Search

'We're not useless, we know stuff!', said a four-year-old when asked why adults should ask him what he thinks about his experiences at his early learning centre. This paper describes the literature and methods used to gather children's voices in early childhood and education (ECEC) settings across Stage 1 and 2 of the 3 stage national Learning Frameworks Update project. Asking children about their ideas and experiences was undertaken by familiar educators using research tools designed and supported by the research team. The methods of dialogic drawing, talking circles and visual elicitation were described and further explained to enable educators to gather children's perspectives on their learning experiences in ECEC contexts. We reflect on the efficacy of these methods, approaches and strategies to support meaning-making from a diverse representation of children and how this can influence policy decision-making.

Intergenerational playgroups purposively bring older people, young children and their caregivers together to engage in play and develop reciprocal relationships. Intergenerational research focuses on the benefits for participants, with much less known about how these programmes sustain. This paper discusses and explores programme sustainability through the examination of two playgroups established through Playgroup Queensland's Ageless Play programme. Through qualitative interviewing with playgroup practitioners and participants we aimed to understand how each of these playgroups had sustained beyond 3 years. The findings included the importance of mutual benefit for stakeholders, knowledge and skills of the playgroup facilitator and use of strategies to ensure ongoing interaction and engagement within the group. These findings are important for ensuring the continuation of intergenerational playgroup programmes.

Involving children as stakeholders and including their voices in updating the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (for children birth to age 5) was a focus of this project design. The design was grounded in participatory approaches with a children’s rights perspective, as the team prioritised seeking children’s views and encouraging their agency on matters that affect them. This three-stage research project across 15 months sought children’s input in each stage. Research methods consisted of everyday playful activities supported by educators in early childhood environments using dialogic drawing, talking circles and discussions using photo elicitation. Educators received information to support their use of these methods. While parents/carers gave ethical consent, children’s assent was obtained. Across the three stages, analysis of children’s drawings, comments and discussions showed the importance of their relationships with educators, their friends and the relationships between their educators and families. These findings demonstrate the importance of educators building reciprocal, respectful relationships with children and their families and between children. Further, these research methods fitted with the foundational pedagogical practices of the educators, with educators commenting on how useful they were and children on how they enjoyed using them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hart's (1992) 'Innocenti Essay on Child Participation' advocated for increased involvement of young people as active participants in societal decision-making. This paper provides a historical overview of active child citizenship initiatives, using applied research insights from 'bottom-up' approaches and conversations with children and professionals. It explores how current practices exemplified through three case studies can enhance genuine child participation and citizenship. The case study analysis examines the conversational processes involving children in problem-solving and decision-making within their communities. Through these examples, the paper highlights practical strategies for meaningfully engaging children as stakeholders and empowering them as active citizens whose voices substantially influence matters impacting their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A skilled workforce is critical to the delivery of quality school age care services. A strategy called Core Knowledge and Competency (CKC) Framework was designed to build the skills and knowledge of after school care educators as they provided before and after school programs in Queensland, Australia. The strategy was to help educators meet the Australian National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care (National Quality Standards) (NQS). This article describes the use of realist evaluation principles to examine the implementation of this strategy. Improvements to the quality of the workforce were reported including less staff turnover, increased capacity and competence of educators which would result in enhanced outcomes for children. However the implementation of the strategy relied on highly competent leaders within the services.

Participation in after school care in Australia has more than doubled since the 1980s with hundreds of thousands of children attending every day. Historically this form of care has been regarded as a service for parents rather than an opportunity for children. There is a paucity of Australian research for school age care (SAC). This study investigated children's perceptions and experiences of afterschool care. 164 children in Prep/kindergarten to Year 7 across 14 services in Canberra and Logan participated in the research. Five questions were used to survey the children. Their responses supported the notion that SAC settings are important contexts of childhood and development. Afterschool care affords children opportunities to develop skills and competencies, make new friends as well as promoting and protecting play. Areas of health and safety, staffing, relationships with children were revealed as ways afterschool care could improve.

Adverse prenatal diagnoses, regardless of the women's choice of continuing the pregnancy or terminating it, can impact a women's psychological and psychosocial wellbeing. Supportive interventions during this time are important. However, understanding what is deemed useful and best practice is complex and multifaceted. To understand the need for support during this time, the authors undertook a research study where 12 women were interviewed. The women spoke about feeling pressured by time in making a decision regarding their pregnancy option and having limited psychoeducation and support provided. They also spoke about post-traumatic growth in their grief experience. To assist health professionals, the authors have addressed the following areas in the study's findings and discussion sections: the lack of appropriate information delivery skills of the professionals, the need for an assessment of each woman's unique needs, the need for appropriate referrals to be given, and the need for appropriate follow-ups of the women. The SARF (Skills, Assessment, Referral, and Follow-up) model, presented in this article as a synthesis of this research, has the potential to inform the development of clinical services and social work practice to support women's care following adverse prenatal diagnosis. IMPLICATIONS Psychosocial assessments are vital in providing good quality care to women after a poor prenatal diagnosis. The model can provide guidance to ensure that psychosocial assessments and explorations of values are undertaken before referring women to follow-up services. Given social workers' experience in providing psychosocial assessments and their recommendations, social work clinicians should be utilised in health settings to their full scope of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, the Australian Government commissioned a review and update of My Time Our Place, its curriculum framework for School-Age Care services for primary-age children. One update trialled was the introduction of passive leisure. Whilst children's passive use of leisure time is recognised as a right, it is often problematised and associated with negative health outcomes. This article explores a trial of passive leisure provision. It provides hopeful evidence that passive leisure spaces can be interactive, conversational and restful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

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.

School Age Care (SAC) services have existed in Australia for over 100 years but they have tended to take a back seat when compared with provision for school-aged children and those under school age using early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. Many SAC services are housed in shared premises and many children attending preparatory or preschool use SAC. Reforms introduced by the Australian Government have included a "National Quality Standard" for school age care (COAG, 2009b). Like the "National Quality Standard" for early childhood education and care settings (COAG, 2009b), this quality agenda has prompted a greater focus on the ability of services to provide environments that support the wellbeing and development of school age children and meet the quality standards. SAC is one of the fastest growing ECEC services provided for children and families (DEEWR, 2013). This article makes the case that skilful communication is needed among stakeholders in early education and care settings, schools and SAC in order to provide high-quality services.

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. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

In the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector there has been a plethora of literature about practice with children in the birth to five age group (Arthur, Beecher, Dockett, Farmer, Richards, 1995; Dockett & Fleer, 1999; Fleer, 2003, 2005; Hutchins & Sims, 1999; Grieshaber & Cannella, 2001; Press & Hayes, 2000; Stonehouse, 1988). There is also literature about how particular types of ECEC practice assists in promoting intellectual competence, agency and resilience in these young children. However, current research about how to scaffold and value meta-linguistic and metacognitive competence and agency in the birth to three age group appears to be scant (Page, 2005). This paper uses data from interviews and videotaped observations of young children and their families to begin to unpack how learning experiences for birth to three-year-olds happen within particular social contexts. An interpretive and theoretical bricolage (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003; Levi-Strauss, 1966) of theory and literature is used to interrogate this data, acting as a means of informing epistemological understanding about how practice within particular social contexts constrains or enables children as competent and capable learners. The authors argue that a tendency to underestimate the meta-cognitive and meta-linguistic ability of infants and toddlers delimits understanding of what is possible for them within play and learning contexts. Finally, a model of practice is developed that focuses on appreciating and enhancing such abilities in this age group. (Contains 1 figure.)

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) providesplay, leisure, care and education for significant numbers of Australian children. As government has become increasingly involved in the regulation of OSHC, the sector has become increasingly professionalised. OSHC practitioners are active participants in quality improvementprocesses and increasingly likely to have qualifications. Despite its growing social importance, there is little research about the OSHC workforce. This article draws on aresearch project conducted with OSHC practitioners who participated in aprofessional development program that introduced aset of professional standards for practitioners. The research investigated how participants engaged with the standards after completion of the program and demonstratedthat uptake of the professional standards was complicated by workplace and sector hierarchies. Participants were less likely to use the standardsfor service leaders and short-term,casualised workers. These hierarchies formed in complex ways around dominant discourses that underestimate care and leisure work and positionOSHC as asecondary consideration for school management. The findings in this research have important implications for the sustainability of the OSHC workforce, how it is perceived and how it engages with professional development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most significant societal changes over the past few decades has been the growing number of women in the paid work force. As a direct result of this sociological phenomenon, childcare centres have been providing long day care for vastly increasing numbers of very young children. The speed of this change has created a societal dilemma regarding the level of training required to prepare practitioners for such important pedagogical work. Traditional approaches to the training and preparation of practitioners for work in this field do not always highlight the significance of the important relationship early childhood education and care practitioners have with very young children, or respond to current conceptualisations of children and families and the contexts in which they live (Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 2002; Moss, 2003). This paper takes issue with these points by exploring an alternative approach to the preparation of practitioners for work in this field. The use of Learning Circles as a conceptual tool is examined as an alternative response, aimed at developing a concentrated pedagogical process by which undergraduates explore the links between theory and effective practice.