Australasian Journal of Early Childhood

This paper examines the research literature supporting early childhood education and argues that communities should support early childhood education as a public right in much the same way as they support free public primary and secondary education.

This paper is a revised version of a keynote presentation at ‘Changing faces: A conference to support, minds, bodies and souls,’ June 21, 1999, Creche and Kindergarten Association, International Early Childhood Conference, Brisbane, Australia.

Given the demands on early childhood educators and the lack of external recognition, the author proposes four ways through which a teacher's ‘spirit’ to teach can be rejuvenated. First, a process of supporting teachers to reflect on why they decided to work with children is described. Second, this article examines how a teacher's sense of joy about teaching is impacted by their invention of an emergent curriculum that meaningfully reflects the classroom community. Third, through exploration of a curriculum on homelessness in a preschool program, the author proposes that a commitment to teaching is sustained through taking thoughtful risks that push the boundaries of one's social and cultural experience. Fourth, the building of community amongst educators, families, and the local neighborhood, as exemplified by a micro-economy project in a primary school, is described as critical in sustaining a commitment to education.

This article examines how early childhood staff in diverse circumstances negotiate relationships with parents. It draws on interviews with staff in two rural and three urban communities in Australia, who were asked about their parent communication practices, their experiences of these practices, and their preferences within these practices. Their responses were analysed in the light of international research showing the importance of creating strong interpretive communities between staff and parents but consistent staff anxiety about their relationships with parents. The paper explores the extent to which staff's different approaches to communicating with parents can create sustainable interpretive communities between them, and it highlights some implications for staff training and development around parent involvement.

This paper describes an initiative aimed at fostering inquiry-oriented learning through the introduction of the core unit Teachers as Researchers into the first year of the undergraduate program at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. The unit contained three components: 1) introductory research skills for first-year students; 2) training for information technology skills; and 3) a hands-on approach where staff were engaged in research about the students’ learning. These aspects of the Teachers as Researchers unit combined to make it a powerful learning experience for students and staff alike. Several outcomes are evident in the early data analysis. First, students gained confidence in their developing ICT skills, and second, the unit has made a notable contribution to encouraging a ‘community of inquiry amongst pre-service teachers.

In February 1998 the University of Canberra and the Canberra Institute of Technology enrolled the first intake of students in the joint program of Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) and the Diploma of Community Services (Children's Services). At the end of 2001 that first cohort of students completed the four-year program. All graduates reported a high level of overall satisfaction with the course. Recruitment ratings of the cohort by the Australian Capital Territory's Department of Education and Community Services were very positive, with an unusually high proportion of students ranked as outstanding or meritorious. Since February 1998 more than 250 students have enrolled in the dual qualification program. The purpose of this article is to examine how the program came about, how some of the issues and early problems were dealt with, and how the innovation represented by the program can contribute to the general debate on the education of early childhood professionals.

A recent innovation in early childhood care and education in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been the new curriculum, Te Whäriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), which has a strong bicultural emphasis. This means that early childhood educators and teacher educators are attempting to address the challenges posed by a document which requires them to move outside the mono cultural dominant paradigm. Most early childhood teachers and teacher educators are not speakers of the Maori language, and lack Maori cultural knowledge. This paper discusses some of the strategies identified in research which addresses these issues. The role of teacher education in preparing non-Maori students to deliver a bicultural curriculum, and ‘indicators’ of bicultural development in early childhood centres are also discussed.

Ensuring a suitable supply of teachers in a climate of major structural and curriculum reform is not an easy task. It is even more difficult when a teacher education program is being developed simultaneously with the implementation of a new education program. Add to this the challenge of empowering communities to become active contributors in curriculum development and teacher education activities. This paper describes a model of teacher education developed in Papua New Guinea to meet these challenges. It is a cost-effective model which provides an immediate supply of teachers and involves communities in the process. The paper highlights contextual aspects of the teacher education curriculum, assessment processes and facilitation of training activities. The content of the paper is organised into four sections. Presented in the first section, as a background to the paper, is a brief history of Papua New Guinea's education system. This is followed by a description of the Education Reform (including the new Elementary Education Program), as a backdrop to a discussion on the Elementary Teacher Education Program in the third section. Some emergent issues are presented as challenges in the fourth section.