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Early Childhood Australia has as its mission the aim to advocate and ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years. One of the strategies used to work towards this aim is the publication of the Australian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC). AJEC publishes evidence-based articles designed to share new information with readers. It also aims to encourage the critical exchange of ideas among early childhood practitioners, academics and students.
Traditionally we have thought of our audience as Australia based, and AJEC has attempted to provide an Australian angle to the articles published. However, just as 'no man is an island', no longer can we see ourselves as an isolated microcosm with our own concerns and issues, different in many ways from those in the world outside of our isolated bubble. We all know that technology has made the world a smaller place, and has challenged us to widen our thinking to include other people and other places. In reality, the debates about quality, social justice and equity held around the world are an integral part of the debates we are having in Australia about these very issues. In reflection of this, the AJEC Committee have begun to actively seek input from academics, early childhood practitioners and students outside of Australia. We involve people through membership in the committee, and are attempting to encourage submission of work from a wide range of sources outside of Australia.
As well as publishing material from different parts of the world, the committee are considering a name change for the journal, to clearly identify our aim to broaden our appeal to those living and working outside Australia. Many people are very happy with the acronym AJEC and would be reluctant to lose the identity that they have associated with this name. One possibility worth considering that makes minimal changes to the name, but also shapes a new image that is more inclusive of those from other areas, is the suggested Australasian Journal of Early Childhood.
To attract an international audience and international writers, it is important that the journal maintains its reputation as a high status publication in the early childhood arena. We are confident that our status within Australia is good and we want to ensure that, in an international context, we are also seen as a noteworthy publication. There is a difficulty in our sector in that there is a lack of an appropriate measure to determine journal quality on an international scale. This is a problem for academics who are required to demonstrate the 'status' of their publications through such a metric. For example, the SORTI study (see http://www.newcastle.edu.au/centre/sorti/ ) identified 907 education journals around the world that used some referring process, and less than 20% of these had an ISI citation ranking – the existing system used to identify journal 'status'. AJEC does not have an ISI rating, but in the SORTI study AJEC was rated as the 23rd most valuable education journal used by Australian academics, and the most valuable in its area, early childhood. We need to continue to explore ways that we can attract higher ratings in order to attract high quality articles and increase the number of international authors who aspire to publish in our journal.
This issue of AJEC reflects these moves. We have an article by Dachs (from New Zealand) and Klopper addressing the issue of quality in relation to the New Zealand early childhood framework: Te Whāriki. Whilst Australian-based academics, early childhood practitioners and students may never work within the New Zealand framework, there is a lot we can learn from this article. Dachs and Klopper work from the concept of quality as holistic. They use music as an example of how we can work with children in a way that creates an overall experience that addresses multiple learning opportunities – not just developmental learning opportunities, but opportunities to address mental and physical health issues, cultural learning, and emotional wellbeing.
Continuing on with the theme of cross-cultural understanding, Vuckovic explores relationship development when working across cultures. All practitioners will, at some time, work with children and families who come from different cultural backgrounds than their own. We need to be aware of the issues we face when doing so and be comfortable with the strategies we can use to ensure all children and families receive a high quality service. Goodfellow explores relationships further in her article on presence. Presence, she argues, is about both 'being there' and 'being with' children, and in a high quality program caregivers need to reflect on their ability to project presence in all its forms, and acknowledge the importance of the personal and emotional aspects of our work.
The growing focus on relationship development and maintenance reminds us that the world of early childhood practice is changing. We no longer value the practical, technical side of our practice over the inter-personal, as reminded by Goodfellow. Other aspects of our practice are changing also. Kilagallon, Maloney and Lock discuss how teachers in Western Australia coped with mandated educational change in their workplace, and how we can learn from their experiences to manage change more effectively. Nolan follows this idea with a paper explaining her experience working with undergraduate students and using focus group discussions to help them manage the changes in their thinking associated with the learning in which they were engaged.
Zvenbergen and Logan remind us that we all have to continue to challenge ourselves to reflect on quality. They discuss the need to reframe how we think about computers and technology in early childhood. Humphrey and Crisp also challenge us to rethink our ideas of quality practice. In their article they discuss bullying in kindergartens and the need for us to think about how we address this concerning issue. Suthers continues the theme of change in her article on concerts, urging us to think about how we can deliver quality concerts for young children.
Finally, the article written by myself and my team (Sims, Saggers, Hutchins, Guilfoyle, Targowska & Jackiewicz) offers the ultimate challenge. We propose that a radical rethink is needed in the way early childhood services are delivered in Australia if we are to have any hope of addressing the growing incidence of disadvantage evident in our society. We review evidence from around the world, but also identify the knowledge and strengths already existing in Australia and put forward some ideas that we think could drive effective change.
AJEC is at the beginning of an effort to become more inclusive, to develop our reputation and status and move onto the world stage as a player worthy of respect. The articles we present to you this quarter will certainly support that move, and I hope that they trigger in you some 'wow' moments, and some ideas that prompt you to ponder on the work you do and how you go about doing it. Read and enjoy.
Margaret Sims
Edith Cowan University
Australian Journal of Early Childhood – Volume 33 No 1 March 2008, pp. ii-iii.
Don't forget, Australian Journal of Early Childhood is tax deductible for early childhood professionals
You can purchase this issue of the Australian Journal of Early Childhood now.
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AJEC is changing its name …
To reflect its diverse readership and commitment to international early childhood debate,
the Australian Journal of Early Childhood will soon be changing its name to
the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. Follow the link to learn more. |
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