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Article History

Received: 5 July 2025

Accepted: 6 November 2025

First Online: 18 December 2025

Declarations

:

: The study has been approved by the Macquarie University Human Research and Ethics Committee (HREC), reference 520231309049716 and has been carried out according to the ethical standards outlined in the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

: The authors declare that the research was conducted independently and not influenced by any commercial or consulting interests. Although Joanne provides professional consultancy services in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, the findings and analysis presented in this paper are based solely on academic research and are not connected to, nor funded by, any consulting activities, clients, or affiliated organisations.