Towards creating inclusive environments for LGBTIQ-parented families in early childhood education and care settings: A review of the literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
Xinyun (Meg) Liang ◽  
Caroline Cohrssen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

With Australia’s overwhelming ‘Yes’ vote on marriage equality in November 2017, the need for early childhood educators to ensure that understandings of ‘family’ reflected in early childhood education and care settings include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) parents and their children, is further reinforced. Here, a review of recent literature is framed by an ecological systems approach in order to identify key influences on the lived experiences of LGBTIQ parents and their children in the context of early learning centres. Attention is drawn to the need for further research that identifies how best to equip early childhood educators to ensure that all children and their families feel a sense of belonging and representation in their early childhood education settings.

scholarly journals Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-416
Author(s):  
Jane M Selby ◽  
Benjamin S Bradley ◽  
Jennifer Sumsion ◽  
Matthew Stapleton ◽  
Linda J Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Infants And Toddlers ◽  
Quality Outcomes ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Education And Care

This article evaluates the concept of infant ‘belonging’, central to several national curricula for early childhood education and care. Here, the authors focus on Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework. Four different meanings attach to ‘belonging’ in the Early Years Learning Framework, the primary being sociopolitical. However, ‘a sense of belonging’ is also proposed as something that should be observable and demonstrable in infants and toddlers – such demonstration being held up as one of the keys to quality outcomes in early childhood education and care. The Early Years Learning Framework endows belonging with two contrasting meanings when applied to infants. The first, the authors call ‘marked belonging’, and it refers to the infant’s exclusion from or inclusion in defined groups of others. The second, the authors provisionally call ‘unmarked’ belonging. Differences between these two meanings of infant belonging are explored by describing two contrasting observational vignettes from video recordings of infants in early childhood education and care. The authors conclude that ‘belonging’ is not a helpful way to refer to, or empirically demonstrate, an infant’s mundane comfort or ‘unmarked’ agentive ease in shared early childhood education and care settings. A better way to conceptualise and research this would be through the prism of infants’ proven capacity to participate in groups.

scholarly journals Ontario Early Childhood Educators’ understandings of care, carework and care practices in ECEC Program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Early Childhood Educator ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Care Practices

This major research paper presents findings from a critical qualitative inquiry study, that includes how seven registered early childhood educators (RECEs) understand care, carework and care practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study used a political economy of care theoretical framework. Findings suggest that RECEs feel: (1) their carework is devalued; (2) care and education activities are different; and (3) there are barriers to caring well in ECEC programs. This paper provides recommendations that can potentially assert the value of care in the ECEC sector and aims to modestly give a voice to the marginalized perspectives of RECEs on the value of their carework in ECEC programs. Key words: Early childhood education and care, care, carework, registered early childhood educator, political economy of are, maternalism, feminization, marginalized, racialization, critical qualitative inquiry

Coaching for continuous improvement in collaborative, interdisciplinary early childhood teams

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-284
Author(s):  
Jane Page ◽  
Patricia Eadie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teams ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Child Learning

There is growing evidence that coaching early childhood educators leads to higher quality teaching practices and improved child learning outcomes. Despite this, there is a lack of Australian evidence on the impact that coaching in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams in early childhood education and care settings has on teacher effectiveness and by extension child learning. This paper will draw on data from two collaborative interdisciplinary research projects – the Victorian Advancing Early Learning Study and the Every Toddler Talking Initiative – to explore the features of coaching, collaboration and interdisciplinary partnerships that support early childhood educators to engage in the process of continuous improvement. We argue that governance and leadership is critical in enabling interdisciplinary teams to engage in a collaborative process of continuous improvement and that threshold conditions are required within early childhood education and care services to foster interdisciplinary coaching collaborations in a sustained manner.

Care: Cartographies of power and politics in ECEC

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-346
Author(s):  
Joanne Ailwood
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Work Environments ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Multiple Threads

Early childhood educators’ work is embedded in the complexities of relations and relationships, and this relational work is entangled in care. Care can be difficult to define and is often assumed as an inherent ‘good’ in education. In heavily feminised work environments such as early childhood education, it is easily assumed to be part of what naturally occurs amongst educators and children. However, I suggest that it is dangerous to assume we understand a concept as complex and value laden as care without also engaging in reflection and analysis about the complexity and multiplicity of care. In this paper I will explore some threads of care in early childhood education and care. I make use of Braidotti’s concept of cartographies to critically examine aspects of care in early childhood education. A cartography enables an exploration of power and knowledge in relation to care. Care, like classrooms, is messy, relational, in action, situated and contextual. This examination of care enables the perceived connection between care as a necessary ‘good’ to be contested. Instead, care is mapped across multiple threads and potentials, threads that might sometimes be warm and sustaining, while sometimes being oppressive and stressful.

Children’s mathematical and verbal competence in different early education and care programmes in Australia

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Hildenbrand ◽  
Frank Niklas ◽  
Caroline Cohrssen ◽  
Collette Tayler
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Care Service ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Care Programme ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Education And Care

This study investigated the relationship between children’s attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children’s verbal ability and the early childhood education and care programme attended, but mathematics results tell a different story. At the first measurement, children who consistently attended only informal care outperformed children who either consistently attended a formal early childhood education and care service type or attended a mix of formal and informal care. The development of mathematical and verbal competencies between first and second measurements, 1 year later, did not differ between children who attended different types of early childhood education and care. Early childhood educators in Australia are required to provide programmes that incorporate both mathematical concepts and language development. However, many early childhood educators describe uncertainty about how to support children’s mathematical learning. Further professional development and support in this area is necessary.

Beliefs of Slovenian early childhood educators regarding the implementation of physical education

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miha Marinsek ◽  
Marjeta Kovac
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Care Systems

This cross-sectional study was designed to identify Slovenian early childhood educators’ beliefs concerning the importance of the competencies required to carry out physical education (PE), to identify which of those competencies early childhood educators might lack and to identify which competencies should be developed in the process of continuous professional development. For this purpose, a self-administered questionnaire was designed to examine belief statements regarding a wide scope of PE competencies among 183 early childhood educators. The participants evaluated the importance of individual competencies and reported their current and desired levels of competencies using a four-level scale. The results showed that early childhood educators believe that competencies to teach PE are an important part of early childhood education and that they need to improve in such competencies to carry out PE above the existing level. In particular, early childhood educators would like to improve in knowledge, skills and abilities that will enable them to implement PE efficiently and effectively to change children’s health-related behaviours. We suggest that the gap between the self-reported beliefs about the current level of PE competencies and the desired level of PE competencies is vital for policy-makers, who aim to create unitary early childhood education and care systems in which similar qualifications and competencies among early childhood educators are needed. It seems that a lack of policy, curriculum development and educators’ expertise in PE contributes to the considerable variation in the understanding of the educational role of early childhood educators within PE.

Ethnography and Bush Kinder Research: A Review of the Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 183693912110112
Author(s):  
Christopher Speldewinde ◽  
Anna Kilderry ◽  
Coral Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Teacher Pedagogy ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Forest Schools ◽  
Review Reports

Bush kindergarten programmes (known as bush kinders), where preschool children learn in, about and with nature, are proliferating in Australian early childhood education. This scoping review reports on, and analyses, the research literature pertaining to how ethnography has been applied to the bush kinder context. We included studies conducted in related contexts, such as forest schools, and other programmes that focus on nature pedagogy, as these contexts assist us to better understand bush kinders. The findings from our literature review illustrate and confirm that empirical research in bush kinder settings is in its early stages. Consequently, bush kinders present opportunities for piloting research methodologies. After a review of the research literature, it was found that ethnography as a research methodology is valuable to understand teacher pedagogy, young children’s learning, the implications of researcher positionality, the context and the place of bush kinders in early childhood education and care.

scholarly journals Ontario Early Childhood Educators’ understandings of care, carework and care practices in ECEC Program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Early Childhood Educator ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Care Practices

This major research paper presents findings from a critical qualitative inquiry study, that includes how seven registered early childhood educators (RECEs) understand care, carework and care practices in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The study used a political economy of care theoretical framework. Findings suggest that RECEs feel: (1) their carework is devalued; (2) care and education activities are different; and (3) there are barriers to caring well in ECEC programs. This paper provides recommendations that can potentially assert the value of care in the ECEC sector and aims to modestly give a voice to the marginalized perspectives of RECEs on the value of their carework in ECEC programs. Key words: Early childhood education and care, care, carework, registered early childhood educator, political economy of are, maternalism, feminization, marginalized, racialization, critical qualitative inquiry

A critique of the discursive landscape: Challenging the invisibility of early childhood educators’ well-being

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-110
Author(s):  
Tamara Cumming ◽  
Helen Logan ◽  
Sandie Wong
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Policy ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Outcomes For Children

Children’s well-being has received extensive research attention and has a central role in early childhood policy and curricular guidelines. However, the well-being of early childhood educators has received fragmentary research attention and is unacknowledged in policy and curricular documents. Given the seemingly self-evident links between educators’ well-being and positive experiences and outcomes for children, why is educators’ well-being invisible within the discursive landscape of early childhood education and care? In this article, the authors offer explanations for this invisibility by identifying and critiquing a number of discourses that have shaped, and continue to shape, early childhood education and educators’ positions within it. They use Foucault’s idea of dividing practices to demonstrate how these discourses have formed regimes – and, ultimately, a discursive landscape – that make the issue of educators’ well-being invisible. The authors then begin the work of challenging this discursive landscape by using theoretical resources from Deleuze and Guattari, and Tronto, to argue for placing care, and a logic of ‘and’, at the centre of supports for educators’ well-being. They offer examples and questions to prompt ongoing critique and action.

scholarly journals Low pay but still we stay: Retention in early childhood education and care

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 647-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula McDonald ◽  
Karen Thorpe ◽  
Susan Irvine
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Turnover Rates ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Life Trajectories ◽  
Policy And Strategy ◽  
High Staff Turnover ◽  
Social Productivity ◽  
Education And Care

A professional, skilled and engaged early childhood workforce is critical to economic and social productivity and positive life trajectories for children. Yet high staff turnover, skill loss and unmet standards of staff qualification pervade the sector, limiting optimal outcomes. For many early childhood educators, alternatives of better paid and less challenging sources of employment are available in other employment sectors, a fact that explains turnover rates as high as 30%. However, this study reverses the emphasis on why early childhood educators leave the sector and asks instead ‘Why do so many stay?'. This question is a significant one when it is considered that the remuneration of educators in early childhood barely meets minimum wage thresholds, and that they face challenging working conditions and few opportunities for career progression. The findings of the study contribute to an understanding of retention in early childhood education and care occupations specifically, and in feminised, low-paid occupational groups more broadly. The study also informs policy and strategy responses to low retention in the early childhood sector in Australia and internationally.

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