Sandie Wong

Integrated early years services: a thematic literature review

This article reports on the findings of a thematic review of research literature about integrated early years services (IEYS) [1995–2012]. Four themes are discussed: broad support for IEYS; critiques of claims about IEYS; a focus on inter-professional practice; and the challenge of evaluating IEYS. The article concludes with reflections concerning how the evidence base for IEYS could be strengthened.

Reading between the Lines: An Interpretative Meta-Analysis of Ways Early Childhood Educators Negotiate Discourses and Subjectivities Informing Practice

Considerable attention has been paid across international contexts to structural factors affecting the sustainability of the early childhood workforce. While attention to these elements is vital, it can nevertheless overshadow less tangible elements that may contribute to, or assist in addressing, problems of workforce sustainability. In particular, an existing body of literature suggests that discourses and subjectivities play an important role in informing early childhood practice. In this article we report on an interpretative meta-analysis of 38 empirical studies from 9 countries, which are concerned with ways early childhood educators negotiate discourses and subjectivities informing early childhood practice. We found that early childhood educators participating in these empirical studies used a highly complex set of strategies to negotiate the relations of power that operate within and between discourses and subjectivities informing early childhood practice. We conclude that understanding more about ways early childhood educators negotiate discourses and subjectivities has the potential to inform efforts to address problems of workforce sustainability, and is worthy of further study.

Supporting culturally and linguistically diverse children with speech, language and communication needs: Overarching principles, individual approaches

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are working with an increasing number of families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds as the worlds population continues to become more internationally mobile. The heterogeneity of these diverse populations makes it impossible to identify and document a one size fits all strategy for working with culturally and linguistically diverse families. This paper explores approaches to practice by SLPs identified as specialising in multilingual and multicultural practice in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts from around the world. Data were obtained from ethnographic observation of 14 sites in 5 countries on 4 continents. The sites included hospital settings, university clinics, school-based settings, private practices and Indigenous community-based services. There were 652 individual artefacts collected from the sites which included interview transcripts, photographs, videos, narrative reflections, informal and formal field notes. The data were analysed using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987). From the analysis six overarching Principles of Culturally Competent Practice (PCCP) were identified. These were: (1) identification of culturally appropriate and mutually motivating therapy goals, (2) knowledge of languages and culture, (3) use of culturally appropriate resources, (4) consideration of the cultural, social and political context, (5) consultation with families and communities, and (6) collaboration between professionals. These overarching principles align with the six position statements developed by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Childrens Speech (2012) which aim to enhance the cultural competence of speech pathologists and their practice. The international examples provided in the current study demonstrate the individualised ways that these overarching principles are enacted in a range of different organisational, social, cultural and political contexts. Tensions experienced in enacting the principles are also discussed. This paper emphasises the potential for individual SLPs to enhance their practice by adopting these overarching principles to support the individual children and families in diverse contexts around the world.

Shared knowledge and mutual respect: Enhancing culturally competent practice through collaboration with families and communities:

Collaboration with families and communities has been identified as one of six overarching principles to speech and language therapists’ (SLTs’) engagement in culturally competent practice (Verdon et al., 2015a). The aim of this study was to describe SLTs’ collaboration with families and communities when engaging in practice to support the speech, language and communication of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The study also aimed to identify the benefits and tensions related to such collaborations and to describe opportunities for SLTs to enhance their cultural competence through collaborative practice. The current study drew upon three data sources collected during the ‘Embracing Diversity – Creating Equality’ study: field notes, narrative reflections by the researcher, and semi-structured interviews with SLTs. This study was conducted in 14 international sites across five countries (Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy and the USA), representing a diverse range of cultural and practice contexts. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT, Engeström, 1987) was used as both an heuristic framework through which the study was conceptualized and as a tool for analysis to describe the varied nature of collaboration in different cultural contexts, the benefits of collaborating with families and communities, and the tensions that can arise when engaging in collaborative practice. The results illuminate the importance of SLTs’ collaboration with families in order to gain an understanding of different cultural expectations and approaches to family involvement, and to build partnerships with families to work towards common goals. Collaboration with communities was highlighted for its ability to both facilitate understanding of children’s cultural context and build respectful, reciprocal relationships that can act as a bridge to overcome often unspoken or invisible tensions arising in cross-cultural practice. The findings of this study highlight opportunities for professionals to enhance the cultural competence of their practice through engagement with families and communities.

Child-Centred, Family-Centred, Decentred: Positioning Children as Rights-Holders in Early Childhood Program Collaborations

Although the policy context in Australia is conducive to professional collaborations in early years services, understandings of collaboration are highly variable across the domains of research literature, policy and practice. Inconsistent and possibly incompatible approaches to working with children and families, as well as significant philosophical and professional differences, may be disguised by common terminology adopted under the rubric of collaborative practice. A potential blind spot concerns the positioning of the child, whose perspectives, needs and desires are easily subsumed by the intentions of the adults around them, either as professionals or family members. With reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and drawing on extant literature and data from two Australian research projects examining integrated and collaborative practices in early childhood programs, this article interrogates the positioning of the child in interprofessional and transprofessional collaborations, and examines the potential of the early childhood educator to sharpen the focus on children.

An Investigative Case Study into Early Childhood Educators' Understanding about "Belonging".

ABSTRACT This paper presents findings from a small exploratory study examining eight diversely qualified early childhood (EC) educators’ understandings about belonging. Data from interviews were analysed drawing on 10 dimensions and 3 axes of belonging. Findings from this study demonstrate that educators had a strong sense of social, emotional, spatial and temporal dimensions of belonging, but limited understandings in terms of cultural, moral/ethical, political, legal, physical and spiritual dimensions. Also emerging as a dominant theme from the data was the importance of educators’ own sense of belonging. The study suggests that if the transformational potential of EC policy documents and curricula is to be realised then: i) educators’ conceptualisations of belonging need to be enhanced and expanded; and ii) attention needs to be paid to educators’ own sense of belonging.

Understanding who cares: creating the evidence to address the long-standing policy problem of staff shortages in early childhood education and care

Evidence-based policy is a means of ensuring that policy is informed by more than ideology or expedience. However, what constitutes robust evidence is highly contested. In this paper, we argue policy must draw on quantitative and qualitative data. We do this in relation to a long entrenched problem in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce policy. A critical shortage of qualified staff threatens the attainment of broader child and family policy objectives linked to the provision of ECEC and has not been successfully addressed by initiatives to date. We establish some of the limitations of existing quantitative data sets and consider the potential of qualitative studies to inform ECEC workforce policy. The adoption of both quantitative and qualitative methods is needed to illuminate the complex nature of the work undertaken by early childhood educators, as well as the environmental factors that sustain job satisfaction in a demanding and poorly understood working environment.

Early Childhood Practice and Refrains of Complexity.

Early childhood practice has often been described as complex in both policy documents and research literature; however, less attention has been given to exploring the nature and consequences of complexity in early childhood practice. At a time of intense policy attention in many national contexts, there is the potential for closing down, as well as for opening up conceptualisations of early childhood practice. To help keep possibilities open for multiple conceptualisations of practice, in this paper, we explore how complexity works and what it produces in early childhood practice assemblages. To do this, we draw on data fragments from research with 10 early childhood educators in NSW, Australia, and read these data with concepts from Deleuze and Guattari. We suggest four ways that our readings help articulate, and contribute to understandings of the complexity of early childhood practice.

Constructions of Social Inclusion within Australian Early Childhood Education and Care Policy Documents

Social inclusion discourses have been powerful in informing early childhood policy contexts, both internationally and in Australia (the context of the current study) for the past decade or so. But little research has examined the productive aspects of social inclusion discourses particularly within early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy documents. This article reports on a content analysis of Australian ECEC policy documents. The analysis revealed that, despite the absence of the specific use of the term ‘social inclusion’ within these documents, multiple constructs of social inclusion were nevertheless evident. These constructs included social inclusion as ‘poverty reduction’, ‘workforce participation’, and ‘normative’ — constructs previously problematised and critiqued in the literature. More optimistically, however, the analysis also revealed constructs of social inclusion as ‘a response to discrimination and inequality and a validation of diversity’ and as ‘participation in democratic decision-making’. We argue that the Australian ECEC policy context largely supports a concept of social inclusion that reflects social justice concerns and positions ECEC as an important contributor to a more socially just society. However, the absence of explicit social inclusion language within ECEC policy documents is a critical gap.

Reflections of pioneers in early childhood education research on their collaboration with practitioners in the development of theories and innovative practices

Abstract This paper, based on interviews conducted for the Early Childhood Oral History Project, draws on oral life-history interviews with 14 prominent early childhood researchers who have been active since the 1970s within diverse European countries. A common theme across the interviews is the key role that collaborative research between academics and early childhood practitioners played in the construction of theories and innovative practices. The interviewees reflect on personal, social-political, epistemological and practical factors that underpinned their engagement in collaborative research, and the challenges they encountered. They give insight into the role practitioners played in the construction of education as a social-historical science – contextualised knowledge that is intrinsically related to ethics, values and innovation.