Posts

A Provocation: Room for a view? Knowing your values, parking your biases

A Provocation: Room for a view? Knowing your values, parking your biases

In this blog, ANNE STONEHOUSE reflects on the balance between the personal and the shared; between an early childhood leader’s openness to new ideas and certainty about their own values. At the 2019 ECA National Conference in Hobart,…
Early childhood is not flying a plane

Early childhood is not flying a plane

What needs to be different about quality in practice? PROFESSOR PETER MOSS, internationally acclaimed early childhood expert and author, shared his insights with The Spoke, ahead of his keynote presentation and workshop at 2019 ECA National…
Antarctic Expedition Leader

Respect trumps harmony—5 leadership lessons from the world’s toughest workplace

Leadership is an intrinsic part of everyone’s workplace, no matter the role you’re in. RACHAEL ROBERTSON led an expedition in Antarctica for a year and since her return has become an author, keynote speaker and leadership expert. Rachael’s…
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Is love the same as care?

A growing trend has seen the term ‘love’ used to describe everything from government welfare drug testing to what educators should aim for in their practice and environments for young children. Two blog posts on The Spoke examine the issue…
male perspective

Why choose early childhood: A male perspective on working as an educator

TRISTAN PAGE is a dedicated early childhood educator with a true passion for his job. He shares his experiences as a man in the early childhood education sector, over the last 18 years. Tristan explains how he incorporates a personal perspective…
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Reflecting on NAIDOC Week

Adam Duncan reflects on NAIDOC Week in this repost from Narragunnawali News, expressing reasons why sharing with children about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions is an important part of their education. NAIDOC…
Partnerships

Shifting perspectives: Our role in partnerships with families

DR KATEY DE GIOIA reflects on a discussion with teachers about learning goals for children, which led her to think about partnerships between families and teachers in early childhood education and care. Dr De Gioia presented at the 2019…
Karen Hope Blog

Portfolios: Pedagogical documentation or souvenir?

KAREN HOPE shares some key discussion points after facilitating a group of educators, who were delving into re-thinking ways to document learning and development for educators and children. Karen asked the group ‘what current documentation…
SHARING-AUS-IN-CULTURE

Sharing in Australia’s culture

‘Deadly not dead’ was what came to mind for Rebecca Rechichi after attending her first Early Childhood Australia (ECA) Reconciliation Symposium in May held in Melbourne. Rebecca is an early childhood teacher from Western Australia and after…
The image of the child re-imagined on Instagram

The image of the child re-imagined on Instagram

Many children around the world now have a digital footprint before they can even walk! Their pictures and videos are featured on their families’ social media channels or even their own dedicated pages managed by their families. But what are…
Reconciliation-blog-AD

Make it personal and meaningful: educators and reconciliation

How can early childhood settings incorporate reconciliation through everyday learning? ECA caught up with preschool teacher and educational leader, ADAM DUNCAN, to hear his views on reconciliation. In the lead up to last year’s ECA Reconciliation…
Cultural competence and reconciliation3

My reflections on reconciliation

Cultural competence and reconciliation are recurrent topics in our line of work. But when it comes to putting these into practice, we’re often faced with more questions than answers. I’d like to put forth my perspective and hopefully it…