Data set: Educator beliefs about mathematical manipulatives in the early primary years (Article 1)

This dataset contains the anonymised unit record data underlying the analyses reported in the article Mathematical manipulatives and tools in the early primary years: Exploring educator beliefs (Russo et al., 2025). Data were collected through an online questionnaire administered to early years educators in Australia. The dataset includes: Responses to 14 Likert-scale items measuring educator beliefs about the affordances and constraints of manipulatives. Open-ended responses in which educators described their rationales for using manipulatives (affordances) and the perceived challenges to their use (constraints). Demographic variables and other identifying information have been removed to protect participant anonymity. The dataset has been prepared in accordance with ethical approvals and includes only the variables directly relevant to the published analyses.