first-nations-children-blog

ECA perspective: Australia’s First Nations children

Two important papers about Australia’s First Nations children were released in the same week in February. Both have implications for young children in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The joint ECA and SNAICC—Voice for…
Ethics in action

Ethics in action

We are surrounded by ethics every day in every setting, whether it be a decision or situation. But what about applying ethics in early childhood education and care?  ‘I believe children benefit from being around self-respecting adults’—Lilian…
Why is the Reggio Emilia project so important for early learning environments in Australia?

Why is the Reggio Emilia project so important for early learning environments in Australia?

Why is the Reggio Emilia educational project—which exists in a context so far removed from ours, culturally, politically and geographically—so important in our Australian context? While this project now has networks in many countries around…
AJEC-JB-Blog

Australia’s educational leaders in ECE: What do we know so far?

PROFESSOR JOCE NUTTALL shares key findings from her research ahead of her presentation at the 2019 AJEC Research Symposium in Melbourne. What is the role of the educational leader in an early childhood service? What kinds of professional…
WA-Chrisitine-Legg-blog

Why getting early education right is so critical for children & our future

The future of Australia rests on early education. Early Childhood Australia’s (ECA) National President, Christine Legg talks about children’s early development and why Australia needs to invest in and support a high-quality early childhood…
AJEC-blog-Leanne-Gibbs

Data, democracy and the Dialogic Café

Creativity and innovation are fundamental to early childhood education. Educators are required to be creative in their daily practices of building relationships with children, families and each other. They constantly need to apply innovative…
Adrian-Piccoli-Blog

Why I didn’t feel guilty about sending my child to day care or preschool

Professor Adrian Piccoli shares his experience sending his children to early childhood education and care, this piece is an extract from his recently published book ‘12 ways your child can get the best out of school’. Professor Piccoli…
Educator-Wellbeing-jone

Understanding and supporting educator wellbeing

‘Sometimes you just give, give, give and there’s nothing else to give’— Early childhood teacher As part of Catherine Jones’ PhD study, she interviewed educators and asked them to provide monthly reflective journal entries on the…
Australia-Day-Blog

A change of heart as well as date

As Australians rally together to support communities affected by bushfire, this year’s Australia Day feels marked by the compassion, heroism and generosity of the Australian spirit as we come together to mourn great losses and begin to heal.…
ART

Thinking about meanings of sustainability

What does sustainability mean to you? Is there one right way to think about sustainability? The term sustainability has increasingly become part of everyday language e.g. sustainable investments, sustainable growth, sustainable harvesting, and,…
brain-stimulation-blog-StGeorge

Five ways with stimulating play

Early brain stimulation promotes social and other skills in young children. Mothers and fathers tend to offer different sorts of interactions writes JENNIFER STGEORGE drawing on research into the nature of play to explore five evidence-based…
AJEC

AJEC on my mind

I bumped into a colleague last week: ‘Are you going to the AJEC Research Symposium in February next year again?’ she asked me. ‘Yes, for sure. I just heard our abstracts were accepted …’ I answered. ‘Oh yeah? I was thinking of…