The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) has arrived at a time when the ethical dimensions of working with children and their families have never been so complex. As early childhood educators, we are faced with daily ethical dilemmas and moral conundrums that challenge our view of ourselves and the support we offer. The EYLF is a new tool that urges educators to privilege relationships with children, their families and the communities of which they are a part, and articulate these in terms of children's growth and learning, just as Early Childhood Australia's Code of Ethics is a tool that guides the educators to find their sense of what they ought to do.

A new approach to pedagogy

The EYLF's recognition of children's interconnectedness to each other and the world, and the conscious positioning of our work as evolutionary and contextual, formalises a new approach to pedagogy in Australia – an approach that requires ongoing ethical reflection. Dahlberg and Moss (2005) suggest that this type of approach 'foreground[s] wisdom, which involves an active practice to decide what is best in a concrete situation … [it] engage[s] with particularities and emotions rather than seeking the dispassionate application of general and abstract principles. [It] recognise[s] the uncertainty, messiness and provisionality of decision making. Implicit in this – turn to active ethical practice – is trust in the ethical capabilities of individuals, their ability to make judgements rather than simply applying rules' (p. 69).

The capacity of the EYLF to support and develop ethical practice is yet to be realised. However, as the Framework is implemented across the country, from Alice Springs to inner city Sydney and across regional Western Australia, we will begin to understand its possibilities and its limitations. Through this magazine and other forums, educators will begin to debate the elements and other will challenge the profession to understand how to act ethically. It will take all our collective efforts to continue to deepen our capacities to deliver early childhood practice based on ethics. The EYLF will, no doubt, assist us in this quest.

Ethical responsibilities of educators towards the EYLF

• As educators, you must first thoroughly read the EYLF. Read it again and think over it. Ask yourself questions about your practice in light of what you have read. Educators have an ethical responsibly to keep up-to-date with contemporary understanding in early childhood education and care.
• Discuss the EYLF with your colleagues and agree to continuously come together as a group of educators to seek meaning and determine the implications for your services and your own practices. Educators have an ethical responsibility to work collaboratively and honestly with colleagues in the pursuit of quality practice.
• Start implementing aspects of the EYLF. Services that have trialled the Framework over the last several months have explored many possible paths – rejecting some and embracing others. Despite the challenge of making big changes, they have taken action. Educators have ethical responsibilities to think as well as act ethically.
• Analyse the EYLF continuously based on your own experience with children and their families. Do the outcomes serve the children you work with well? Which families benefit from a new approach and which families find the words difficult to understand? Who and what is silenced and what is given precedence? Educators have an ethical responsibility to look carefully at power and privilege, and act to address inequity.

Catharine Hydon
Early Childhood Consultant

References

Dahlberg, G. & Moss, P. (2005). Ethics and politics in early childhood education. Oxfordshire: Routledge Falmer.

Every Child magazine – vol. 15 no. 4, 2009, p. 8

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