Juggling Philosophy, Policy and Practice: Tensions in Early Childhood Education and Care
Author(s):
Helen Wildy (presenting / submitting) Gerardine Neylon (presenting) Christine McGunnigle Dee O'Connor
Conference:
ECER 2016
Network:
25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

25 SES 01, School Stages and Transitions

Paper Session

Time:
2016-08-23
13:15-14:45
Room:
OB-E0.32
Chair:
John I'Anson

Contribution

This study explores the tensions between the philosophical underpinnings, policy context and implementation of a new approach to early childhood education and care across Australia. The approach draws on a range of theoretical and philosophical perspectives whose implications for practice we set out to unravel.

We ask: What are the implications of Australia’s newly developed Early Learning Years Framework (EYLF) for the environment provided and the relationships developed by educators and for the experiences of the young children in their care?

International attention has ocused on improving the quality of education and care for young children (UNICEF, 2008).  Australia’s Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians positions education as pivotal to building a democratic, equitable and just society in the 21st century (Ministerial Council for Education Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs, 2008). Poststructuralist and reconceptualist philosophies were used to develop a new approach that moved beyond labels and stereotypes about children to focus on rich learning experiences to all children (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2008).  A framework (EYLF) was envisaged in terms of Belonging Being and Becoming, a conceptualisation, according to Peers and Fleer (2013) originating in the tradition of dialectical logic in Western philosophical practice, around the existential and ontological discourse.

 

Belonging The concept of belonging includes ‘a sense of belonging, and the politics of belonging’ (Stratigos, Bradley & Sumsion, 2014, p. 183). Therefore, both power relations and social justice dimensions are inherent in the concept. Sumison and Wong identified dimensions of belonging: “emotional, social, cultural, spatial, temporal, physical, spiritual, moral/ethical, political and legal” (2011, p. 33).

Being The concept of being relates to the field of ontology concerned with the existence of entities. The manner in which such entities are grouped stems from metaphysics. From the UK, Douzinas (2007) suggests that learning about the world is a series of events involving relationships and encounters. European researchers Dahlberg and Moss (2007) draw on the theorising of North American Levinas  (1987) about the ‘ethics of an encounter’ to explore how ‘alterity” (the state of being Other) obligates us to treat the Other without expectation of a profitable return.

Becoming The concept of becoming isinterwoven with belonging and being. To become is a recurrent theme in phenomenology, focusing on ‘the specific conditions of human embedded-ness in an environment’, according to Irish philosophers Moran and Mooney (2007, p. 5).

 

During 2008 -2009 a working party comprising representatives from Australian Federal, States and Territory was established to develop an Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) within a National Quality Standard (NQS). For the first time this NQS provides a policy umbrella for both the early years care as well as school-aged education. Similarly, the EYLF approval process was multi-tiered and multi-jurisdictional. The policy development and approval took place under the influence of the recently signed  United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child which reconceptualised the child as an agent in his/her own learning.  All staff working in education and care settings are mandated to implement the policy. The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) was tasked with ensuring the reforms are enacted.

 

Critiques of the EYLF emerged. For example, Stratigos, Bradley and Sumsion (2014) argue that the definition of belonging loses the political, moral and ethical dimensions. The EYLF emphasis is on relational pedagogy at the expense of the social justice dimension. Furthermore, Being is cast in terms of ‘time’, emphasising the ‘right here and right now’ for children.  In similar vein, becoming is narrowly interpreted to focus on children’s learning (Millei & Sumsion, 2011), rather than on individuality in a socio-cultural context.

 

Method

We selected four centre-based settings located in schools in the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia, two from the Catholic sector and two from the Government sector. The research team of four researchers worked in pairs, visiting each centre twice, to observe interactions of educators and children, from greeting to departure. We also interviewed the educators who developed the curriculum in each centre about their educational background and experience. To focus on understanding the human and social reality of the implementation of the EYLF, we situated our research within the interpretive paradigm. Recognising the difficulty for young children to describe their experiences of belonging, being and becoming (Elwick, et al, 2014), we used an innovative and intuitive approach, based on a poststructuralist conceptualisation of the child with voice and agency. In observing everyday encounters, we paid particular attention to their perspectives. We sought to interpret educators’ interpretations of the EYLF, based on our observations of young children’s responses to experiences and environments provided by the educators. We sought to capture the ‘ethics of the encounter’ (Levinas, 1987). We wrote narrative accounts to report the experiences of the young children we observed. Giugni (2011) argues that writing stories of events in ECEC settings helps produce ‘evidence’ of how educators and researchers can create opportunities for enabling new discourses to highlight complexity and political issues in everyday encounters in ECEC. Our stories (narratives) are written in a vivid, life-like way to portray the activities and interactions as the child experiences the ‘ethics of an encounter’. With a limited view of the contextual knowledge of the encounter, we acknowledge the ‘situational’ nature of the observations portrayed in the narratives. We then appraised what we interpreted to be the educators’ interpretation of the EYLF on a continuum. Giugni’s (2011) view that stories/narratives hold the possibility of creating opportunities to develop new ways of seeing and discussing practice is accepted and our findings offer new insights on how the EYLF is operationalised.

Expected Outcomes

Our analyses of the observations indicated three types of practice by educators in relation to the EYLF: explicit; discreet; absent. Where the EYLFY was ‘explicit’, the environment supported children in becoming confident and involved learners, evidenced by the environment and relationships with adults and peers. Where the EYLF was ‘discreet’, children were supported from a distance to engage in exploratory learning experiences, in a flexible, warm environment. Where the EYLF was ‘absent’, children’s physical needs were met but their social, emotional, cognitive, creative and linguistic development was ignored. We then examined the experiences and backgrounds of the educators, the sole professionals in each centre, who are tasked with overseeing the implementation in the curriculum of the EYLF. We found that these educators were present for a designated part of each day. We observed on occasion their engagement with children. However, we also learned that the majority of staff working with children had not formal graduate qualification in ECEC. Instead, they tended to be women with vocational training, youth on work experience, pre-service teachers on placement or retired primary school teachers. Although caring and professional in their jobs, the majority did not have the skills or education to embrace the intent, or appreciate the principles, of EYLF. Although incomplete, our research suggests a link between the experiences of the children and the richness of the educators’ understanding and appreciation of the philosophy underpinning the EYLF. Attention to workforce issues is central to the success of the EYLF implementation. These include pay, qualifications, work-status, staff shortages, integration and high staff turnover in centre-based settings. Currently, these matters are the subject of a government inquiry report (Productivity Commission, 2015).

References

Australian Government Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations. (2009). Belonging, Being and Becoming: the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Council of Australian Governments. (2009). National quality standard for early childhood education and care and school age care. Canberra. Dahlberg, G., & Moss, P. (2007). Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education. Oxfordshire. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2008). A Research Paper to inform the development of An Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Victoria: State Government. Douzinas, C. (2007). Human rights and empire: The political philosophy of cosmopolitanism. London: Routledge-Cavendish. Elwick, S., Bradley, B., & Sumsion, J. (2014). Infants as others: Uncertainties, difficulties, and (im)possibilities in researching infants’ lives. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 27(2), 196-213. Giugni, M. (2011 ). ‘Becoming worldly with’: an encounter with the Early Years Learning Framework. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(1), 11-27. Goodfellow. J. (2009). The Early Years Learning Framework: Getting started. Research in Practice Series. Canberra: Early Childhood Australia Inc. Levinas, E. (1987). Time and the Other. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. Millei, Z., & Sumsion, J. (2011). The ‘work’ of community in Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(1), 71-85. Ministerial Council for Education Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs. (2008). Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. Melbourne. Moran, D., & Mooney, T. (2007). The Phenomenology Reader. New York: Routledge . Mowbray, B., Sims, M., McPhan, G., & Pegg, J. (2012). Application of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to teachers working in early childhood education and care services. from Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership http://www.aitsl.edu.au/research-and-evaluation/aitsl-research-repository/detail/?id=application-of-the-australian-professional-standards-for-teachers-to-teachers-working-in-early-childhood-education-and-care-services Peers, C., & Fleer, M. (2013). The Theory of ‘Belonging’: Defining concepts used within Belonging, Being and Becoming—The Australian Early Years Learning Framework. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(8), 914-928. Productivity Commission. (2015). Childcare and Early Childhood Learning Inquiry report. Canberra: Government Australia. Sumison, J., & Wong, S. (2011). Interrogating ‘Belonging’ in Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(1), 28-45. Sumsion, J., Stratigos, T., & Bradley, B. (2014). Babies in space. In L. Harrison & J. Sumsion (Eds.), Lived spaces of infant-toddler education and care (pp. 43-58). Dordrecht: Springer. UNICEF (2008). The child care transition, Innocenti Report Card 8. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence

Author Information

Helen Wildy (presenting / submitting)
The University of Western Australia
Faculty of Education
Crawley
Gerardine Neylon (presenting)
University of Western Australia
Graduate School of Educaton
Perth
Christine McGunnigle
Notre Dame Australia
Dee O'Connor
Notre Dame Australia

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