Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the Early Years Learning Framework

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1 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the Early Years Learning Framework Written by Miriam Giugni Produced by Miriam Giugni, Tracey Freeburn, Savithri Madakasira, Su Sher and Sophie Martin

2 Acknowledgement This book was written on Gadigal Country in Australia, and Sami Country in Norgga (Norway). In Australia, acknowledgements were made to Gadigal Country and the Gadigal people, elders past and present as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people producing in the project. Thanks to Associate Professor Ann Merete Otterstad from Oslo University College for her critical review of this book. The stories in this book are the individual perspectives of the contributors. Collectively our views represent the EYLF Critical Curriculum Community. If you are interested in setting up a Curriculum Community please contact Children s Services Central. Children s Services Central is the Professional Support Coordinator in New South Wales and is an initiative funded by the Australian Government under the Inclusion and Professional Support Program. Children s Services Central is managed by a consortium of key organisations that resource and support the sectors of children s services in New South Wales. Disclaimer The information in this document draws on information, opinions and advice provided by a variety of individuals and organizations, including the Commonwealth and Children s Services Central. The Australian Government and Children s Services Central accept no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any material contained in this document. Additionally, the Commonwealth and Children s Services Central disclaim all liability to any person in respect of anything, and of the consequences of anything, done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether wholly or partially, upon any information presented in this document. Caution Material in this document is made available on the understanding that the Commonwealth and Children s Services Central are not providing professional advice. Before relying on any of the material in this document, users should obtain appropriate professional advice. Views and recommendations which may also be included in this document are those of the authors, only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children s Services Central, the Commonwealth, the Minister for Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) or indicate a commitment to a particular course of action. Permission Permission is granted for material from this publication to be photocopied for use within Children s Services Central only. Permission must be sought from Children s Services Central for any other reproduction of the material. Copyright 2010 Children's Services Central 2 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

3 Contents Foreword 4 About the contributors 5 Introduction 6 A starting point 7 PART ONE Arriving at an EYLF curriculum meeting on a pathway of possibilities 8 PART TWO Connecting our practices with the EYLF 11 Belonging, being and becoming as set of processes 12 Savithri s story 12 Making connections and guiding practice 13 Tracey s story 14 Making connections and guiding practice 15 Su s story 16 Making connections and guiding practice 17 Sophie s story 18 Making connections and guiding practice 19 Miriam s story 20 Making connections and guiding practice 22 Stories as pathways of possibility 22 PART THREE Curriculum communities for critically reflective practice 23 What is a curriculum community? 24 What is the purpose of a curriculum community? 24 Reflections on participating in a curriculum community as a way of professional learning into pathways of possibility 25 Belonging to a curriculum community 25 Being a learning educator 25 Becoming critically questioning and reflective 27 Questions to get your discussions started 28 Questions to engage with the views in this book 29 Further reading 30 References 30 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 3

4 Foreword For an intense nine months in , I had the privilege of leading, with my colleague Associate Professor Linda Harrison, a consortium of academics, practitioners, peak organisations and early childhood consultants from across Australia in developing and trialling the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace (DEEWR). During that period, we worked closely with Council of Australian Government s EYLF Working Party comprising senior bureaucrats from DEEWR and all state and territory governments. For everyone involved, it was a period of immense professional learning. One of our Consortium s greatest hopes for the EYLF was that it would generate amongst early childhood practitioners implementing the EYLF the same kinds of thought provoking, challenging and rewarding discussions that we experienced in developing it. This publication, Pathways of Possibilities to Engaging with the EYLF, and the approaches it advocates, beautifully captures the spirit of our intent for the EYLF. It emphasises the importance of critically reflective processes, thoughtful choices and diversity of approaches and illustrates them in action in one EYLF curriculum community. It highlights the rich possibilities for exploring the EYLF s overarching themes of belonging, being and becoming. Through the powerful and wonderfully appropriate metaphor of the Hindi practice of Rangoli, it demonstrates how much we can learn and achieve when we work together with trust, respect and confidence. I hope this book will inspire you in your work with the EYLF, for it is what we do collectively with the EYLF that has the potential to make an enormous difference - to children, families, communities, to early childhood educators themselves and to public recognition of the importance of early childhood education. May your journey and contribution be truly inspirational! Jennifer Sumsion Foundation Professor of Early Childhood Education Charles Sturt University, Bathurst Children s Services Central is pleased to present Pathways of Possibilities to Engaging with the Early Years Learning Framework, as a resource for educators within children s services seeking to engage with and implement the Early Years Learning Framework in their service. The Early Years Learning Framework is vitally important to children s services in guiding and supporting the learning of children. Children s Services Central has undertaken a lead role in providing professional development in NSW for educators and aims to increase knowledge of the Framework and to assist educators to feel confident about using it. One of the factors that has become apparent to us through our work with services is the many different ways that educators can, and do, engage with the EYLF. Pathways of Possibilities describes the route that one group of educators took to determining their own pathway of engagement. Through documenting the process of one particular curriculum community and the way the participants of this community engaged with the EYLF, it presents opportunities for other educators to develop their own ways of engaging, understanding and implementing the EYLF. The publication particularly documents the different ways of engaging with the key themes of the EYLF: belonging, being and becoming. No matter how we come to the EYLF, how we understand and implement it in each program, there is no doubt that our understanding and implementation will impact on the lives and education of children and families. Children s Services Central is proud to be providing professional development and support to educators in connection with the EYLF and is proud to be publishing this important resource to help inspire educators. Our sincere thanks to Miriam Giugni, Tracey Freeburn, Savithri Madakasira, Su Sher and Sophie Martin for documenting their journey of engagement. The Children s Services Central Team 4 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

5 About the contributors Miriam Giugni Miriam has a PhD in early childhood education. She is an activist and plays a significant role in the Social Justice in Early Childhood group ( Miriam also works as an early childhood teacher, teacher researcher, university lecturer and consultant both nationally and internationally. Tracey Freeburn Tracey has a Bachelor of Teaching in Early Childhood. Tracey has been working in early childhood for eight years. As an Aboriginal woman teaching in an Aboriginal innercity centre, her focus and interest is providing children with the skills to deal with issues of inequity they or others may face throughout their lives. Savithri Madakasria Savithri has worked in Long Day Care centres for 5 years. She has a Masters Degree in History, Bachelor of Education in India, and Certificate III in Children s Services. She has extensive experience in long day care and family day care. She is very passionate about her work with young children. Savithri loves to cook! Su Sher Su has worked in early childhood for 10 years. He has a Degree in Physical Education from Thailand. Su is a practicing artist in his everyday work with curriculum. He is passionate about cartooning, movies, popular culture in his work with children. Su is interested in challenging equity and social justice in order for children to be aware of social justice issues. He feels lucky to be working with many interesting people and hopes to contribute to something useful to the social justice movement. Sophie Martin Sophie is an early childhood teacher. She holds a Bachelor of Education in early childhood. She has been working in long day care settings for six years. Sophie is interested in engaging in critically reflective practice as a way to explore and work for equity in early childhood education. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 5

6 Introduction Engagement with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a) can and should occur in a range of different ways. Early childhood educators often require support to trust our own thinking about our process of how to go about engaging with the EYLF in ways that suit the desires, needs and wishes of local communities. This book shares stories that are like pathways of possibility to engage with the EYLF. The purpose of this book is to encourage early childhood educators in all service types to engage with the EYLF in creative, innovative and rigorous ways that help illustrate your processes of how and why you undertake particular practices in your everyday work with children. This book shares the stories of a group of early childhood educators critically engaging with the EYLF. Our stories focus on the processes of how we engage with the EYLF in our everyday practice. Our shared stories show why we choose particular ways of engaging with the EYLF based on how we see ourselves and each other as early childhood educators. Our perspectives offer insights into how we engaged with the EYLF in long day care, family day care, and preschool (both Indigenous and non-indigenous) contexts. Our engagement with the EYLF began with some reflection time to focus on the following questions: y What does belonging, being, becoming mean to us? y Are there similarities and/or differences between: the explanations of belonging, being and becoming in the EYLF, and our understandings of them? y How can we engage collaborative reflective practices and document these? y Why do we do what we do? y What are the connections between our current practices and the EYLF? y What are some of our questions about our practices in the context of the EYLF? y How can we engage all team members in the EYLF? y How do we make choices in our practices? y What are our approaches to children s learning? 6 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

7 Documents available to help understand what you might do with the EYLF, provided by DEEWR include: y DRAFT Educators Guide (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009b) y DRAFT EYLF in Action Guide (Commonwealth of Australia, in press). These two documents have been developed to guide early childhood educators to implement the EYLF in their various settings. The focus has mostly been placed on observing children and documenting their learning. They offer a scaffold for putting the EYLF into practice. This book offers another view. It is focused on how you might engage in thinking through processes of how to work with some of the concepts in the EYLF explicitly and how they might shape your processes of engaging with the EYLF. It is not a book that will offer you the answer for how to do the EYLF, but rather it illuminates the different processes of how people are thinking about engaging with the EYLF and why. This book is an example of what the EYLF calls a lively culture of professional inquiry (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a, p. 13). As you read, take note of how the story is written. The kind of storytelling used in this book is one way to document processes of how to work with groups of early childhood educators (e.g. staff meetings, curriculum communities, professional networks, research groups). This kind of documentation can be a useful way to share and generate understandings of the concepts that overarch the EYLF, how they affect you in your specific context and how they play out in your everyday work with children. A starting point Because this book is about processes of how it begins with a story about arriving at an EYLF curriculum meeting. Next some of the stories shared at the EYLF curriculum meeting will be shared. These stories focus on how the early childhood educators engaged with the EYLF by sharing their understandings of belonging, being, becoming which are the three concepts that overarch the EYLF. Following these stories, insights will be shared about three key practices that we see as necessary for engaging with the EYLF. These are: belonging to a curriculum community, being a learning educator, becoming critically questioning and reflective. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 7

8 PART ONE Arriving at an EYLF curriculum meeting on a pathway of possibilities On a warm and windy summer s evening in January, five early childhood educators made their way from across Sydney to Addison Road Art Gallery in Marrickville NSW. Not everyone arrived at the same time which made the ordinary everyday practice of arriving, a special event. 8 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

9 Savithri had begun her ordinary everyday practice of drawing Rangoli near the entrance of the Art Gallery. I was filming. As Savithri began to draw, Sophie arrived. This was the first time Savithri and Sophie had met and they swirled their way into a new relationship as Savithri taught Sophie to work on the Rangoli. Savithri taught Sophie by asking her questions. A few minutes later Tracey arrived. Tracey had been standing and watching a while before she approached Savithri and Sophie. Savithri and Tracey met for the first time and talked as Tracey began to work on the Rangoli. Tracey and Sophie had met before, so their greeting was another new beginning in an existing relationship. The three women worked, sometimes talking, sometimes in silence, sometimes looking across at each other s work, sometimes asking questions and sometimes teaching each other about what to do and how to do it. People from around the community began gathering around. People driving their cars slowed down to get a glimpse of what was happening. One of the Artists from the gallery began taking photos. Savithri s ordinary everyday practice was becoming an event. A few minutes later Su arrived. He noticed the movement from the gathering throng of people outside the Art Gallery. As he walked toward us he dropped his bag on the ground and joined the three women. The four early childhood educators worked together to produce the Rangoli. The five of us together produced this story. This was the beginning of our belonging together, becoming a curriculum community and being engaged with the EYLF. This part of the story offers my view of how I experienced the Rangoli practice. My view was limited to the screen of my video camera. As I filmed I focused on specific things at specific times for specific purposes, so that when someone else watches it, they might see what I saw. Even though I was behind the camera I was part of the Rangoli practice. While I was focused on Savithri, and the movement of the Rangoli practice, I was reminded of a dance. I also saw little interruptions like a leaf blown by the wind that tumbled its way into the Rangoli and became part of the story. I noticed the storm clouds above and wondered about how the Rangoli and the rain would dance together on the footpath. The views of Savithri, Sophie, Tracey and Su were different from mine, and different from each other. When we talked about the practice of arriving, Savithri drawing and me filming, people responded and engaged in different ways. For example: Tracey: I was just fascinated by it - the drawing, the artwork, colour, spaces in between. I wondered what it symbolized and I had lots of questions while I was drawing. Sophie: I was absorbing and observing, how to alternate colours, and then to observe more and more things and realise that sometimes I don t see things enough such as special experiences like drawing a Rangoli... Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 9

10 Early childhood educators from left to right: Su Sher, Miriam Giugni, Sophie Martin, Savithri Madaksira, Tracey Freeburn. Su: I thought oh you are doing something there I am quite familiar with what you do. Miriam: I have seen Savithri practice Rangoli so many times, yet every time I see her do it I have new questions and I think about new opportunities. Savithri: Rangoli is belonging to culture. These reflections on the practice of arriving to our meeting offer an insight into how we began to engage with the EYLF. One of the most significant parts of our processes was constantly having a focus on reflective practices. These reflections of our experiences are just one way that we began reflecting not only on ourselves and our own practices, but also our experiences of how our colleagues engage with the everyday early childhood practices, in this case through the EYLF. Consider the ways you might reflect upon how the people you work with approach the EYLF. If the EYLF can prompt debate, that is part of its purpose as it states: the Framework is designed to inspire conversations (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a, p. 8). Here are some questions that might be helpful: y How might I engage with the EYLF? y What differences are there between how I might engage with the EYLF and the various ways my colleagues might engage with the EYLF? y What can I learn from people in my team about how they engage with the EYLF? 10 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

11 PART TWO Connecting our practices with the EYLF Our first process was to take the words belonging, being, becoming and consider what they meant for us in our identities as early childhood educators. We also considered what these words meant for us in our everyday work with children. We each set out to produce a visual response or representation, to bring to our curriculum meeting and talk about what belonging, being, becoming meant to us personally and professionally. What we ended up with were stories told in drawings, images, collages, photographs and metaphors. We looked upon this process as a form of critically reflective practice so that we could consider the relationships between ourselves and our work in early childhood. What follows are our understandings of belonging, being and becoming in the context of early childhood education. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 11

12 Belonging, being and becoming as set of processes Savithri s story Rangoli is belonging to culture. The following story offers Savithri s perspective on ways to think about: y the importance of identities in early childhood practices; y the way early childhood educators can learn from children; and, y making links between what you believe and how you engage those beliefs in your early childhood practices. As the story, film and images above show, Savithri s way of engaging with belonging, being and becoming was the Rangoli practice. For Savithri, being Hindu means that she engages in particular cultural practices. For her, belonging is about culture, being in a group, sharing and celebrating in January, which she described as a very auspicious time in Hindu culture. Savithri explains how the Rangoli can be used to think about early childhood practice and teamwork: The Rangoli is like teamwork. One draws the lines; one adds the colours but we all work together. When we make Rangoli we use flower petals, rice, colours and glitter. So many different things make the Rangoli. When you make a Rangoli you are together. I have made Rangoli with children in my Family Day Care. They love to watch me draw the lines and they draw the lines. Then add the colour. Then ask all the questions! Rangoli is how I express my identity, just like I like to teach children to express their identity and imagination. In my Family Day Care I set up a drawing table. Each day they draw. They keep coming back to draw. They draw something the same or different. It is part of the expression they bring. You see the journey from beginning to end and how they become united together; and then get you and the audience to come to look! Children know many ways to express their identities. We need to learn how to see them. 12 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

13 Consider Savithri s perspective in the context of the EYLF: y Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities (Outcome 1) y Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work (Outcome 5) y Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking (Outcome 5) The relationship between Savithri s everyday cultural practices such as Rangoli, and the EYLF become clear as she tells the story. Her view of children s expression is not separate from her own cultural practices and how she sees them. Savithri sets up pedagogical spaces in her Family Day Care practice in order that children can express themselves as a way to express their identities. She recognises the important part the educator plays in seeing what children do and actively creating opportunities for the many ways children might express their identities. MAKING CONNECTIONS AND GUIDING PRACTICE This kind of reflection can be used to think through the experiences we plan with and for children. By Savithri telling her story, she has identified some of the practical ways that she approaches drawing and the reasons why. This kind of reflection is a rationale for practice. It helps explain why we do what we do. Savithri s reflection also illustrates that drawing has many purposes and benefits beyond simply holding a pencil. Savithri shows how we can put ourselves in the picture in ways that help us understand our practices in a more complex way and reflect on the importance of our everyday work. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 13

14 Tracey s story Preschool is our community Tracey s understandings of belonging, being and becoming centred upon community and family. As a Koori 1 preschool teacher, she explained that work and home were not always separate for her. She explains our centre belongs to community and we belong to the centre. Tracey tells her story of belonging: I may not look Koori at first glance, but my husband does. Koories have lots of different skin colours because of how colonisation occurred. Someone can have light skin but still be Koori. You don t always know. To show this I took pictures of the hands of my daughter, granddaughter, my husband and mine. Each hand is different and that represents my sense of belonging. This is what our hands look like: each of us have five fingers but then different skin colours. Hands represent what culture means to me; you just know who you belong to and who belongs to you. Belonging for us is not always easy. Not just in non-indigenous communities, but sometimes our own community people don t accept different skin colours - so the effects of colonisation are throughout our communities across the country. This is probably because Australia was always a multicultural nation before we were colonised. There were hundreds of Aboriginal communities and languages. We have always had multiple identities. All of the children in our centre come from different Koori cultures. Everyday in our curriculum we talk about Koori identities because we have to pass on culture to our kids. It s sometimes just in how we talk, but other times in the music we play, songs we sing and stories we tell or read. All of our kids have different skin colours, right across our community, but we all work hard to belong together. Belonging in the EYLF gives us a strong reason to keep passing on culture to our kids even if we think differently to what is in the EYLF. We hope our kids can teach our community, but also non-indigenous people about their own culture as they stay strong in who they are. 1 Koori is a term used by Aboriginal peoples to identify the Indigenous cultural group living mainly in New South Wales and Victoria but is not limited to these colonial boundaries. 14 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

15 Consider Tracey s story in the context of the EYLF: Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation (Outcome 2) Children respond to diversity with respect (Outcome 2) Tracey s story is an example of reflective practice in how telling your story can help you understand your philosophies about yourself and how they connect with early childhood. Once you have established what you believe, you can begin to make connections between the EYLF and your practice. Tracey s stories about the part that skin colour plays in belonging and in her curriculum practice, illustrate that learning is to be understood broadly. For Tracey, having constant dialogue with children about difference in Koori cultures has a particular purpose that children carry culture and teach others in their own communities as well as in non-indigenous (multicultural) communities. This raises questions about teaching culture : y Who can teach culture? y Is it possible to teach culture? y Which cultures can you teach? y How do you know enough about a culture to be able to teach it? y Where can I learn more? and who from? In Tracey s case, the EYLF has sparked some unanswered questions about teaching and learning. Let Tracey s insights prompt your thinking in the context of your practice. Reflect on how Tracey s story might prompt you to think about the outcomes in terms of yourself and your approaches to professional practice not solely of the children you teach. MAKING CONNECTIONS AND GUIDING PRACTICE This kind of reflection can be a useful way to consider the differences in the communities in which we work. Tracey s story prompts us to think about what the part culture plays in how we see (and produce understandings) of children. This can have an effect on how we approach creating curriculum with children, creating curriculum with families and each other. Consider the questions about teaching culture and diversity in planning. Then consider how this might produce what you plan and how you document teaching and learning experiences. The connection between who children are, who you are and who you can become together in your curriculum practices, may be about new learning about culture for children as well as for you. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 15

16 Su s story Everyone has their own way but we come together and work together, learning and trusting one another, at the end you go into a different world, and then start again Su s approach to representing belonging, being and becoming was to produce it in a group. It s fascinating. Get a group of very different people, get everyone to be together in the same place, same country, lots of people from different backgrounds and see what happens. Why do things by yourself? Let many people be part of it, let them express themselves, draw something about people you know, everyone join in and make a story. The story has Batman, Jedai, superheroes, everyone in it! Sometimes the story is an individual story; sometimes it is part of a group. I like it when everyone comes together and learns to trust one another and in the end you have a new different world. This is the thing I try to do This philosophy on being together and belonging to each other can be thought about in terms of approach to work with children or staff or families or even in communities. Su s focus on difference and expression extend pathways of possibility into new ways of becoming part of a group. He also acknowledges that sometimes people like to tell individual stories and that being both individual and part of a group are important to belonging, being and becoming. Su s expression also offers a way to document collaboratively the individual and group stories of children, families and communities and ourselves. It offers openings into documentation being an experience that includes all who might appear in it. The stories are then told in ways that belong to the holder of them, rather than Su telling someone else s story. Consider Su s perspective in light of the EYLF: y Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect (Outcome 1) y Children respond to diversity with respect (Outcome 2) y Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials (Outcome 4) 16 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

17 This is an example of how a philosophy can be transformed into practice, and then connected to the EYLF. Seeing Su s processes of how he came to his ideas then enables you to think about why he approaches his work in this way, why it is useful learning and teaching, but also how it contributes to community building. MAKING CONNECTIONS AND GUIDING PRACTICE This kind of reflection enables you to think specifically about learning individually and the dynamics of learning as a group. Su s story shows the importance of thinking about the individual child and groups of children at the same time in teaching and learning. His story also suggests that documenting learning can be both an individual practice as well as group practices. Importantly, he shows that children can document their own learning, individually and in a group. Another important dimension that we can learn from Su is his curiosity about the dynamics of how groups work. He described it as fascinating, which might show his enthusiasm for learning about how we teach and learn in groups in diverse ways. He prompts us to consider how children learn individually and how they learn in a group. Su s story can also act as a prompt for how we learn as individuals and in groups as colleagues engaging in reflective practices. Finally, this reflection can help make connections between our practices, our approaches to documenting them and the new questions we can produce by reflecting together. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 17

18 Sophie s story Connections are becoming, and there are different connections. Sophie s representation is a reflective collage of all the bits and pieces of her life. Her commentary of this reflection swirls around like the images in her reflective collage. When I started thinking about belonging, being and becoming, certain things sifted into my head. These ladies that I draw represented something about me. They are always in different states of being. They show how I m different in different places, one kind of mode of being is feeling relaxed and comfortable, and when I do I just draw. Drawing these ladies is one of my favourite things to do yet I don t show a lot of people. I find drawing them pleasurable as well as intellectualised. As I kept thinking about the 3 words belonging, being and becoming there were lots of swirling interconnections in my head. I was thinking about them for different reasons. One reason is belonging to my family, and how I am with them, and things I grew up with like family culture, songs, made up poems. The swirling lines in my reflection are part of my stories. My dad made up stories on the beach. Then I thought of my grandmother who grew up in a religious family but was atheist! She used to tell us a Christian poem that I still remember. These memories remind me that I am still becoming and belonging and they help me belong in new ways. I then thought about places: Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne, where I have lived. I represent Sydney with the frangipani and Melbourne by flowering Gums and even though Melbourne is far away I am always still connecting. Sophie s story can be thought about as a pathway of possibilities into becoming a reflective practitioner. All of the connecting she draws out of her own life also relates to who she becomes as an early childhood teacher. In the EYLF one of the principles for practice is: Ongoing learning and reflective practice Reflective practice is a form of ongoing learning that involves engaging with questions of philosophy, ethics and practice. Its intention is to gather information and gain insights that support, inform and enrich decision-making about children s learning. As professionals, early childhood educators examine what happens in their settings and reflect on what they might change. (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a, p. 13). 18 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

19 Sophie takes reflective practice further by considering herself, her histories, her life experiences and relationships; things she does publicly and privately all contribute to who she becomes as a reflective practitioner. Often the early childhood educators are absent from what we call children s learning, yet here Sophie puts herself in the picture. Consider putting yourself in the picture when you engage with the EYLF particularly in terms of how you understand children s learning. MAKING CONNECTIONS AND GUIDING PRACTICE This kind of reflection helps us consider the significance of our own perspectives in our approaches being reflective about teaching and learning. Sophie s story prompts us to consider how we come to our understandings and then how we recognise those understandings in our practice. For example, your experiences and knowledge of living in particular places can have an effect on how you approach teaching and learning. Asking questions about children s histories, families histories, early childhood educators histories can offer insights into how children learn and why they might learn in different ways. Consider the many different ways the people in your setting might learn: y How do you learn? y How do your colleagues learn? y What might this mean for your team? y What new ideas about teaching and learning can be learned together? y What familiar ideas about teaching and learning can be revisited in different ways based on how you learn? By asking questions like this, you can make connections between your experiences, your early childhood philosophies and your practical approaches to teaching and learning. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 19

20 Miriam s story Many different things belonging, in tension, together a constantly moving assemblage of things. We can be thrown into becoming by anything at all, by the most unexpected, most insignificant of things (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987`, p. 322) Places, people and things are important to me in terms of how I understand belonging, being and becoming. I have lived in lots of different places in my life including the Western Suburbs of Sydney where I was born and grew up, the Southern Highlands where I spent my teenage years, and Inner West Sydney where I now live. Each of these places has people and things that I recall, visit, think about, and feel connected with. My understandings of belonging are an assemblage of all these places, people and things: times, spaces, smells, sounds, colours, tastes, movement, the weather, the houses, neighbourhoods, communities, gardens etc. Belonging, being, becoming is also about difference for me. I am interested in how different things can belong together, because sometimes we feel like we don t belong and I think that can come from difference. Either difference from places, people or things or realising sameness between yourself, places, people and things that you thought you were different from. The photo of my fishpond and the quote from two philosophers Deleuze and Guattari (1987) that inspire me, are just two ways that I can express how I practice and understand belonging, being, becoming. I am interested in the enormity of small things. Like the arguably simple act of taking a photo of the fish resulted in the camera capturing the vastness of the sky, the effect of the water s gift of a reflection, the tall trees that surround my back garden, and the movement of the wind, the beautiful lily and the fish swimming. But they are also flying, weaving themselves through the trees. My intention was to take a photo of the fish. Instead I captured an assemblage of things belonging, being and becoming together. 20 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

21 The quote I chose to share is not separate from my photo. These words express how I understand becoming, particularly in terms of what is unexpected and insignificant. For example, my relatively insignificant intention to photograph the fish transformed into a moment that produced an assemblage of belonging, being and becoming. In doing so the image becomes significant in new ways for new reasons. When I add the words from the quote to my image, I once again assemble something new. And then I am full of questions about how and why my simple act of taking a photo of the fish ended up like this. The questions in my brain swim around, like the fish through the trees, and become part of this assemblage and produce a new understanding of belonging, being and becoming for me. When I think about belonging, being and becoming in this way, I begin to see the connection between my understandings and my early childhood philosophies that shape my everyday work. This is an example of the processes of how I can begin to draw lines between my identity as an early childhood teacher, the context in which I work, my early childhood philosophies and the EYLF. For example: y My understanding of belonging, being, becoming is that there are always tensions when things come together. This is not necessarily negative tension but might be of excitement, anticipation, differences, similarities etc y My identities have been shaped by living in lots of different places with different people and things y My early childhood philosophies are based questions of inclusion, social justice, equity, activism, diversity and difference y My work as an early childhood educator means I am working in a community with lots of different people (children, families, staff, and community) who have different life experiences who come together at the centre to belong for the time they are there y There are many ways of living, being and of knowing (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a, p. 13) according to the EYLF. Here I can draw a line between the principles that are important to me as an early childhood educator and those offered to me in the EYLF After I begin to draw these lines between what I understand, how I see myself, and how I see my work, I start thinking about the relationship between belonging, being and becoming and the processes of how I understand them and then live them in everyday early childhood practice. I can draw lines between my thinking and the EYLF but I can also draw lines over the top of the EYLF or draw lines between philosophy and theory that I find necessary to my practice and make connections with the EYLF. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 21

22 MAKING CONNECTIONS AND GUIDING PRACTICE This kind of reflection is useful to consider how to assemble all the different aspects of early childhood education. This might be a shared diary for the early childhood educators in your setting where ideas, stories, questions, images, theories, readings, dilemmas, decision making can be written and shared. Having some designated time and a designated space for critical reflection might help bring together the histories, stories, images, questions and experiences of the people in your team as an assemblage (this book gives some examples of how that could be done). By creating time and space for reading each other s stories, philosophies, questions and ways of teaching and learning, possibilities for learning together can be created. Making time and space for critical reflection can also become a new curriculum practice designed to explore the many different ways that early childhood education can look. Using visuals, images, photos, music, video, food, and any other way of thinking, can open doors to new understandings. The questions on page 13 of the EYLF are an excellent beginning point for starting a collaborative critically reflective diary where knowledge, experiences and ideas can be shared. Stories as pathways of possibility Each of our stories shows different kinds of pathways of possibility. They illustrate the different ways we think, the different influences on our lives that affect who we become as early childhood educators, the different ways we have of expressing ourselves, and the importance of sharing these conversations with each other. You may relate to one story more than another. You may find some stories challenging while others are more familiar. For us the richness of our curriculum community meeting was that we learned from each other in all of our differences. The task for us now is to continue our conversations in order to make meaning of ourselves, our philosophies and our early childhood practices. Some helpful questions might be: y As an individual how will I go about engaging with the EYLF? y As a member of a team how will I go about engaging with the EYLF? y As a community how will we go about engaging with the EYLF? y How can I make connections between each of these aspects of my work as an early childhood educator in the context of the EYLF and the National Standards? In the next part of this book we discuss the practice of our processes of how to engage with the EYLF in our curriculum community and reflect on what we learned from each other and how to value different approaches to working with children. 22 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

23 PART THREE Curriculum communities for critically reflective practice Part of our processes of how to engage with the EYLF, were built on how we shared our thinking as a curriculum community. Coming together as a curriculum community enabled us to share questions, knowledge and experiences of our professional identities and the kinds of professional learning that we found most useful. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 23

24 What is a curriculum community? The idea of curriculum communities can take many forms. I draw from the work of early childhood educator Sally Barnes who formed a group with early childhood educators in South Australia called Curriculum Club (Barnes, 2005). Sally s group was formed at a particular time for a particular purpose. The people in the group came from a range of different kindergartens (preschools) in South Australia to discuss equity issues in their curriculum practices. In addition, Curriculum Club was formed around the South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability framework (SACSA) - SACSA was one of the curriculum documents used to shape the writing of the EYLF. Reading Sally s story was useful for me as I considered how to share my questions, experiences and knowledges with my colleagues and wanted to create a similar space to learn about the processes of how my colleagues were engaging with the EYLF. Similarly our Curriculum Community met with a particular purpose that was to engage in discussions about processes of how we might engage with the EYLF. Curriculum communities can take on many different forms for many different purposes. Our group was a diverse group of people from a range of different service types. A curriculum community can be formed by the people in your team, or a group of colleagues you meet with in a professional context, or a reading group or a documentation group. What is the purpose of a curriculum community? The purpose of the group can be decided at your first meeting or you could form the group based on a particular interest. For example, I formed a critical curriculum community to explore issues of equity and social justice. This group had a range of people from across New South Wales who came together once a month to research practices. One significant part of our group meetings was to discuss theories that would help us think and do practice differently about equity and social justice in our everyday work. This included a monthly reflection. These reflections were not always written, but included, photos, paintings, food, poems and storytelling. The learning we experienced occurred in each of our centres as well as when we were together. Our meetings were full of discussion and debate. There were shared views about practice as well as differing views about practice. The centre I worked in at the time also had a curriculum community. Our staff meetings were another kind of curriculum community where we discussed our early childhood practices, but also the readings and reflections we made during the month in our critically reflective diaries. Belonging to a curriculum community can take all kinds of shapes and forms. For example, your team might be a curriculum community. If you work in family day care, you might work with your coordinator to establish a group that can meet at a suitable time. You might decide to start a curriculum community to build a support network for working through processes of how people engage with the EYLF. You might decide to begin a curriculum community that has an open focus and that topics of discussion can be decided as people begin reflecting on current issues affecting their practices. What follows are some of our reflections on being a part of the curriculum community that came together to critically reflect upon the processes of how we engaged with the EYLF. 24 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

25 Reflections on participating in a curriculum community as a way of professional learning into pathways of possibility Following our meeting, other means of communication between us kept the thinking alive and the ideas flowing between us. Three significant points illustrate the importance of our processes of how to engage with the EYLF. These were: y Belonging to a curriculum community; y Being a learning educator; and, y Becoming critically questioning and reflective. Belonging to a curriculum community Early childhood places an enormous emphasis on building relationships. This is not limited to children and families. Building relationships with early childhood educators across service types, or with people who have different views is just as important as belonging to groups where similar views are held. Our curriculum community engaged relationship building with familiar people as well as new meetings between strangers. Here s how Sophie responded to that part of the experience: Seeing/hearing about the visual responses of others in the group was fascinating. I felt I learned so much from everyone about people s lives and what is important to them, in ways that space is rarely made for. I found that this experience had an impact on conversations I have had since. I feel like I have asked questions/had conversations with people I do not know very well (i.e. colleagues) in different ways (taking more time to learn about their "belongings"). Hearing Savithri's stories around the Rangoli made me reflect on how little I often know of the complexities and layers of people s lives and cultures. Over the past two days, I have found myself sharing some stories about myself with others and what makes up my "being/belonging" that I don't think I would have shared as freely before this process began Making spaces to talk and learn is integral to early childhood practice. It is not always easy to do, but when time can be put aside, significant learning can occur. Perhaps consider the agenda of staff meetings for example, what are the things that could be written in a memo to staff in order that there might be more time for curriculum discussions. Being a learning educator Being a learning educator means always being open to people s stories, whether they are familiar to you or not. It also means engaging with and being challenged by different philosophies, theories and approaches in early childhood that can bring new ideas or new ways of thinking. Sometimes hearing different views might help you further establish what you do and why. It is good to know that there are lots of different perspectives. For example, consider various perspectives in the EYLF: Different theories about early childhood inform approaches to children s learning and development. Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF 25

26 Early childhood educators draw upon a range of perspectives in their work which may include: y developmental theories that focus on describing and understanding the processes of change in children s learning and development over time y socio-cultural theories that emphasise the central role that families and cultural groups play in children s learning and the importance of respectful relationships and provide insight into social and cultural contexts of learning and development y socio-behaviourist theories that focus on the role of experiences in shaping children s behaviour y critical theories that invite early childhood educators to challenge assumptions about curriculum, and consider how their decisions may affect children differently y post-structuralist theories that offer insights into issues of power, equity and social justice in early childhood settings. (Commonwealth of Australia, 2009a, p. 11) The effects of some of these theories such as critical theories can result in new learning. For example at our meeting we engaged discussions that drew from critical theory. The results of engaging them are as follows: Tracey s reflection on being a learner in the meeting: For me as an Aboriginal woman and early childhood educator I find that I get caught up in my own children's and community issues that I realised that I rarely step outside my own world. To listen to the stories being discussed by the group I realised that each cultural group celebrates traditions and may also face many injustices because of their cultural group. Similarly, Sophie reflected: Since our meeting, I have been thinking about how as White and middle class, I do not know what it is to experience racism everyday. Hearing stories of others made me reflect on the importance of hearing each other's stories, and of hearing perspectives other than your own. I can say that I care about racism and discrimination, but hearing real stories from people at our meeting made me think about these much more, and about how important they are. I thought how powerful it could be for everyone to share and hear diverse perspectives more often. These two examples illustrate that even in the company of strangers, important learning can occur. Being a learning educator means that there are more opportunities to consider the views of others. These different views may be about service type (e.g. Family Day Care, Long Day Care, Preschool or Occasional Care, Out of School Hours Care) or about curriculum approaches, theories used, cultural contexts etc. 26 Pathways of possibilities to engaging with the EYLF

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