Jennifer Leigh Cartmel

A Considered Curriculum for Preparing Human Services Practitioners: Structuring Circles of Learning and Change

Experience in the setting of the ‘real-world’ of practice is an invaluable component of students’ learning. Students are afforded the opportunity to make sense of theoretical knowledge, and, through such experiences, develop skills and abilities that pertain to the area of professional practice. However, just as these environments afford real practice experiences they are unpredictable situations because of their authentic nature, which presents many challenges for the development of professional expertise. Indeed, such experiences resist pre-specification and predictable outcomes. Professional practice in the human services is no exception and can be confronting and demanding. Hence, there are significant challenges to exposing students to real-life scenarios. In particular, students undertaking field placements in human service organisations often encounter experiences that are confronting for novices, yet comprise routine aspects of human service work. It is essential, therefore, for these students to engage with these experiences with some confidence about how to engage in both personally and professionally productive ways. Students’ learning needs are most likely to be effectively supported through such experiences if they are prepared in ways that allow them to respond appropriately to and maximise the professional learning from such confronting circumstances and experiences.

Circles of change revisited: building leadership, scholarship and professional identity in the children’s services sector

The field of children’s services in Australia is currently undergoing significant change. For example, the current implementation of the Early Years Reform Agenda encompasses the development of National Quality Standards, which promote a strong focus on workforce development. As a consequence, practitioners in this sector are being required to consistently reflect on their practice and often re-invent themselves in order to maintain their employment. This paper details a new and innovative strategy, which has been successful in facilitating transformational change. Entitled Circles of Change, the strategy has been embedded in class teaching, in field placement and in professional development with outstanding results. The authors contend that in the children’s services sector in Australia, strategies such as this one are crucial to the development of the workforce and, ultimately, to the provision of high-quality children’s services, particularly as a professionalised workforce is a rapidly growing concern.

Using Interprofessional Learning for Continuing Education: Development and Evaluation of the Graduate Certificate Program in Health Professional Education for Clinicians.

Introduction: Health professionals may be expert clinicians but do not automatically make effective teachers and need educational development. In response, a team of health academics at an Australian university developed and evaluated the continuing education Graduate Certificate in Health Professional Education Program using an interprofessional learning model. Methods: The model was informed by Collins interactional expertise and Knowles adult learning theories. The team collaboratively developed and taught four courses in the program. Blended learning methods such as web-based learning, face-to-face workshops, and online discussion forums were used. Twenty-seven multidisciplinary participants enrolled in the inaugural program. Focus group interview, self-report questionnaires, and teacher observations were used to evaluate the program. Results: Online learning motivated participants to learn in a collaborative virtual environment. The workshops conducted in an interprofessional environment promoted knowledge sharing and helped participants to better understand other discipline roles, so they could conduct clinical education within a broader health care team context. Work-integrated assessments supported learning relevance. The teachers, however, observed that some participants struggled because of lack of computer skills. Discussion: Although the interprofessional learning model promoted collaboration and flexibility, it is important to note that consideration be given to participants who are not computer literate. We therefore conducted a library and computer literacy workshop in orientation week which helped. An interprofessional learning environment can assist health professionals to operate outside their “traditional silos” leading to a more collaborative approach to the provision of care. Our experience may assist other organizations in developing similar programs.

Looking to the future: producing transdisciplinary professionals for leadership in early childhood settings

This paper reports on an Australian initiative Developing and Sustaining Pedagogical Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care Professionals, where academics and professionals shared knowledge, experience and research about transdisciplinary practice. The project aimed to develop an understanding of the strategies and skills early childhood professionals and practitioners required to strengthen pedagogical leadership when working in multi-agency organisations. The conceptual framework underpinning the design, analysis and evaluation of the project was bricolage. Bricolage enabled the researchers, professionals and practitioners and other organisational members to consider the principles of multiplicity, complexity, relationality and criticality. The use of bricolage created an opportunity for a more comprehensive level of analysis to occur. A model of professional development emerged from the analysis of the data and was subsequently used to develop an open source learning website.

Understanding the 'how': a model of practice for critical reflection for children's services practitioners

Critical reflection is an important skill required by those who work in childrens services. This paper explores the notion of reflective practice discussing (1) whether it can be taught; (2) what makes it critical; and (3) how it can be implemented. It concludes with the description of a model of critical reflection that is being used to teach childrens services practitioners to use critical reflection as part of their everyday practice. The process consists of four stages. First, within the deconstruct stage, practitioners listen to one another to understand the various perspectives that exist. During the second stage, confronting, practitioners build on the perspectives of the group and confront the subject of conversation, highlighting some of the inherent ideas that are accepted and rarely questioned about an issue. The third stage, theorise, involves practitioners considering the source of their ideas. Finally, during the think otherwise stage, practitioners synthesise their perspectives and consider a position, solution or idea, while encouraging changes in practice.

Kids in Action: Participatory Health Research with Children

Involving children in participatory health research (PHR) provides exciting opportunities to gain insights into their perspectives and capacities and encourages them to make a meaningful contribution to issues affecting their lives. It is underpinned by a rights-based approach, where children’s evolving expertise is valued. In PHR, children are not just research participants – they are co-researchers. This raises challenges and ethical issues on several levels, including the nature of child engagement, the role of adults, and methods to promote child agency, while also ensuring their safety is not compromised. This chapter uses real international exemplars to illuminate the complexity and debate on theory and practice in relation to PHR with children. These examples reflect the flexibility inherent in the approach to accommodate culture and context. They also highlight the need to avoid tokenism, which might undermine children’s agency, and encourage first attempts, reflexive practice, and progressive improvements in PHR competence. Children’s right to subvert or deny the participatory process is recognized as a challenge to the adults involved but is also a way to realize impacts and outcomes that are more relevant for those children. Finally, Kids in Action is presented as an international network of PHR projects involving children to promote best practice, develop and share resources, link similar projects to maximize impacts, and provide a platform for children’s voices in relation to global issues.

Developing an Evidenced Based Intergenerational Pedagogy in Australia

ABSTRACT This paper presents a systematic literature review of the qualitative evidence in relation to intergenerational learning programs, principles, and practices. The aim of the review is to develop the evidence base to form an Intergenerational Model of Practice Framework based on the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). The EYLF comprises three inter-related elements: principles, practice, and outcomes. The results of this systematic literature review revealed commonalities across these elements and therefore what is needed to underpin the development of an evidence-based Intergenerational Model of Practice Framework.

Integrated practice in the early years in Australia: The assumptions, omissions and contradictions of policy reform

The aim of this article is to examine current national early years’ policy reform, which emphasises the importance of service integration, national quality standards and a quality knowledge base for educators concerning the provision of early childhood education and care. Using Queensland, Australia, as an example, a policy discourse analysis identifies two problematics of implementing current national policy – the early childhood education and care problematic and the integration problematic. The article argues that speedy implementation of a national policy in order to meet national targets has unintended consequences for the knowledge base of educators and the possibility of collaboration within service provision. Although government commitment in this area is evident, these consequences and the current difficulties surrounding integration are the result of the lack of a specific integration strategy, and government investment focussed on the development of an integrated workforce.

Accept the Change and Enjoy the Range: Applications of the Circles of Change Methodology with Professionals Who Support Early Childhood Educators.

Inclusion Support Facilitators support Early Childhood Education and Care centres in Australia to provide an inclusive environment for the children they serve. To date no research has examined the causes of job stress faced by these professionals. Similarly, no research has explored how interventions aimed at supporting Inclusion Support Facilitators’ practice may impact their work. This research explored how the first of a set of critical reflection workshops instructing on the use of the Circles of Change methodology impacted the practice of Inclusion Support Facilitators. The research was undertaken in two stages. The first stage involved collecting baseline data to investigate current levels of job stress amongst Inclusion Support Facilitators. The second stage involved gathering qualitative data to explore the opinions of professionals about how such stresses might be changed following an initial critical reflection workshop. Findings from this research suggest that job demands may be a potential cause of stress for Inclusion Support Facilitators. Findings also suggest that the Circles of Change methodology may be helpful in encouraging personal reflection, communication and transformational change amongst professionals who support those working in childcare. Such notions are critical to how professionals manage both job stress and workplace change.

Practice: searching and re/searching

Searching and re/searching describes processes which individuals undertake to satisfy their curiosity about something of which they want to know to more. This state of curiosity is no less important in the field of playwork practice as practitioners and academics seek to uncover the understandings about the circumstances of their discipline and how it interacts with the wider landscape of social being. What makes this curiosity change from searching to researching is the use of a systematic approach. Researching is an iterative activity that embraces methodologies that structure the gathering of knowledge. These insights can be used in a number of ways including deepening understandings for practitioners or helping to advocate with policymakers or funding bodies.