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This is an exciting time for early childhood as we experience unprecedented federal interest in issues relating to young children, their families and the services that support them. At the same time we are living in an era where there are increasing expectations that policy is based on evidence—evidence from research and evidence from practice. What a time in which to be researching, teaching, practising and publishing! A time when early childhood workers, families and children need to enact empowerment, take control of the agenda and drive it in ways that may, in the long term, change our world.
This issue of AJEC offers some gems to help us along our way. Jenny Overton writes about power and empowerment; about teachers experiencing power imposed upon them, and both empowerment and disempowerment for themselves. She argues that goodwill between teachers and their employers is critically important in teachers' empowerment, and that this is linked to demonstrating employers (and society?) value what teachers do.
Following on with the theme of empowerment, is the article by Campbell and Scotellaro who discuss an exciting pre-service teacher education programme that focused on enhancing student technological knowledge and skills. The project focused on both attitude change and enhancement of skills resulting in an improved sense of empowerment in the students. Lee, Ginsburg and Preston further the idea of empowerment through increased knowledge and skill. They present a tool they have developed to support educators in teaching mathematics. This uses video clips of learning sessions which students can use to deconstruct teaching and learning, and in the process, enhance their own mathematical understanding.
Imtoual, Kameniar and Bradley share a story of successful empowerment. They write about their work in a multi-racial kindergarten, attempting to identify what factors contribute to the high esteem in which the service is held in the local community. We are all familiar with programmes that work because of the presence of a key person or people. In this article the authors attempt to unpack the layer beneath this to identify specific factors that could be transferrable, and thus support other services in their efforts to become more effective. The importance of relationships between staff and families, and between the service and the community was emphasised. Yarnin was a tool used very effectively in building and maintaining these relationships. There is a lot we can learn from this article about developing and running effective services in a complex and hurried world.
Quality early childhood programmes also focus on empowering children and we have two articles in this issue that follow this theme. Agbenyega argues that the Australian Early Development Index disempowers children because of its derivation from Paigetian and Gesellian universal stage theories. By not taking into account children's familial and cultural contexts, the AEDI runs the risk of further marginalising children who are already vulnerable. Children's empowerment involves hearing children's voices. Lee presents us with the voices of a group of Korean immigrant girls, sharing with us their understanding of marriage in America. She demonstrates how the girls interpreted messages from the hegemonic culture in the light of their own experiences, reinforcing our understanding of children's activity in constructing an understanding of their worlds.
Lynch argues that children who are mobile face the risk of disempowerment in their learning because, despite the existence of a legislated framework, individual teachers interpret the framework differently, resulting in very different learning experiences for children. Moving schools can therefore be disruptive for children who may need to '… renegotiate what doing school and doing literacy means every time they move.'
All in all, a fascinating edition of AJEC offered to us by a range of, by and large, new (to Australia) and emerging authors. Well done to all.
Margaret Sims
University of New England
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood – Volume 34 No 2 June 2009, pp. ii.
Don't forget, Australasian Journal of Early Childhood is tax deductible for early childhood professionals
You can purchase this issue of the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood now.
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