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This paper reviews current literature and research relevant to the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Early Childhood Education (ECE) workforce in Australia, including data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Australia is a highly multicultural society, with one out of every three people born overseas. Anecdotally, the Australian early childhood sector is reported to have a highly multicultural workforce. Yet there is a noticeable lack of data and research concerning cultural diversity in the Australian ECE workforce. This paper reports on the data from the ABS-Census of Population and Housing (ABS-Census), the small body of literature on the CALD ECE workforce and literature pertaining to CALD in other Australian workforces to argue that more data and research is needed. Developing a richer understanding of the status, experience and contributions of CALD educators would enable the sector to recognise and support the potential benefits of such a workforce for children and families and social cohesion in Australia.

There is little research to show how early childhood educators perceive risk-taking and whether, in the pursuit of high quality early childhood education, educators might take risks in their professional practice. We conducted a qualitative case study to explore early childhood educators’ views on, and engagement with, risk-taking in professional practice. Through thematic analysis of interviews with 55 educators in three high quality early childhood education services, we show that, for the educators in the study, risk-taking was a valuable aspect of professional practice driven by three main motivations: professional growth and development; developing children as competent and empowered individuals; and advocacy and activism. We also show that educators’ risk-taking was enacted under five broad themes: providing opportunities for children to take risks; trusting children; doing things that are new; expressing ideas and beliefs; and including curriculum content that may be considered controversial, complex and inappropriate for children. We conclude that for educators in the study, risk-taking was enacted as courageous, ethically and morally driven praxis in pursuit of high quality ECE for the benefit of both individuals and society.

The theory of practice architectures is a useful theoretical, methodological and analytical tool for educational research. The use of the theory is emerging as germane in early childhood education research. This article explores concepts from the theory as applied in an early childhood education research project. The article focuses on the concept of stirring in, a view of learning advanced by the theory of practice architectures. To describe and analyse the process of stirring in, the article draws on the experiences of the first author, a doctoral candidate, researching in early childhood education, her field of professional experience. Using key elements of the theory of practice architectures, this article discusses how both the experiences of being a doctoral candidate and researching her own profession were catalysts for being stirred in to the practices of a researcher. Coming to the research as an experienced early childhood educator, the doctoral candidate experienced tension between the practices of a researcher and her ingrained practices as an educator. This tension, combined with the ‘doing’ of data collection, contributed towards the doctoral candidate’s stirring in to data collection practices. Authors of the theory of practice architectures argue that in the process of being stirred in to new practices, participants in the practices can experience a change akin to a transformation, what we describe as a sense of becoming. In this article, we show how the doctoral candidate learned to put aside practices associated with her role as an early childhood educator and began to embrace practices associated with the role of researcher, initiating her sense of becoming a researcher. The purpose of the article is to build on previous work to demonstrate how the theory of practice architectures can be used to examine the process of being stirred in to new practices.

A considerable body of research suggests that knowledgeable and skilled educators are key to the quality of early childhood services. However, the skills and knowledge of educators is subject to being underestimated and contested. In response, the Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work Study has been designed to bring to light the distinctive nature of the work of early childhood educators and its complexity. The study draws its sample from centre based early childhood services that are rated as high quality by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

This paper reports on a study in which educators from four early childhood centres used metaphor to discuss their provision of high-quality early childhood education. Qualitative mining of focus group data confirmed ‘quality’ to be complex, multi-dimensional and value-laden. Findings contribute to understandings of quality in early childhood education through four key themes: ‘quality’ as a synergetic flow; the facilitative stance and impact of leaders in the enactment of leadership; children as active contributors to quality; and the role of love. Metaphor is shown to be a valuable tool that can highlight tangible and intangible quality contributors, how these contributors link together and the contextual specificity from which quality in individual early childhood education settings emanates.

© 2019, © 2019 Childhood Education International. Studies of early childhood educators’ perceptions of work intensity and complexity have shown that ensuring a good balance between workload and the time needed to complete the work is critical for work quality, work satisfaction, and staff retention. This article explores the possibilities of time-use data for making visible the diversity and complex patterns of early childhood work. Pen-and-paper time-use diaries were completed for one full day by 21 educators working in preschool and child care centers, generating a total of 168 hours of data. Diary entries were coded using the Taxonomy of Early Childhood Work to identify the types of activities performed, the time spent in each activity, and changes in work activities across the day. On average, educators worked an 8-hour day, of which 60% was spent in direct contact with children in intentional teaching, routine care and transition, “being with” children during play, and providing emotional support. Other activities included organizing the indoor/outdoor play areas, administration, planning/evaluation, professional learning, and staff breaks. The findings demonstrate the benefits of time-use methodology as a means of objectively identifying and quantifying the diversity, complexity, and intensity of early childhood educators’ work.

© The Author(s) 2019. Children’s engagement in risk-taking has been on the agenda for early childhood education for the past 10–15 years. At a time when some say the minority world has become overly risk averse, early childhood education aims to support confident, competent and resilient children through the inclusion of beneficial risk in early childhood education. The concept of risk is a complex phenomenon. Beneficial risk is engaging in experiences that take a person outside of their comfort zone and include outcomes that may be beneficial to learning, development and life satisfaction. To date, research on beneficial risk in early childhood has focused on children’s risk-taking in outdoor play. This focus has led to a predominant conceptualisation of beneficial risk in early childhood as an outdoor physical play activity for children. In this article, the authors problematise this conceptualisation. Drawing on both broad and early childhood education specific literature, the authors explore the current discourse on risk in both childhood and early childhood education. The authors identify the development of the current conceptualisation of risk as an experience for children within play, outdoors and as a physical activity, and highlight the limitations of this conceptualisation. The authors argue that for risk-taking to be in line with the predominantly holistic approach of early childhood education, a broad view of risk is needed. To achieve this broad view, the authors argue for a re-conceptualisation of risk that encompasses a wide range of risk experiences for both children and educators. The authors suggest further research is needed to expand our understanding of beneficial risk in early childhood education. They propose further research will offer a significant contribution to the early childhood sector.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) - as with education more generally - should be a central plank of a suite of social policies designed to support more socially just societies. However, universal access to ECEC in itself, will not redress inequalities. This paper draws upon reports from the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), and data from three doctoral studies nested within the Australian Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work research project, to argue for attention to the quality of the early childhood system and to consider the contribution that a deeply embedded socially just purpose makes to quality. Frühkindliche Bildung und Betreuung (FBBE) sollte - wie Bildung im Allgemeinen - ein zentraler Bestandteil einer Reihe von sozialpolitischen Maßnahmen sein, die darauf abzielen, eine sozial gerechtere Gesellschaft zu unterstützen. Allerdings wird ein allgemeiner Zugang zu frühkindlicher Bildung und Betreuung an sich keine Ungleichheiten beseitigen. Dieser Beitrag stützt sich auf Berichte der Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) sowie auf Daten aus drei Promotionsstudien, die im Rahmen des australischen Forschungsprojekts Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work durchgeführt wurden. Die Ergebnisse sind ein Plädoyer dafür, der Qualität des frühkindlichen Systems mehr Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken und den Beitrag zu würdigen, den eine tief verankerte Orientierung an sozialer Gerechtigkeit im Hinblick auf Qualität leistet.

Children’s risk-taking is increasingly acknowledged as an important part of early childhood education. Previous research has predominantly focussed on children’s engagement with, and educators’ perspectives on, children’s risk-taking in outdoor physical play. However, little attention has been paid to how educators conceptualise children’s risk-taking more broadly. Our study addresses this research gap. A three-site case study, the research gathered data from educators in high quality early childhood services through observations and interviews. Findings show that educators predominantly framed children’s risk-taking as taking place in physical and outdoor play. However, with minimal provocation, educators extended their conceptualisations of risk to encompass a broader range of children’s experiences. Data suggests that participation in the research provoked many participants to think more broadly about children’s risk-taking.

Since the 1990s, neo-liberal economics has profoundly altered the nature and delivery of early childhood education and care in both Australia and New Zealand through the creation of childcare markets. Accompanying the rise of the market has been a discourse of childcare as a commodity – a commodity marketed and sold to its consumers (read parents) as a private benefit. The stratifying impact of neo-liberalism in education policy has been argued by numerous scholars of education. Arguably, in both Australia and New Zealand, early childhood education and care is more commodified and subject to the market than any other area of education. Thus, the authors consider whether early childhood education and care has shifted away from being understood as a social good, a site for social cohesion and democratic practice – all of which the authors consider to be implicated in a conceptualisation of belonging appropriate to the project of early childhood education and care. This article considers the impact of neo-liberal policies on early childhood education and care in Australia and New Zealand, especially in relation to understandings and manifestations of ‘belonging’. The authors trace the impact of neo-liberalism in early childhood education and care policy and examine the ways in which the discourse of early childhood education and care provision has changed, both in policy and in how the market makes its appeal to parents as consumers. The authors argue that appeals to narrowly defined, individualised self-interest and advancement threaten understandings of belonging based on social solidarity and interdependence.

In Australia, over 900,000 children attend some type of early childhood education and care service. Many of these children have learning difficulties and early childhood teachers play a significant...

THIS ARTICLE IDENTIFIES AND examines a critical juncture in Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy history in order to understand the contemporary Australian ECEC policy landscape, especially in relation to the way in which quality in child care is mandated and understood. In policy, critical junctures are path-breaking policy developments that have lasting impacts (Gal & Bargal, 2002; Pierson, 2004). This article illustrates how examining critical junctures can deepen understandings of processes that contribute to transformative policy shifts. In doing so, we illuminate ways in which contemporary contexts have been shaped by past policy.

THE AUSTRALIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD Reform Agenda, initiated in 2008 by the then Labor government, heralded a commitment to a focus on child outcomes in early childhood education and care policy in order to give Australia's children the ‘best start in life’. A number of workforce policy initiatives aimed at achieving this ambition were announced, prioritising improvements in child-to-staff ratios and the qualifications of educators working with young children. More recently, the draft report of the Australian Productivity Commission Inquiry into child care and early learning has challenged these workforce reforms by reviving historic divisions between education and care and differentiating the learning needs of children over three from those under three. Claiming evidence that infants' participation in early childhood education contributes to any long-term benefit is inconclusive, the Productivity Commission called for a substantial lowering of qualifications requirements for educators working with children under three years. A juxtaposition of the reform agenda and the Commission's recommendations reveals a disjuncture in understandings of infants and consequently the type of workforce needed to support their wellbeing and learning. While contemporary Australian early childhood policy promotes images of infants as learners from birth, the Productivity Commission draft report portrays them as waiting to learn. In examining the pendulum of shifting ideas about infants, we highlight the vulnerability of infants in early childhood policy, especially in relation to the shaping of the workforce responsible for them.

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.

Over the past quarter of a century, the childcare component of Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) has transformed from a publicly funded, community-based system to a predominantly commercial enterprise. The associated marketisation of ECEC has given rise to widespread claims of educational excellence, but the creation of an elite ECEC sector is only nascent. Additionally, the internationalisation and intercultural competence evident in ECEC is rooted in Australian multicultural policy and philosophical commitments to cultural inclusion, rather than the promotion of cultural agility through the internationalisation of elite ECEC in global childcare markets. Thus the relationship between the market, elite education and internationalisation in early childhood education is, in many ways, distinct from the interplay of these forces within other education sectors.

This article considers the value of elite interviews as a frequently overlooked methodology in investigations of policymaking in early childhood education and care (ECEC). We contextualise the discussion within a study that examines constructions of quality in Australian ECEC policymaking between 1972 and 2009. We conclude that, despite their limitations, the use of elite interviews can enhance understandings of the complexity surrounding policymaking processes.

Increased global attention to early childhood education and care in the past two decades has intensified attention on the education of infants and assessment of their learning in education policy. This interest is particularly evident in the focus upon infants in the early childhood curriculum frameworks developed in recent years in many countries. To date, there has been little examination of implications of this policy/curriculum emphasis in relation to its possible implications for how infants are understood. In this article, using Levinas’ notion of ethical encounter, we present a critical reading of curriculum for infants. Drawing on his ideas of the ‘Other’, ‘responsibility’ and ‘unknowability’ we argue that the rapidly growing corpus of knowledge about infants and their inclusion in education policy and curricula texts, has the potential to narrowly define educators’ responsibilities and prescribe pedagogies in ways that may have unintended consequences. Using the Australian National Qualit...

Shifts in global education policy to formalise curricula and make explicit learning outcomes for ever younger children have become popular for a number of countries responding to changes in global market economics. Human capital discourses, broadly aimed at shaping national prosperity, have entered the early childhood education and care policy landscape as somewhat of accepted wisdom. Using the Australian early childhood reform agenda and its accompanying Early Years Learning Framework as an example, this article interrogates two prominent productivity discourses that have permeated the early childhood education space – learning begins at birth and lifelong learning. We consider the relationship of these discourses to global/neoliberal ambitions for curriculum and question their place in the childcare experiences of infants under 12 months. Drawing on postmodern theory, we examine the complexity of nationalistic ideals aimed at creating platforms for socially just goals, against their potential to promote...

This article iluminates the significance of the Child Care Act 1972 (Cwlth) as a critical juncture in the development of Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy and, specifically, in establishing quality as a key policy consideration. The article reports on an analysis of the Act, informed by Foucault's use of a history of the present, that highlights dominant discourses and path-dependent processes as both enabling and constraining for quality in child care and the development of a national ECEC sector.

Early childhood education has long been connected with objectives related to social justice. Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) has its roots in philanthropic and educational reform movements prevalent at the turn of the twentieth century. More recently, with the introduction of the National Early Childhood Reform Agenda, early childhood education has once more been linked to the achievement of aims associated with redressing inequality and disadvantage. The authors argue that educational leaders have an obligation to promote equity as they articulate the needs of marginalised students who are traditionally disadvantaged while they also work towards challenging the social order that affords this circumstance of inequity to exist. Drawing on extant literature, including data from two previously reported Australian studies in which leadership emerged as having a transformational impact on service delivery, this article examines the potential of early childhood leadership to generate ‘socially just’ educational communities. With reference to critical theory, the authors argue that critically informed, intentional and strategic organisational leadership can play a pivotal role in creating changed circumstances and opportunities for children and families. Such leadership includes positional and distributed elements, articulation of values and beliefs, and collective action that is mindful and informed.

This article proposes utilising the theory of practice architectures to uncover and make explicit the beliefs and implicit theories of early childhood educators, as well as to examine the conditions out of which they have emerged. The beliefs and implicit theories of early childhood educators influence many early childhood practices and play a significant role in guiding the pedagogical experiences of children. Aimed at identifying elements of practice that constrain and enable praxis, the theory of practice architectures has been effectively applied in tertiary, secondary and primary education, but has had limited use in early childhood education contexts. The article explores its potential for helping educators better articulate their practices and applies the theory to examine a number of discursive, material and social influences that shape (and are shaped by) early childhood practice. Implications for early childhood educators’ praxis are framed in the context of contemporary challenges of early childhood education.

QUALITY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD development was barely mentioned in government policy four decades ago. But this has changed. Using discourses and gazes as analytical tools, and by examining the recent past (1972–2009), this article traces how and why ‘quality’ has become a key component of the current Council of Australian Governments' agenda. We conclude that the elevated status of quality arises from shifts in policy understandings of the social and economic potential of early childhood education and care. These changing understandings highlight the need for in-depth genealogical analyses.

Recent Australian interest in the integration of early childhood services is largely informed by international research and policy developments, particularly from the United Kingdom. Service integration is widely recognised as an effective means of holistically meeting the needs of children and families and ameliorating disadvantage. What is less well known is that Australia has a history of integrated early childhood services. This paper focuses on three points in 20th century Australia when advocacy for integrated early childhood service provision was evident: post‑World War I when the first Mother and Baby Welfare Clinic was established; during the late 1930s to mid 1940s with the advent of the Lady Gowrie Centres; and in the 1970s when several reports recommended the integration and co‑ordination of early years services. Attending to this history acknowledges this innovative Australian work, and provides potentially valuable, and somewhat cautionary, lessons for contemporary advocacy for integrated early childhood services.

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.

The article reports on a study investigating influences on Australian politicians’ decision making for early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy. The astronomical concept of dark matter is utilised as a metaphor for considering normalising, and therefore frequently difficult to detect and disrupt, influences implicated in politicians’ decision making for ECEC policy. The concept of dark matter connects with and extends Foucauldian conceptualisations of knowledge, power and discourse. The paper argues that maternalist discourses continue to shape the policy landscape for ECEC, though these are largely unacknowledged.

Politicians play a key role in determining policy content and outcomes for early childhood education and care (ECEC). As a result, the quality of formal ECEC provisions for children rests considerably on the policy decisions of politicians. Despite direct and indirect effects of politicians' policy decisions for the ECEC field, few studies explore influences on politicians' policy decisions, and fewer still pertain to ECEC. In light of the significant gap in the research investigating how and why politicians make the decisions that they do, the authors present a case for a research agenda to investigate politicians' policy decision-making processes in ECEC. A review of the literature pertaining to influences on political decision making reveals some possible influences on politicians' decision making generally, but not for ECEC policy specifically. Using the policy sphere of ECEC to illustrate the complexities of social policy development and implementation in a democratic political system, the authors put forward a conceptualisation of policy that generates a wide range of questions to inform the development of a research agenda. They conclude with a discussion of the possible implications that a research agenda investigating politicians' policy decisions in ECEC might have for the early childhood field.

Many postmodern and post-structural analyses of government policies affecting early childhood education stress the hegemonic nature of neo-liberalism and subsequently primarily focus upon identifying the manifestation of neo-liberal values in such interventions. An unintended and stultifying consequence of such analyses is, at times, to close off the possibilities of envisioning a positive engagement with, and role for, government policy. In addition, the primacy offered to localised knowledges can engender the development of policy responses which are not cognisant of more broadly based social impacts. In response, the authors proffer the use of intersections as key points for the development of analyses and action. This necessitates an active awareness of the ways in which local knowledges and experiences cross, or overlay, information generated from other sites, including disciplinary knowledges and analyses that may be classified as modernist. By utilising points of convergence, as well as understanding points of divergence, intersections can be used to open up spaces for political action that recognise and generate localised responses, whilst at the same time engendering policy that enables more broadly based social justice.

How a community constructs the notion of childhood and the child is fundamentally implicated in the practices and policies of that community. This article explores the positioning of the child in historical, contemporary and emerging trends in the provision and practices of Australian early childhood education and care. It argues that if left uncontested, emerging contemporary constructions have the potential to normalise policies, practices and pedagogies derived from a commercialised view of childhood. Drawing on the experiences and practices of early childhood pedagogues and policy actors both in Australia and overseas the authors posit an alternative construction of the child as citizen and the possibility of the early childhood field as a site for the practice of democracy.

For increasing numbers of Australian children, childcare is part of their everyday experiences. The marketisation and corporatisation of education have been under discussion for some time, particularly in relation to schooling. There has been comparatively little public scrutiny of how this trend might impact on, and shape Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). This article explores the existing and potential impacts of privatisation and corporatisation of ECEC in terms of how these constrain and are reshaping the vision and the practice of what is done for children in the prior-to-school sector.

The research contained within this book reflects the growing commonality, in many parts of the world, of very young children regularly attending some form of formal early childhood education and care setting. Policy significantly shapes the spaces of these environments. This chapter draws upon the book’s rich collection of research, as well as extant literature, to consider implications for policy. Drawing upon Bronfenbrenner (1979), the chapter commences with a brief discussion of policy contexts and situates current research within an understanding of preceding research trends and developments such as the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child. This collection of research challenges limiting views of infant-toddler capacities and dispositions and illuminates the complexity and sophistication of infant-toddler pedagogy and its emotional dimension. Policy can open the space for such dimensions to be recognised: to provide standards and conditions which enable educators to engage responsively and respectfully with young children and create meaningful connections with families and communities. Importantly, policy also has a role in creating opportunities for deep, professional reflection in ways that challenge and/or extend educators’ views of very young children and the nature of the infant-toddler pedagogy.

This paper discusses the demise of the Australian community-owned long day care sector. In so doing it also examines the way in which the language of government policy has established a framework for children's services that works against the survival of these nonprofit services. The paper asks the reader to consider the need to focus the debate back on policy outcomes for children.

In Australia, as in many parts of the world, there is an increased focus on the provision of integrated child and family services. These services bring together inter-disciplinary teams to provide a range of professional supports to children and families, particularly those facing multiple challenges. However, the effective provision of integrated services is complex and involves the renegotiation of professional boundaries and the development of new and expanded ways of working. This article draws on relevant literature and data from two Australian studies to examine the role of governance and leadership in developing and sustaining service integration. It argues that successful integration is dependent upon these levels of management intentionally and strategically deploying time and resources to the objective of fostering strong professional and community collaborations. At the same time, cultivating a culture of participative and responsive management is essential to sustaining integration.

In Australia, as in many other countries, there is strong government interest in the potential of integrated services, in which professionals from a range of disciplines—including Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)—work together to enable families, especially those dealing with multiple challenges, to have seamless access to a variety of services. This interest reflects a growing recognition of the interrelatedness of complex social and health problems experienced by many families and has been widely welcomed in Australia, not only for its potential to provide more effective support for families, but also for opening up new possibilities for partnerships between government, families, services, and practitioners (Nichols & Jurvansuu, 2008; Press, Sumsion, & Wong, 2010). This chapter builds on our interest in exploring the nature and scope of those possibilities.

Foreword Alison Clark Commencing the conversation Deborah Harcourt, Bob Perry and Tim Waller Part 1: Ethics, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks 1. Respecting children's rights and agency: theoretical insights into ethical research procedures Anne B Smith 2. The Ethics of participatory research involving children with special needs Colette Gray and Eileen Winter 3. Informed assent: Processes and procedures seeking research partnerships with young children Deborah Harcourt and Heather Conroy 4. Researching the rights of children under three years old to participate in the curriculum in early years education and care Angeliki Bitou and Tim Waller 5. Balancing methodologies and methods in researching with young children Sue Dockett, Johanna Einarsdottir and Bob Perry Part 2: Case studies of high quality research with young children 6. Supporting children's participation rights: curriculum and research approaches Sarah Te One 7. Children's voices in early childhood settings' every day concerts Hartmut Kupfer 8. Researching infants' experience of early childhood education and care Jennifer Sumsion, Linda Harrison, Fran Press, Sharynne McLeod, Joy Goodfellow and Ben Bradley 9. Eliciting young children's perspectives on indoor play provision in their classroom: reflections and challenges Liz Dunphy and Therese Farrell 10. Seeing spaces, inhabiting places: hearing school beginners Alma Fleet and Clare Britt 11. In tune with the learner's perspective in music: theoretical and analytical considerations when interviewing children Cecilia Wallerstedt, Niklas Pramling and Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson 12. Producing and using video data with young children: A case study of ethical questions and practical consequences Sue Robson

The report addresses a number of questions relating to child care and early education in Australia and contains findings on these topics:• child care and early education attendance patterns for infants and 4 to 5 year-old children• parents’ reasons for using care and satisfaction with their infant or child’s care/education• family, child and community factors related to current attendance at child care and early education services• indicators of quality in formal and informal care/education programs attended by the LSAC infant or child• developmental outcomes, such as health, social and cognitive development, for infants and children in relation to care/education attendance patterns, quality indicators, and other influencing family, child and community factors.Key findings:Parents’ use of infant child care:• Just over one-third (34.9 per cent) of the LSAC parents were using regular child care for their infants; however, the proportion varied by infant age. It was lowest (18.0 per cent) for children 6 months and younger and highest at 48.9 per cent for children older than 12 months.• The majority of the parents using child care (62.1 per cent) accessed informal care provided by relatives, usually grandparents, or non-relatives; 37.9 per cent used formal, government-regulated long day care or family day care services; and 10.0 per cent used a combination of formal and informal care.• There were notable differences in the use of formal and informal care by LSAC families. Long day care centres were more likely to be used by mothers who had a university education, were employed full-time rather than part-time and whose family income was higher. Relative care was less commonly used by older mothers (over 35 years) and more common when there was only one child in the family. Mothers using long day care centres tended to report lower levels of social support, parenting self-efficacy and positive parenting behaviour than mothers using family day care or informal home-based care.• Weekly hours of child care in formal care settings (average of 20 to 21 hours a week) were longer than for informal (average of 14 hours a week). The longest hours in care were experienced by infants attending a combination of formal and informal arrangements (average of 24 hours a week).• Parents typically used child care to enable them to meet their employment, study, family or personal responsibilities.Infant health:• Child care was an important predictor of parents’ report of their infants’ low physical health, particularly for recurrent problems with gastrointestinal, ear and other infections. Infants attending long day care centres were almost twice as likely as children not receiving care to have problems with infections. Home-based child care settings provided by family day care or informal carers were not associated with a higher incidence of infection.• In comparison to child care factors, family demographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial predictors showed relatively few significant associations with infant health outcomes.• When analyses were restricted to infants in regular non-parental child care, poorer health outcomes were highest in the group of infants who attended long day care centres for 21 or more hours per week and lowest in the groups who received one to eight or nine to 20 hours per week of care with relatives.Early education and care services attended by 4 to 5 year-old children:• Almost all 4 to 5 year olds (96.3 per cent) were attending some type of child care or early education service each week, with the vast majority (95.1 per cent) receiving a formal centre or school-based early childhood program.• Children who did not attend formal early childhood programs were more likely to be younger or growing up in families who were more disadvantaged; that is, mothers were less well educated, not employed, and reported higher psychological distress and poorer parenting; families had a lower income, more financial stress and more children in the household; families were lone parent, Indigenous, non–English speaking, or from a more economically-disadvantaged area.Child social development:• Pro-social and problem behaviour outcomes were rated by parents and teachers. Child outcomes were strongly associated with child and family demographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors, but only weakly linked to early education/child care factors. Teacher ratings of social development were lower for children who attended more child care settings each week.Child cognitive achievement:• Cognitive achievement was indexed by tests of receptive vocabulary and early literacy and numeracy skills. Child and family demographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial factors were identified in regression analyses as the major predictors of child language outcomes, but early education and child care effects were also noted.• Children who did not attend a formal early childhood program had lower scores for receptive vocabulary than children in pre-Year 1 and preschool programs (whether this was in a single setting or with other additional care), and comparable scores to children in long day care. Children who attended long day care plus other additional care had the lowest scores. The relationship between child care factors and children’s receptive vocabulary appeared to be a function of the amount of time in care rather than type of early childhood setting, as shown by a significant drop in test scores as weekly hours of care/education approached 30 or more hours a week.