Who am I as an early childhood teacher? Who would I like to be?

In this article I discuss how discourses of democratic early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a child’s right, and enterprise discourses of ECEC as a commodity, have constructed teachers’ work and professional identities in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past two decades. I illustrate two prevailing identity constructions of teachers emerging from these discourses—activist–advocates and teachers–entrepreneurs. By revealing the powerful impacts of inconsistent policy directives on the sector, I offer thoughts around: What are changes that the state and the ECEC sector may wish to consider in the development of the Strategic Plan for Early Learning 2019–29 to resist the neoliberal emphases and re-establish a more democratic, socially just, and equitable ECEC sector?