knowledge in ECEC within Australia, examining the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), which was designed to be flexible and non-prescriptive. The research employed a post-structural framework informed by Michel Foucault's concepts of governmentality, power/knowledge, and subject formation. Utilizing a qualitative methodology, data were gathered from 32 interviews with early childhood professionals, including directors, educational leaders, teachers, and educators, across two Long Day Care Services. Discourse analysis demonstrated that interpretations of the EYLF prioritize learning outcomes, thereby marginalizing the framework's foundational principles and practices. This leads to an incomplete understanding that conflicts with the EYLF's original vision. The findings emphasize the necessity for enhanced professional comprehension of the EYLF's Principles and Practices to ensure high-quality ECEC that supports children's rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). The study adhered to ethical standards approved by the University of Newcastle's ethics committee. Participants provided informed consent and were deidentified.