The quality of an expert teacher’sand a student teacher’s pedagogical interactionsin early childhood education and care examined through theCLASS lens

High-quality interactions between teachers and children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are at theheart of supporting children’s development, well-being, andlearning. Theaim of the study wasto examine the quality of an experienced ECEC teacher’sand an ECEC student teacher’steacher–child interactionsusingthe ClassroomAssessment Scoring System (CLASS). Furthermore, the study exploredthe participants’reflectionson their pedagogical interactions and theextent to which they alignedwith the CLASS framework. The data consistedof video recordings, written observation notes, and stimulated recall interview(SRI) transcripts. Thevideos were rated according to the CLASSmanual, and the data were analysedusing qualitative thematicanalysis. The results suggestedthat participants’teacher–child interactions were of relatively high quality, althoughinstructional supportwas anarea for development.However, the interactions of the student teachervaried acrossobservation cycles. In the SRIs, both participants emphasised the importance of emotional supportand supporting children’s language skills. Differences arose inthe participants’positioningtoward teacher identity:the ECECteacher as expert andthe student teacherasdeveloping aprofessional identity. The results provide novel qualitative insights into teacher–child interactions and using.