Balancing Scholarship and Practice

<jats:p>Early childhood initial teacher education (ITE) in Australia is operating within a period of significant expansion and policy reform. Central to the quality of teacher preparation are Early Childhood Education (ECEC) academic, this workforce cohort of teacher educators remains underexamined. Using Evetts's (2013) distinction between organisational and occupational professionalism as a theoretical lens and drawing on Sachs (2016) and Winch et al. (2015), the chapter develops the concept of critical scholarly professionalism as a framework for understanding what high-quality teacher educator practice requires. Moving beyond the binary between scholarship and practice, the chapter proposes that the integration of field-based expertise and academic knowledge should be brought into deliberate, structured and critical dialogue, contributing to the genuine professionalism in ECE ITE.</jats:p>