Australasian Journal of Early Childhood

IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW national regulatory requirements for designated educational leaders in early childhood settings, 11 Victorian teachers participated in semi-structured interviews exploring their perceptions of their ability to act as educational leaders in their childcare centres. Analysis of these interviews showed that, while teachers successfully made changes within their rooms, only those with a formal title or authority expressed confidence in their ability to lead change across their centres. Barriers to leadership included lack of time and a perception that their teacher qualifications ‘did not buy authority’. A hierarchical model of leadership appeared dominant within the centres. The findings suggest both time allowance and formal role designation as strategies to support the new leadership roles, but also raise questions about the most effective models for supporting teacher leadership in childcare contexts.

THIS PAPER REPORTS CONCLUSIONS about the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services from E4Kids, a large-scale longitudinal study of three types of ECEC services in two Australian states. A little more than 250 preschool classrooms had complete data in 2010; two measures of ECEC quality were applied—the CLASS and selected subscales of the ECERS-R. Overall, Australian ECEC averaged in the medium range on most measured components of quality, with the exception of personal care routines and instructional support. We found evidence that average quality in ECEC in the E4Kids study varies systematically across the type of service, with kindergartens having significantly higher quality than long day care centres. Australian ECEC quality was found to be broadly similar to that in the United States and United Kingdom: slightly weaker in terms of the developmental appropriateness of classroom practices assessed through ECERS-R, slightly stronger than the United States in the areas of classroom organisation and instructional support.

RESEARCH HAS DESCRIBED TRANSITION practices that support young children as they move to a new learning environment, and continuity between learning environments has been identified as an important component of a successful transition (Dockett & Perry, 2004). Some findings suggest young gifted children experience transition in a different way (Whitton, 2005), but there is minimal evidence-based information available to early childhood educators ^*1 on the transition experiences of gifted children. This paper draws on a study of young gifted children in transition from home to preschool and into school, and presents findings on how different understandings of continuity from those reported as important in the literature influenced these children. Such findings emphasise the need for satisfactory professional understanding of the adjustment of young gifted children into preschool and school. (All children's names in this article are pseudonyms.)

*1

‘Early childhood educators’ refers to both preschool educators and teachers in the first year of school. Where appropriate, distinguishing terms are used.

THIS STUDY AIMED TO examine early childhood teachers' understanding and attitudes towards bullying and investigate whether anti-bullying policies were utilised in early childhood services. One hundred and eighty eight early childhood educators in Queensland, Australia were surveyed about bullying among young children. The majority of early childhood teachers (93 per cent) believed young children were capable of bullying, and felt confident to identify and manage incidences of bullying. Results revealed a significant relationship between teacher education and perceived confidence in identifying bullying, with university-qualified educators feeling more confident than TAFE-trained educators. Findings are discussed in respect of the importance of anti-bullying policies in early childhood educational contexts.

TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT more conducive to the needs of very young children from January 2011, Gowrie SA replaced age groupings, which separated infants and toddlers with integrated infant–toddler programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate this program change by comparing the two types of infant and toddler programs, before and after implementation. The evaluation focused on those areas considered to have most impact on children's development (Ackerman, 2008): the overall length of time educators and children spend together, the depth of documentation and assessment of children's learning as evident in learning stories, and the quality of interactions between educators and families during drop-off and pick-up times. Statistically significant differences were found for the first two areas and higher frequencies in the third area, showing overall improvement under the integrated program. Parents' and educators' perceptions about the advantages and challenges of integrated infant–toddler programs were also included in the study.

IT IS WIDELY ASSUMED that children's learning is enhanced through being involved in early childhood education but the evidence to substantiate this in New Zealand is limited. Sources of information that could be expected to show what children are learning include the national curriculum, documentation provided by early childhood centres, evaluations from the Education Review Office, and government-funded research reports. This article examines each of these sources and finds they provide little evidence about what children are learning. One of the difficulties is the strong reliance on Learning Stories as the main form of assessment in centres and research investigations. A case is made that it is time for the Ministry of Education to reconsider the advice it is providing on how to assess young children's learning.

THIS LITERATURE REVIEW PRESENTS the case for acknowledging the animal in early childhood settings as the fourth educator. This idea builds on the work of Malaguzzi (1998), who proposed the environment as third teacher. Drawing on a range of research as well as changing perspectives about the animal and child relationship, the literature presented here argues for the animal to be considered respectfully as a pedagogical support and motivator for learning. The review covers interdisciplinary aspects of the field of human and animal relationships and also draws on new work about animals in mechanical/robot form. These animal and machine intersections come together in posthuman theory. The review highlights opportunities for research in this increasingly important area.

THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES HOW YOUNG children's representations can reveal the ways in which children make meaning in mathematics. It has been suggested by Kendrick and McKay (2004) that as educators seek to acknowledge children's diverse experiences, they must also embrace children's multifaceted ways of knowing. As such, educators' major pedagogical challenge is to help children transform what they know into modes of representation. Building on ideas published elsewhere (see Smith & MacDonald, 2009), this article presents examples of children's mathematical meaning-making collected during a three-year study focusing on children's representations of their mathematical experiences and understandings. The representations presented include drawings and narratives produced by children aged four to six years from two Australian primary schools. This article suggests that by asking children to create representations we are offered an insight into the ways in which children construct meaningful understandings of mathematics.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH HAS BEEN dealing with the problem and prevention of unintentional injury in children for some time, yet injury rates continue to increase in some areas. This paper reports on the outcomes of a study of children from seven preschools in a rural region of Australia, who were engaged in a cultural-historically designed safety education program. The study sought to examine the relations between safety knowledge and perceived action gained as a result of participation in a program called ‘SeeMore Safety’. SeeMore Safety combines preschool and home-based education for children aged four to six years, their parents and teachers. Using a mixed-method research approach, the study examined how the program contributed to knowledge of injury prevention in young children. The findings demonstrated that it had a positive effect on preschool children's behaviour and reasoning about safety. The paper concludes with an argument about the need for further research into this important area of early childhood education.

THIS ARTICLE REPORTS ON an Educational Change Model originally developed for the middle years of schooling (Pendergast et al., 2005) and applied here to an Australian early childhood education reform initiative. The Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) was released in 2009 (DEECD & VCAA, 2009). Implementation of the VEYLDF was accompanied by a three-stage independent evaluation on early childhood professionals perceptions of implementation. According to the Educational Change Model, three distinct phases can be identified as individuals and groups move towards full implementation of reforms. The phases are: Initiation, Development, and Consolidation.

Evaluation of initiatives delivered in the implementation of the VEYLDF against key elements of the Educational Change Model revealed that: critical model elements of visioning, policy development, stakeholder engagement and information dissemination were achieved at a high level; resources were developed for early childhood professionals to implement in a range of formats and mediums; the importance of leadership in educational change was recognised in the VEYLDF implementation; inhibitors and enablers to the implementation of the VEYLDF were identified in anticipation of the Development phase of the Educational Change Model.

• The staged implementation of the VEYLDF provided opportunities for progressive feedback on implementation successes and challenges.

IN 2007, THE GOVERNMENT of Hong Kong implemented the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme to provide allowances for parents to purchase services in local preschools. The scheme includes the policy for subsidising the professional development of preschool teachers, which aims at upgrading their professional qualifications in five years, thereby improving teaching quality. This paper explores whether there is a gap between the policy objectives and teacher professional development through case studies at a time when the education reform has been implemented. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. The participants had some views in common about the positive aspects of the professional development policy. However, the findings also indicate that preschool teachers have a passive attitude toward learning, which might have an adverse influence on their lifelong professional development. The implications for the professional development policy and teacher professional development are discussed.

THIS STUDY INVESTIGATED MEMORIES about starting school across several family generations, and the impact of these memories on parents' philosophies and actions when they were supporting their children during the transition to school. In this paper, we report the autobiographical narratives of two families and explore the ways in which the memories of school and starting school prompted both continuity and change in family decisions about education in general, and the transition to school in particular.

The study draws on generational and interpretive perspectives in exploring autobiographical memories and oral history. Results reflect the concept of ambivalence, highlighting tensions between processes of reproduction and innovation across families. The implications of these tensions for children starting school are considered.

TO EXAMINE THE CURRENT status of inclusion in early childhood in Hong Kong, this article highlights the overall structure of early childhood and special education services in the region, the historical movement toward inclusion before and after 1997 (the year Hong Kong returned to the People's Republic of China), and its impact on early childhood education. The author addresses the question of whether the development of inclusive education was driven by an educational agenda or other factors, and discusses challenges of inclusive practices in early childhood education, and future possibilities.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS study is to examine the beliefs of early childhood preservice teachers in Korea (South) and the US about music, developmentally appropriate practices (DAP), and the relationship between the two. Participants of the study generally believed in the importance of music. In terms of the benefits of music, teachers believed more in the aesthetic and social-emotional benefits of music than quality-of-life benefits for young children. The results indicate that preservice teachers in Korea possess stronger beliefs about the importance of music than the teachers in the US. In particular, preservice teachers in Korea hold stronger beliefs about aesthetic benefits of music than their US counterparts. All the teachers in the study generally endorsed DAP, yet Korean preservice teachers had stronger beliefs in DAP. In this examination of the relationship between music and DAP, prospective teachers in Korea demonstrated more positive acceptance of the relationship. Some differences were found in the correlations of subcategories of music and DAP between the teachers in the US and Korea. This study may influence the design and implementation of teacher education programs in Korea and the US with regard to not only music curricula but other subjects as well. Discussions and implications for early childhood teacher educators are provided.