Australian Indigenous perspectives on quality assurance in children's services

Abstract

THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT has recently committed to the development of an integrated system of assuring national quality standards for Australian childcare and preschool services (Australian Government, 2008). This article addresses two fundamental issues relating to the development of an integrated system as it applies to Indigenous children's services. Specifically, these issues relate to a conceptualisation of quality child care from an Indigenous perspective, and to the participation of Indigenous services in an integrated quality assurance system. Who defines quality, what quality looks, sounds and feels like, and how to measure quality were questions examined in this study. Research methods included focus groups, community consultations, and interviews with key stakeholders in the childcare sector in order to identify the key issues regarding childcare quality assurance for Indigenous families and service providers. The research findings highlighted some serious incongruities between mainstream approaches to quality assurance and those valued by Indigenous families and service providers.