Fay Hadley

Child participation and disaster risk reduction

Abstract It has been shown that child participation can have positive results in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation phases of a disaster. Currently child participation is achieving increased attention as a component of disaster risk reduction (DRR). This paper examines the ongoing dialogues on child participation and reviews pertinent literature describing effective DRR outcomes within diverse contexts. A myriad of factors such as gender, age, socio-economic status, caste, religion and geographic location play a role in socialising children into particular ways of being. These factors are considered in light of the ways in which they may influence opportunities for children to participate in DRR and other activities in meaningful ways. The roles of adults in facilitating or preventing child participation, with particular regard to complex power structures and attitudes towards childrens rights, are also discussed. Drawing out the potential implications of these factors calls for analyses of attitudes and possible restructuring of societal systems at several levels to enhance child participation. Planning for DRR may represent a crucial sequeway for challenging social norms and promoting equity, inclusion and participation – for children and other groups. This paper explores the role of child participation in DRR plans and practices, and identifies directions for developing an evidence base to support this potentially significant connection.

Contemporary Practice in Professional Learning and Development of Early Childhood Educators in Australia: Reflections on What Works and Why.

Continuous professional learning and development (PLD) is an essential component of effective practice in any profession. PLD as a professional responsibility and workplace requirement in early childhood (EC) settings is now embedded in Australian national policy. What PLD looks like and how it happens in EC settings is a hot topic both locally and internationally. Much of this discussion is associated with major reforms in the EC policy landscape. Increasingly, approaches to PLD are being documented as research inquiry in EC journals. Traditional forms of professional development delivered collectively to educators from diverse backgrounds are being questioned in terms of influencing changes in practice. This article will unpack current thinking on PLD of EC educators using research conducted in EC settings in Sydney. The article will outline what strategies were successful, and how and why these strategies enhanced practice. Adopting Hujala’s contextual theory of leadership, examples illustrate how the organisational context and the integration of individual capabilities of educators align in promoting sustained professional growth. Findings highlight the importance of adopting a strategic approach to both organisational improvement and professional advancement of educators at different stages of their careers.

Educational leadership: An evolving role in Australian early childhood settings

In the Australian early childhood sector the role of educational leader emerged as part of a very large process of policy reform that began in 2009. The position of educational leader was established to drive the quality improvement requirements of the reform, but many organizations did not establish these positions until several years after the reforms were introduced. Lack of clear role descriptions and authority make it difficult for educational leaders to fulfil the expectations held of them. This study examines the sense leaders make of the policy reforms and the street-level bureaucracy they perform to translate the policy into action. This sense-making and street-level bureaucracy is taking place in a neoliberal context where, we argue, the demands for professional discretionary decision-making are in conflict with the top-down standardization inherent in neoliberalism. Educational leaders have the potential to challenge neoliberalism through their professional decision-making but, in the Australian context, many are currently focusing on compliance with their street-level bureaucracy.

ECD and health promoting: Building on capacity

SummaryThis paper describes the findings from a two-year research project which investigated ways to support culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families with very young children accessing child care services. The families resided in low income areas and were deemed to be at risk of social isolation and related problems. The research findings showed positive outcomes associated with disseminating information, and developing networks amongst families. The project demonstrates that services catering to families with young children can be effective entry points for long-term health promotion.RésuméCet article décrit les résultats d’un projet de recherche de deux ans qui a étudié des manières de soutenir les familles culturelement et linguistiquement diverses (CALD) avec les enfants très en bas âge accédant à des services d’assistance à l’enfance. Les familles ont résidé dans de bas secteurs de revenu et ont été considérées être en danger de l’isolement social et des problèmes reliés. Les résultats de recherches ont montré des résultats positifs liés à diffuser l’information, et des réseaux se développants parmi des familles. Le projet démontre que les services approvisionnant aux familles avec les enfants en bas âge peuvent être les points d’entrée efficaces pour la promotion à long terme de santé.ResumenEste papel describe los resultados de un proyecto de investigación de dos años que investigó maneras de apoyar a las familias cultural y lingüistico diversas (CALD) con los niños muy jóvenes que tenían acceso a servicios del cuidado de niño. Las familias residieron en áreas bajas de la renta y eran juzgadas para estar en el riesgo del aislamiento social y de los problemas relacionados. Los resultados de la investigación demostraron los resultados positivos asociados a diseminar la información, y las redes que se convertían entre las familias. El proyecto demuestra que los servicios que abastecen a las familias con los niños jóvenes pueden ser puntos de entrada eficaces para la promoción a largo plazo de la salud.

The family–centre partnership disconnect: creating reciprocity

The purpose of this article is to examine the disconnect happening in relation to family–centre partnerships. Developing partnerships with families is hotly debated and provides challenges for educators teaching in the early childhood sector. Using a comparative case study analysis, several research studies conducted in the states of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, are examined to illustrate these disconnects. These issues are examined within Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, a national framework that is common to all programs across Australia, which identifies practice, principles and learning outcomes for young children. This disconnect is related to the language that is used by the early childhood staff and misunderstood by the parents, the ways communication occurs and its ineffectiveness. The article argues that there is a need to move beyond the current rhetoric of engaging in partnerships with families to a space that allows for transparency, reciprocity and new language.

Raising the Quality of Praxis in Online Mentoring

The decisions made by the designers of mentorship programs impact upon the development of the praxis of the teachers involved. The recent development of online mentoring provides an opportunity to revisit the question of how to design mentoring programs that support the development of a high quality of praxis in the participants. This chapter argues for a broad understanding of mentoring as formally convened, dialogic communities of teachers that include arrangements such as online, peer and group mentoring. It suggests that a high quality of praxis occurs in a space where mentors adopt a critical stance for reflecting upon the intentions behind the technical skills of mentoring. The theoretical understanding of the praxis of mentoring is explored by describing a design-based research project, TeachConnect, that facilitates online mentoring aimed primarily at preservice teachers. The challenges experienced in convening communities within TeachConnect are used to highlight some of the key issues in fostering a high quality of praxis of mentoring in the online space, including the need to balance a fluid adoption of roles within mentorship with the need for well-prepared mentors.

Reconsidering the Communicative Space: Learning to Be

In this chapter we ask the reader to set aside existing perceptions of mentoring, supervi-sion and their relatedness to professional experience and instead join us in a sharply recon-sidered analysis of the communicative space in which teachers and preservice teachers negotiate the phenomenon of ‘learning to be’. We take the Habermasian concept of com-municative space (1990) and earlier notions of lifeworld (Heidegger, 1962/1927; Merleau-Ponty, 1962/1945; Sandberg & Dall’Alba, 2009) as a theoretical frame to foreground learning and practice as ‘ways of being in the world’. A series of three vignettes are pre-sented to illustrate how mentoring is both epistemological (what we know or can do) and ontological (how we are learning to be). It is this learning to be, in the teaching and learn-ing to teach relationship, that we aim to identify, illustrate and elaborate in this chapter.

Where did love and care get lost? Educators and parents’ perceptions of early childhood practice

ABSTRACT Overarching the Australian Early Childhood Education and Care sector currently are the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards and shape the practice of early childhood educators. Within these documents, the word LOVE is not mentioned as an important characteristic of effective teaching. This paper examines the notion of love in ECEC contexts, drawing on three studies which examined parent and educator perspectives on what is important in ECEC practice. A consistent theme throughout these studies was families discussing the notions of care, love, happiness and friendships as important for their children in ECEC. Families were not as focused on qualifications and/or expertise, but instead valued educators who they felt knew and loved their children. Educators rarely mentioned the words love or happiness, but instead spoke about child development and learning when reflecting on the programme in the ECEC settings. We will argue in this article the language of learning in ECEC, which is being influenced by the neoliberalist discourse in education, restricts educators engaging in other discourses about practice which include care and love.

Supporting young children as digital citizens: The importance of shared understandings of technology to support integration in play-based learning: Supporting young children as digital citizens

Abstract: The ubiquity of technology in contemporary society positions it as a significant cultural tool in children’s lives. Definitions, conceptualisations and understandings of the relevance of technology are diverse which can hinder integration of technology in early learning settings. This paper presents findings from a doctoral research project that investigated Australian educator beliefs and practices in relation to technology integration within play‐based curriculums for children aged three to five years. The key findings presented relate to creating connections and shared conceptualisations of technology between educators, families and directors of early learning services. Shared understandings of the sociocultural relevance of diverse technological tools were found to facilitate technology integration in the curriculum. Rogoff’s (1995) three planes of analysis were utilised to identify and understand the interplay between the personal, interpersonal and community levels of sociocultural activity. A significant implication is identification of the need for professional discussion, professional learning and critical reflection opportunities to extend educator understandings of technology as socially, culturally, and pedagogically relevant for young children. Sharing this knowledge in collaborative partnerships between educators, families and management can support children’s development as digital citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Because uni is totally different than what you do at TAFE”: protective strategies and provisions for diploma students traversing their first professional experience placement at university

Students who enrol in a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, with a Diploma in Children’s Services attained from a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution or a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) often experience challenges in their first professional experience unit. Utilising a phenomenological approach to understand the students’ previous knowledge and experiences as they navigated through their first professional experience unit, this qualitative study identified factors including institutional structures and course content as challenging to the diploma student. To ensure diploma students can successfully transition to and participate in their first professional experience unit at university, all stakeholders including the university, the academics teaching the students, and the students themselves need to commit to a multilevel support programme. Key findings from this study support the previous research on this student cohort.