Early Childhood Australia
A Voice for Young Children
Added January 14, 2012
To learn more you may click on the title in yellow at the top of this page or on the link above to access the Early Childhood Australia website. The organization does offer a free e-newsletter of which I have subscribed but have not yet received.
This organization focuses on advocating for the education, care, and well being of children from birth to age eight. They are currently strongly focusing on the reconciliation in Australia for Aboriginal and Torres Strait children and their families. Through their various newsletter publications and news on their website they keep people in the early childhood field up to date on current findings and happenings in early childhood. There main focus is to be a voice for young children. One of there publications is entitled "Voice". A current issue that caught my attention was that of reform of Early Childcare Begins Today. This is the biggest reform Australia has seen. There are new requirements that will be implemented such as 1:4 ratio for children 24 months and younger and a new rating system. The rating system will eventually be passed to parents. All of this to help them be aware of the education their child is receiving and to insure a quality education in young children. This reform is set to be implemented over the next eight years according to the CEO Pam Cahir.
In regards to diversity and demographics an article from August 2011 - Media release: Malaysia solution must not extend to children under any circumstances discusses children seeking protection in Australia from trade wars. Children are used as pawns in people smuggling trade. The government wants to send the children to Malaysia to be detained rather than allowing them residency in Australia. The organization listed on this page Early Childhood Australia is fighting for children's rights. They ask that they be placed in homes with families in the communities and provided with an education until the claims can be assessed. They advocate that children and families be provided with the same health care as Australians, and given the specialist supports to help them cope with the trauma.
More on this topic can be found at
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/early_childhood_news/august_2011_media_release_malaysia_solution_must_not_extend_to_children_under_any_circumstances.html
Politics, Economics, & Neuroscientists
Support in the Early Childhood Field
Added January 28, 2012
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| Click on the picture above to view this video of Early Childhood Reform in Australia |
A statement that I found to be controversial is, that while centers will need to increase fees in order to pay new employees and update or rebuild their existing facilities many of them are using this as a way to make more of a profit. They are raising fees more than necessary, which is not what is intended. Unfortunately this may backfire on these businesses once things start moving toward the new efforts to increase the quality of early childhood education. This is going to be done by increasing ratios of teachers to students, and upgrading existing buildings. They fact that will have to do away with some centers because the funds will not be available to upgrade or rebuild has made me look at how money is being used in the early childhood system. In our state money is widely spent on professional development, and materials. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if the buildings were forced to be upgraded, etc. Funding like in the case in Australia could potentially be a problem.
I have a better understanding now of how these fields; politics, neuroscience, and economics fit into the realm of early childhood education. In this case the politicians saw a need for change based on the quality care the children were receiving. Looking at what brain research tells us about play based interaction with not only children but adult interactions the ratios needed to be increased. It is for these reasons as well as safety precautions. The economics of funding these centers and paying the workers affects the entire population. Many places in America have a variety of taxes that go towards education. So, not only would fees be increased which in turn directly affects parents needing the services, but also tax payers across the country. New insights I have gained by exploring the early Childhood Australia organization's website is that global efforts are being made to improve the quality of early childhood education for all children. The trends I am seeing are that environments are being upgraded and more qualified personnel are being brought in to care for the children and work with the families.
Sharing Web Resources
Early Childhood Australia
Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability
February 11, 2012
Outside Links - Supporting Best Practices
The ECA website's homepage has a section entitled "Free online services for the early childhood field". In this section you will find an open-access web directory Supporting Best Practices in EC settings with featured links. This section is full of helpful resources in early childhood education. These resources include topics in Emotional wellbeing, Children's development, Speaking out for children, and Professional Development.
The outside links lead to various professional early childhood organization websites, Articles and insights on these topics at various colleges and universities, Public Health agency from both inside and outside the U.S., parent websites, and public broadcasting (PBS).
You may explore some of the included sites by clicking below
Supportine Best Practices in EC - Featured Link
"Curiosity-Imagination-Persistence: Problem Solving and Mastery"
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) offers support groups in a variety of areas and offers information for students, early career, families, and educators. The organizations offers a vast array of resources without membership, but extended resources with a membership. A current focus point is on School Safety and Crisis Resources. On the sidebar a resource link can be found that is similar to other websites. Topics of all kinds can be found here. Also, podcasts, audio articles, and blogs for the organization. Through following the link from Early Chidlhood Australia I found the article Motivating Learning in Young Children, which describes children as natural curious learners in early years. It discusses when children are allowed to explore and learn in the early years it provides the motivation for learning later on. As many early childhood educators know this is natural play, unstructured exploratory play is so important. The article tells how motivation is developed and how motivation can be enhanced in the early years.
Newsletter ECA Webwatch #131
Click to Listen
In Australia parents are illegally homeschooling their children. They are required to register their child for compulsary school or home school, but many parents are choosing to home school illegally because they feel the education of their child is their parental right. The material have been made readily available so it is easy for the parents to get them now without registration. Many of the parents complained that to register is just too much paper work. 27% of parents homeschooling are doing so because they are not happy with the public schools and 7% have children with special needs. Many people interviewed where opposed to state authority.
"Standards exist for a reason and they're about the kids not about the parents and their ideas about what they should do," said the acting manager of the Queensland Home Education Unit, Hanne Worsoe.Availability and accessibility of quality education seems to be a factor in this area, that is troubling to the parents of these students. Accountability of the students in the homeschool programs is troubling to the school and the government because they have no way of measuring students success.
Equity and Excellence
The e-newsletter and website contain information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. There is an obvious difference in how parents feel and the governments react about children and school attendance in the U.S. and Australia. Although there is this difference you have have parents in the same positions in both places. Motivating young children through exploratory play at an early age helps a student's growth and development toward a love for learning later on. The equity of this is growing but educators are still facing many challenges in this area.
Issues and Trends
The trends are very similar in educating our children. It seems the governments have it all figured out. The quality of education does not seem to be improving anywhere, and parents as well as teachers are beginning to take a stand. It all starts here and there is a lot of research out there on early childhood education and the need for it. If our schools were as they needed to be it seems children would be allowed to play, have better health, involved parents, and quality education.
