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Inaugural conference of the new Centre for Equity and Innovation in Education - November 2001 |
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Judy Radich, National President of AECA was as part of a panel at the inaugural conference of the new Centre for Equity and Innovation in Education at Melbourne in November 2001.
What follows is an edited version of her comments to the conference.
The AECA’s mandate is to be a voice for young children.
Beneath that mandate sits a commitment to the belief that stable and caring relationships in the early lives of young children are fundamental to building resilient young children who are socially and emotionally competent. This is AECA’s goal for all children.
If stable and caring relationships in the early lives of young children are so fundamental, we need to think about and understand the nature of these relationships and how they are constructed and sustained in families, communities and in children’s services and schools that are intrinsically diverse—culturally, linguistically and socio-economically.
The AECA needs to think about and demand from government the resources necessary to support such relationships for all children. We need to be clear and unequivocal in those demands. Communities, families and services cannot do it alone.
During this election campaign and for the first time in this country, the AECA has promoted the idea that services whose ratios are at least 1:3 for babies should attract receive child care benefit. We acknowledge the difficulties in this demand—but we know equally clearly that you cannot, despite all our best intentions, evolve stable, caring relationship with babies when you have responsibility for five of them.
Similarly, government cannot continue to fund children’s services and schools in a way that ensures that early childhood professionals have such poor working conditions, including pay that it creates a situation in which it is difficult to get and retain staff at all, let alone staff who are qualified.
A government that allows this through inadequate funding is not doing enough.
The AECA sees a major role for government in developing policies and providing the funding and support necessary to underwrite and deliver its commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The AECA believes there is further discussion to be had about where we draw the line in terms of the responsibility of government to provide the framework for the development of policies that will provide guarantees for all children. Questions that need to be addressed concern the proper balance between the role of government—in providing guaranteed access for all children to schools, services and the programs they implement—and the role of those on the ground in shaping their service so that it delivers appropriately for the children they work with.
While supporting the practitioner on the ground requires greater investment in their work with individual children, their families and communities, governments must continue to be concerned for the rights and outcomes for all children.
At the same time, organisations and individuals must support those working with young children to think critically about their own practice. The AECA does this in a range of ways, through state, territory and regional groups, and through our publications. These support people to accept the challenge of new ideas. Increasingly we are discovering that communication is the key: finding ways to communicate with each other is the best way to challenge and constructively work through ways to a better practice.
The AECA believes we must begin with children and be conscious of the attitudes and values that inform our practice. For me, thinking about questions that I face each day as a centre director, formerly as a QIAS reviewer and as AECA national president make me confront and rethink the values that underly the way I think and work. The questions are often deceptively simple such as:
- why do some people believe that children can only play outside for certain times in the day?
- why do some people believe that the child has the behaviour problem instead of the environment?
- why do some people believe the accreditation document is prescriptive in relation to planning for young children?
I believe the capacity to talk about what we are doing and why we are doing it, rather than just tell stories about our practice, is fundamental to change because it makes us think about the why’s as well as the what’s.
I believe, as does the AECA, that a willingness to expose our theories and practices to the scrutiny of others is fundamental to capacity building and positive change.
I believe too, that some of this process must occur in the minds of individuals—you have to think about yourself and your practice. However, a movement for change also necessarily means working with others, because this process ensures challenges at the same time as it gives support for working through ideas, issues and strategies.
We need to see this as a fundamental part of our commitment as professionals. Being committed to equity can be as much a slogan as being committed to social justice unless we constantly reflect on how these ideals are affecting what we do day-by-day.
Our recent project Building Bridges demonstrates a commitment to challenge some fundamental thinking in early childhood such as the beliefs that the link between families and those who nurture the development and education of young children is fundamental to good outcomes and that we must begin with what children already know. This project asked: What do these mean concepts mean in practice if we are really serious about the eduction of indigenous children in their communities?
Building Bridges gave video cameras to a small number of indigenous families from the city, as well as some in rural and remote communities. We asked the families to record what was important to them about what their children were able to do, and who they were.
The families were wonderfully generous and we have many hours of recording. They (the families) then chose what they were willing to show others and came together in Alice Springs with EC Professionals and the AECA. At all times the families had control over the content and its interpretation.
In Alice Springs, each family showed the other parents what they had recorded and the parents talked about:
- what anyone could see in their video
- what only they could see because they were family and community members, and
- what was so much part of who they were and their lives that they did not notice it any more
As they repeated this process, families mentored each other to deeper understandings of their own content as they made explicit the cultural imperatives of their lives.
The parents then worked with the early childhood professionals to think about what this might mean for schools.
A book and video that document the process will soon be released. For AECA this process is only the beginning. It has made us think about what it would mean if early childhood professional, together in their local schools and e c services, went through the same process and asked themselves the same questions:
- what is it that everyone can see about my practice as a teacher?
- what is it that only I can see because I am a teacher, and
- what is it that is so culturally embedded in my day-to-day practice that I do not see it anymore?
Our sense is that this process would open up a discussion between parents and teachers that might begin to rebuild a shared vision for children.
Finally, I believe that it is time for us to re-articulate the values that underwrite our vision for children. AECA bases its work on values such as social justice, inclusiveness, respect, leadership, participation, openness and collaboration excellence and leadership.
These values provide part of the framework for judging the effectiveness of what we do as an organization that is committed to being a voice for young children.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 June 2007 )
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