Alma Fleet

Reflection: can we assess it? Should we assess it?

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a study undertaken by two university‐based teacher educators into an aspect of professional practice. The feasibility and desirability of assessing reflection demonstrated by student teachers studying early childhood literacy was investigated. While reaffirming the importance of developing reflective practitioners, the study highlighted the difficulties of equitably or meaningfully assessing reflection. Use of alternative methodologies was called for in future research into reflection

More than a Shortage of Early Childhood Teachers: Looking beyond the Recruitment of University Qualified Teachers to Promote Quality Early Childhood Education and Care.

In Australia and internationally, government policies aim to increase the supply of early childhood teachers and thus improve the quality of early childhood education and care services. In this paper, we suggest that such a policy-quality trajectory in Australia is not as straightforward as policy discourses suggest. From industrial relations and broader policy contexts, we argue that the early childhood profession is a profession on the margins and that this marginalisation complicates efforts to enhance numbers of early childhood teachers. Mindful of this marginalisation, we draw upon preliminary findings from a study exploring the motivations, beliefs and expectations of mature age postgraduate students to highlight practical issues pertaining to students and early childhood teacher education programs that further complicate policy drives to increase the supply of early childhood teachers. We propose that the success of such policy drives is dependent on a comprehensive addressing of the complexities raised in this paper.

Seeking children's perspectives: a respectful layered research approach

This article discusses why researchers and educators might choose to seek childrens perspectives. It also highlights some of the key considerations when seeing children as having the right to contribute to decisions that affect them. The article draws on findings from a study that used pedagogically oriented methods for researching three- and four-year-old childrens perspectives about outdoor spaces in the early childhood setting they attended. The article discusses the possibilities and practicalities of this research approach for both research and pedagogy. Examples are provided for others who may be considering working/researching in these ways.

Frameworks for change: four recurrent themes for quality in early childhood curriculum initiatives

This paper reports on the first phase of a case study that investigated how early childhood teachers experience organisational change. As one of three levels of quality improvement, State government‐funded curriculum initiatives were developed with an aim to promote change. Three curriculum documents, one each focusing on literacy, pedagogy and health, were released in a short time frame. Analysis of the content of these documents reveals four themes of change that reflected the theories underpinning the waves of change flowing across New South Wales, Australia, in the years 2001–02.

The Richness of Everyday Moments: Bringing Visibility to the Qualities of Care Within Pedagogical Spaces

Care is an epistemological construct that requires intellectual sensibility and judgment. This chapter offers a way to understand the relationship between our actions and the construction of care as a form of knowledge. Drawing upon the French tradition of examining the richness within the everyday, the concept of ‘le quotidien’, ‘the dimension of lived experience that is involved in everyday life’ (Sheringham, Everyday life: theories and practices from surrealism to the present. Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 2, 2006) is applied to early childhood education. The notion of le quotidien brings value to the often-overlooked aspects of everyday practice within infants’ and toddlers’ pedagogical spaces by acknowledging everyday moments as a space of transformation, invention, possibility and optimism. A 3-month case study was undertaken in an Australian long day care centre to investigate the epistemological nature of care. Through the use of pedagogically documented moments between children and educators, visibility is given to the capacity of the unseen relational space to construct shared values, revealing the intersubjective and intellectual nature of care.

(Co)-researching with children

This chapter offers a collaborative dialogue between academics and practitioners who have given consideration to the literature, the challenges and illustrations from practice in order to examine the notion of child voice in research. It illuminates the researcher-child relationship with an accent on hearing children’s standpoints through the lens of interested and invested adults. These considerations are intended as further provocations to the growing research base that is attentive to foregrounding children’s perspectives. While the chapter is not co-authored by children, it has been constructed so as to respect children’s voices and to task the research community to further deliberate the complexity of issues involved when positioning research practice as ‘researching with children’. Organised in several sections, the chapter explores ethical issues of assent and/or consent from children, examines issues in relation to children in a range of age cohorts and proposes a number of ways forward for this particular conversation using practice-based strategies such as pedagogical documentation and clarification of language use. These broad concepts are scrutinised through a conversation between examples of cooperation, collaboration and co-research, in an attempt to clarify the ongoing perplexity in this research terrain.

Evaluating innovation and navigating unseen boundaries: systems, processes and people

ABSTRACT This paper illustrates an evaluation model emerging from Australian research. With reference to a range of contexts, its usefulness is demonstrated through application to two professional development initiatives designed to improve continuity of learning in the context of the transition to school. The model reconceptualises approaches to considering and reporting educational change. Responding to an Australian state government’s recognition that aspects of the transition to school process necessitated changed dialogue between teachers and educators in prior to school and the formal school sector, the research team facilitated two eight-month multi-site explorations of core concepts, philosophies and practices. Ethics protocols were followed throughout the collaborative project. While this research acknowledges Wenger’s (2009. ‘Social learning capability: Four essays on innovation and learning in social systems.’ Social Innovation, Sociedade e Trabalho. Booklets 12 – separate supplement, MTSS/GEP & EQUAL Portugal, Lisbon.) claim that ‘social learning capability’ is ‘the most fundamental aspect of the communities of practice approach’ [Omidvar, O., and R. Kislov. 2014. ‘The evolution of the communities of practice approach: Toward knowledgeability in a landscape of practice- An interview with Etienne Wenger-Trayner.’ Journal of Management Inquiry 23: 266–275., p.268], experience in this cross-sector initiative suggests that the intersections of relationship, facilitative infrastructure and ‘spirals of engagement’ [Fleet, A., and C. Patterson. 2001. ‘Professional growth reconceptualised: Early childhood staff searching for meaning.’ Early Childhood Research and Practice 3 (2), ERIC Number: ED458042.] are also key in educational change, and should thus be visible in an evaluation model.

Leading change from the inside : a braided portrait

In giving voice to the experiences of leading educational change in a primary school, this paper frames a story of a change initiative told from multiple perspectives, those of Emma as a school leader and of Alma and Catherine as outsider facilitators. As well as highlighting Emma’s story alongside that of her university colleagues, the situated narrative uses a recognised theoretical framework for effective school improvement to examine key elements. The shared narrative unfolds over three years, deepening our understanding of crucial elements associated with educational change. It confirms the importance of multi-layered interactive approaches and of affective components in change initiatives. This portrait demonstrates that entertaining multiple perspectives and supporting distributed leadership can provide core components of educational change.

White women writing: two teachers as orang puteh in complex borderlands

Framed as portraiture, this narrative inquiry helps in understanding a potentially contested arena. As two women reflecting on our multiple positionings as teacher educators, we share situated memories as explanations for recommendations about working in cultural borderlands. Sited in Australia, but inviting conversation with others in similar circumstances wherever they may be, the stories embrace a tangled web of intentions, empathy, privilege, advocacy and opportunity. Having sought previously to foreground both Indigenous and academic voices in a form of border crossing, we now also consider our own voices as orang puteh (white people) and interrogate our own privileged research positioning. In this alternative presentation, findings relate to woven threads of Respect, Partnership, Advocacy and Identity.