The professional knowledge that counts in Australian contemporary early childhood teacher education

Australia is typical of many western countries where the provision of quality early childhood services has become a government priority. The government initiatives in Australia include repeated demands for 'well-qualified' early childhood educators. As a result of these demands the preservice preparation of early childhood educators is under intense scrutiny. This scrutiny raises many questions regarding the knowledge base considered to be essential for early childhood educators and leads to further questions about who has the authority to produce this knowledge. This article explores these questions by firstly examining some of the ways Australian early childhood teacher education is situated within the current knowledge environment. This is followed by a discussion regarding the debates about what early childhood educators 'need to know'. The third section of the article traces some of the historical features of Australian early childhood teacher education, for the author argues that contemporary questions about 'which' knowledge is to be included in early childhood teacher education are best understood alongside their historical precedents. The article concludes by considering the implications of the debates for contemporary early childhood teacher education and suggests that a way forward involves reconsidering the traditional binary between theory and practical knowledge

Equity and quality in the early years of schooling

For most of the latter part of the twentieth century, the issues of quality and equity have been part of the agenda of compulsory schooling in Australia. However it is only more recently that the two have been brought together, which has drawn attention to the quest to create high quality and high equity schooling. The outcomes of this union have been the focus of analyses undertaken using data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which show that several features of Nordic secondary schools have produced high quality and high equity schooling. This article concentrates on the early years of school and considers the role of curriculum and syllabus documents in creating high quality and high equity in the early years, including the non-compulsory prior-to-school year. It draws on recent research in education generally to identify issues of significance that are instructive in the quest to produce high quality and high equity schooling in the early years. These issues include equity of access, syllabus design and curriculum, and transition to school; but before they are considered, I discuss the context of moves to create high quality and high equity schooling

Departures from tradition : the early years learning framework for Australia

In 2009, the Commonwealth Government of Australia published the first national learning framework for use with children aged birth to five years. The framework marks a departure from tradition in that it emphasizes intentional teaching, learning as well as child development, a particular type of play-based learning, outcomes, and equity. This article analyzes aspects of the document that depart from well established approaches to early childhood education in Australia and identifies challenges for educators who are required to use the document. It concludes that ongoing and supportive professional learning opportunities must accompany the introduction and enactment of the document

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Globalization and Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong

In the midst of educational reforms that are aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in a globalized economy, early childhood education in Hong Kong retains unique ties to the colonial past and maintains particular cultural traditions and practices that are influenced by the ideas of Confucius. Renewed interest and significant investment in early childhood education are western responses to the idea that “getting it right” in the early years has considerable long-term benefits and cost-saving outcomes. In contrast, when compared with other countries such as England, early childhood education in Hong Kong receives little financial support from the government (due to change soon with the introduction of education vouchers) and requirements for qualified staff are relatively low. This article offers an "outsider" perspective of some of the challenges facing early childhood education in Hong Kong using perspectives that draw on recent examples of globalization. It is put forward in the spirit of encouraging further discussion and analysis about early childhood education in the SAR and considers some aspects of early childhood education that have been the focus of attention since the reunification with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1997

Preparing for school: Case studies of three preparatory classrooms

In 2003, Queensland commenced a trial of a non-compulsory preparatory (prep) year of schooling for Queensland children. Since the start of 2003 over 1900 children from 96 state and non-state schools have taken part in trialing the preparatory year, using a play-based curriculum . The trials are helping to determine the best ways to implement the preparatory year in Queensland schools (for full details of Education Queensland’s plan for introduction of future preparatory year classes in Queensland schools, see http://education.qld.gov.au/etrf/prep.html ). \ud Towards the end of 2004, which was the second year of trialing the preparatory year in selected Queensland schools, the principals of three trial schools agreed to take part in research to investigate how the preparatory (prep) year was working in those schools.\ud The key aims of this research project were:\ud \ud a. To gain a more in-depth view of the general operation of preparatory classes.\ud b. To document ways in which the Early Years Curriculum Guidelines underpin teachers’ planning, teaching and assessment of students. \ud c. To gain an understanding of the role and value of the preparatory year for its stakeholders

A National System of Childcare Accreditation: Quality Assurance or a Technique of Normalization?

Arguing that dominant discourses have designated those who are younger as requiring protection and control, Cannella (education, Texas A&M U.) and Kincheloe (education, CUNY Graduate Center and Brooklyn College) argue that there is a need for a postmodern childhood studies that challenges regimes of truth, recognizing that children have not generally had a voice in their own creation. They present 11 contributions that move toward such a project of disrupting adult/child dualisms. Chapters discuss the discourses of welfare "reform" in the United States, the construction of childhood by corporate agendas promoting consumption, Korean views of young children, the construction of the Euro-American concept of "voice" as it affects preschoolers in India, and colonialist biases inherent in modernist constructions of education

Pedagogical Documentation as an Effect of Globalization

In this article, we review briefly some of the literature from the Reggio Emilia approach that relates to documentation and how it is connected to child observation. Further, we provide a brief account of the discourses of globalization as applied to Reggio Emilia education in general and the use of documentation specifically. We conclude that the importation of the Reggio Emilia approach can be seen in part as a search for a viable alternative to the standards and accountability movement, the availability of the global locally, and the accessibility of patterns of consumption and desire

Child Observation and Accountability in Early Childhood Education: Perspectives from Australia and the United States

The changing ways child observation is being used by preschool teachers in the United States and Australia are described in relation to the accountability movement pressuring young children and their teachers in both countries. The costs of the accountability movement in early childhood education are explored, and a call for genuine accountability based on assessment strategies such as traditional child observation is made