Early Childhood Education Commons^™

The Role Of Digital Technologies In Supporting Quality Improvement In Australian Early Childhood Education And Care Settings, Maria Hatzigianni, Tanya Stephenson, Linda J. Harrison, Manjula Waniganayake, Philip Li, Lennie Barblett, Fay Hadley, Rebecca Andrews, Belinda Davis, Susan Irvine

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This national study explored the role of digital technologies in early childhood education and care settings and whether they could contribute to quality improvement as reported by educators and assessors of quality in Australia. In this paper, data from Stage 2 of the Quality Improvement Research Project were used, which comprised 60 Quality Improvement Plans from educators linked with 60 Assessment and Rating reports from the assessors who visited early childhood centres as part of the administration of the National Quality Standards by each of Australia’s State and Territory jurisdictions. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, U. (1995).Developmental ecology through space …

Gender Equity In Early Childhood Picture Books: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Frequently Read Picture Books In Early Childhood Classrooms In Australia And The United States, Helen Adam, Laurie Harper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Children’s picture books contribute to children’s development of gender identity and can impact aspirations and expectations of roles in families and society. However, the world represented in children’s books reflects predominantly middle class, heterosexual, male heroes and characters. This paper reports on a cross-cultural study investigating gender representation in frequently read picture books across eight early learning centres in the United States and Australia. Forty-four educators working with 271 children participated. Data were collected from book audits and observations. Unique to this study is the presentation of a new data analysis instrument, Harper’s Framework of Gender Stereotypes Contained in Children’s …

‘We Were All Green And Brand New’: Mentoring In Theories Of Child Development For Australian Early Career Preschool Teachers, Emma Ellis, Andrea Reupert, Marie Hammer

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Three Australian Government commissioned reports from 2011-2017 convey a longstanding child development theory-practice gap in early childhood education. This study explores what informs mentors’ discussions of theories of child development with early career preschool teachers. Grounded in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, themes relate to the wide role of the early childhood teacher, variation in initial teacher education, developing teacher identity, emotional connections, and consolidation and extension of university learning of child development theories. Critical discussion of themes from a Freirean perspective illustrates how mentors conveyed experiences of oppression, marginalisation, and liberation. We offer that though the child development theory-practice gap is …

'Half Of It's Out The Window': Exploring Tensions, Hierarchies And Positionalities Amidst The Changing Knowledge Base Of Early Childhood Teacher Education Discourses, Lauren Armstrong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Early childhood education is foregrounded in change. In Australia, this has encompassed the introduction, review and updates of national quality and curriculum frameworks from 2009, and changes to qualification requirements. Within the state of Victoria, further impacts have occurred due to the simultaneous introduction of a parallel curriculum framework. This paper draws on a qualitative study to examine how diverse teacher education discourses available to Victorian long day care educators have shaped their subject positions, discursive practices and reform engagement. Utilising Foucault’s concepts of discourse, knowledge and power, and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis [FDA], findings offer insight into how diverse teacher …

A Model For Children’S Digital Citizenship In India, Korea, And Australia: Stakeholder Engagement Principles, Emma Jayakumar, Kylie Stevenson, Harrison See, Yeonghwi Ryu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This white paper communicates research activities and findings investigating digital safety and digital citizenship through multistakeholder collaborations in three countries—India, South Korea, and Australia. Performed by an Edith Cowan University-based research team from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, supported by the LEGO Group, this research additionally responds to many recent policy and practice reviews arguing for institutional and policy engagement in the Asia Pacific (APAC) that build children’s digital safety, literacy and citizenship. These include the UNESCO data-driven report, Digital Kids Asia Pacific (DKAP): Insights into children’s digital citizenship (UNESCO, 2019), an earlier UNESCO review of …

Transforming Transitions To School: Using Funds Of Knowledge And Identity, Lennie Barblett, Fiona Boylan, Amelia Ruscoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This resource describes a project where ten Western Australian Independent Schools embraced a way of viewing children and their family’s transition to school.

Participating teachers came together as a community of practice and engaged in different ways of thinking and investigating accepted practice.Transition practices were affirmed or challenged as teachers were mentored through design-based thinking. Transition ideas were explored focussing on children’s funds of knowledge and identity. This resource outlines why transitions are important, considers transitions through a funds of knowledge and identity lens, and describes each school’s journey as they re-imagined transitions in this project. Finally, the ideas and …

Digital Literacy: A Review Of Literature, Lennie Barblett, Raisa Akifeva, Leanne Lavina, Fiona Boylan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This report describes the main themes of collected literature to examine and explain the information in relation to making best practice recommendations for using digital technologies with children, and their families using Better Beginnings programs. These themes include:

• definitions of literacy,
• digital literacy in the context of childhood and children’s rights,
• dimensions of children’s digital literacy,
• digital technology, children and families,
• digital divide and diversity,
• eSafety, privacy, protection,
• children’s digital literacy learning, and
• librarian staff as digital literacy mentors and advocates.

The early childhood phase of childhood (particularly birth to age five) is one of the most under - researched …

Dialogic Drawing: A Method For Researching Abstract Phenomenon In Early Childhood, Amelia Ruscoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article explores the theoretical, ethical, and practical opportunities and constraints considered in the methodological design and use of Dialogic Drawing, a participatory method for accessing qualitative data with young children. The method was designed to gather data about abstract phenomena from young children, as part of a larger study investigating the impact of discursive affordances in the first year of compulsory school in Western Australia. Methodological findings are reported from the application of Dialogic Drawing with 28 five-year-old children from diverse school-based semiotic landscapes in the Perth metropolitan area in Western Australia. Three strands of analysis are described and …

Australian Teachers’ Perceptions And Experiences Of Food And Nutrition Education In Primary Schools: A Qualitative Study, Gozde Aydin, Claire Margerison, Anthony Worsley, Alison Booth

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher delivered food and nutrition education (FNE) can be effective in improving children’s food literacy and eating habits. However, teachers are known to face some barriers to the delivery of FNE globally. To obtain a deeper understanding of Australian primary school teachers’ experiences and views, 17 teachers were interviewed. The results of the thematic analysis showed that teachers acknowledged the importance of FNE and were willing to include more FNE content into their teaching. We also identified the FNE topics taught, resources used, their teaching partners, and barriers encountered. The discussion presents strategies to overcome these barriers.

An Appraisal Of The Class Instrument As An Observational Measurement Tool For Evaluation Of Student And Teacher Interactions In Western Australian Classrooms, Gillian Kirk, Marianne J. Knaus, Shane Rogers

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The National Quality Framework is used across Australia to drive quality improvement in early childhood settings. Unique to Western Australia, the National Quality Standard is also used in schools to improve quality in classrooms up to Year two (seven to eight years). However, the literature suggests the National Quality Standard is too broad with an emphasis on quantifiable program features (structural quality). As the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS™) instrument was designed to measure classroom interactions (process quality), the purpose of this current study was to examine its efficacy in Pre-primary (five-year-old) classrooms. A mixed-method research approach was employed to …

The Design Of Early Childhood Teacher Education Programs: Australian Employer Perspectives With International Program Comparisons, Wendy Boyd, Linda Mahony, Jane Warren, Sandie Wong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Provision of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) supports children’s learning with strong agreement that early childhood teachers (ECTs) are central to quality provision. In many countries, it is mandatory that ECEC services employ ECTs. However, Australian ECT employers report that early childhood graduates are not always well-prepared to work in ECEC settings. This may be because what constitutes optimal early childhood initial teacher education programs (EC ITE) is unclear. To investigate the design of EC ITE programs this research reports on (i) design of EC ITE programs across international contexts; and (ii) 19 Australian ECT employers’ perspectives on …

Lively Emu Dialogues: Activating Feminist Common Worlding Pedagogies, Mindy Blaise, Catherine Hamm

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper draws from a series of Place-thought walks that the authors took at an open-range zoo. It practices a feminist common worlds multispecies ethics to challenge the systems that maintain nature-culture divisions in early childhood education. Postdevelopmental perspectives (i.e., feminist environmental humanities, multispecies studies, Indigenous studies) are brought into conversation with early childhood education to consider how zoo-logics maintain binaries and hierarchical thinking. Zoo-logics are related to developmental, colonial, and Western ways of reasoning and being in the world. Two feminist approaches to ethics, (re)situating and dialoguing, are discussed and show how they are necessary for undermining binaries and …

Universal Child Health And Early Education Service Use From Birth Through Kindergarten And Developmental Vulnerability In The Preparatory Year (Age 5 Years) In Tasmania, Australia, Catherine L. Taylor, Daniel Christensen, Kim Jose, Stephen R. Zubrick

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study investigated patterns of universal health and education service use from birth through Kindergarten (age 4 years) and estimated associations between cumulative risk and service use patterns, and between service use patterns and children's developmental vulnerability in the Preparatory Year (age 5 years). The study used population-wide linkage of health and education administrative data records for 5168 children who had a 2018 AEDC instrument collected in Tasmania and were born in Tasmania (2011–2013). Latent class analysis (LCA) identified three service use patterns: Regular (72.2 per cent of children; reference group), Low (15.6 per cent of children) and High service …

Books That Tell My Story: Transforming The Attitudes Of Australian Preservice Teachers Towards Children’S Diverse And Multicultural Literature., Kym M. Simoncini, Hilary Smith, Lara Cain-Gray, Darlene Sebalj

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Children’s literature is ubiquitous in Australian classrooms with picture books playing a particularly important role in early childhood classrooms. Teachers use children’s literature to teach early literacy concepts including vocabulary and to help children learn about the world and their identity. Historically, the majority of children’s literature has featured White characters and perspectives, excluding many children from seeing themselves and their lives reflected in books. The aim of this study was to explore how an assessment task that asked preservice teachers (PSTs) to select an underrepresented aspect of children’s literature, locate books on that topic, and reflect upon their own …

Exploring Thai Teachers’ Perspectives On Evidence-Informed Practices In Inclusive Early Childhood Education, Joseph S. Agbenyega, Danielle Lane, Sunanta Klibthong

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Evidence-informed practices play vital roles in teaching and learning in inclusive schools; however, limited research has been conducted to explore inclusive early childhood teachers’ perspectives on research-informed teaching. This study, which was informed by the Cognitive Apprenticeship Theory (CAT), used structured and online focus groups to explore the views of 26 inclusive early childhood teachers in Thailand regarding their understanding and value for evidence-informed practice, how they source, analyse and use evidence to inform their professional practice and the factors supporting or inhibiting evidence-informed practices in their schools. A combination of framework and descriptive data analysis identified findings …

Children’S Digital Citizenship Project: Your Perspectives: A Report For Children, Harrison See, Kylie Stevenson, Emma Jayakumar, Phoebe Zeng

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This report talks about a teamwork project between the LEGO Group, the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child (Digital Child) and Edith Cowan University (ECU).

In 2022, the LEGO Group, ECU and Digital Child researchers teamed up to ask children and adults in India, Korea and Australia about digital citizenship. We collected all this information together and compared our results, and then made some suggestions about how we can all do things better to help kids be safer, smarter, and happier online.

Children’S Perspectives Of Digital Citizenship In India, Korea And Australia: Report Of Findings From Children’S Digital Citizenship And Safety Roundtables, Kylie Stevenson, Emma Jayakumar, Harrison See, Yeonghwi Ryu, Shruti Das

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This report presents data and findings from Phase Two of the research project Digital Safety and Citizenship Roundtables. In this phase, which focuses on children’s perspectives of digital safety and digital citizenship, three child-focused, play-based roundtables were held in Seoul (Korea), Delhi (India) and Perth (Australia) respectively in the months of June and July 2022, with 48 children in total contributing their perspectives. Qualitative data was collected from these child participants through 90-minute play-based roundtables featuring three sections: a short introductory drawing activity using prompt cards; a discussion regarding the children’s understanding of digital citizenship; and a LEGO play activity …

Kindytxt: A Free Text Messaging Program For Kindergarten Children And Families, Lennie Barblett, Nicola Johnson, Caroline Barratt-Pugh, Susan Hill

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

• This project focused on developing, delivering and evaluating a literacy text-messaging program for parents / carers with a child at kindergarten in WA.
• Texts were delivered weekly over 30 weeks, in collaboration with Better Beginnings. Families were invited to participate through a flyer in the book gifting bag delivered by local librarians to families attending kindergarten across Western Australia.
• Kindergarten teachers and librarians from 16 LGAs attended workshops to establish kindergarten-family library partnerships, along with the production and evaluation of a partnership framework and implementation materials.
• Evaluation involved all participants, with in-depth data collected from participants in six communities.

‘I’M Trying To Tell You This Man Is Dangerous… And No One’S Listening’: Family Violence, Parent–School Engagement And School Complicity, Sue Saltmarsh, Eseta Tualaulelei, Kay Ayre

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, The Author(s). This paper presents a case study of one mother’s experience of engaging with her children’s schools after leaving a long-term relationship characterised by years of family violence perpetrated by the children’s father. We interviewed Bernadette as part of an ongoing study of parents’ experiences of school engagement during family separation and divorce. Her family circumstances and the role the children’s schools played in that story merit consideration by educators, school leaders and education policy makers. Informed by theories of everyday cultural practices and sociological studies of gendered power relations in education, we argue that gender politics …

The Role Of Background Knowledge In Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review, Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry, Lorraine Hammond

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. A critical review was conducted to determine the influence background knowledge has on the reading comprehension of primary school-aged children. We identified twenty-three studies that met our criteria and focused on the links between background knowledge and reading comprehension of children in the mid to late primary years. Review findings highlight that higher levels of background knowledge have a range of effects that are influenced by the nature of the text, the quality of the situation model required, and the presence of reader misconceptions about the text. Our findings also indicate that background …

The Exclusive White World Of Preservice Teachers’ Book Selection For The Classroom: Influences And Implications For Practice, Helen Adam, Anne-Maree Hays, Yvonne Urquhart

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on a study of the children’s book preferences of 82 Preservice teachers (PSTs) at one Western Australian University. The study found PSTs preferred older books published during their own childhood or earlier. Further, representation of people of colour was limited to only 8 of 177 titles listed by PSTs. Key influences on their preferences were their personal favourite books and those used by mentor teachers during practicum experience. The outcomes of this study have implications for curriculum development and implementation of Initial Teacher Education courses, and in turn, for equitable outcomes of the future students of PSTs.

Australian Early Childhood Teachers’ Training In Language And Literacy: A Nation-Wide Review Of Pre-Service Course Content, Tessa Weadman, Tanya Serry, Pamela C. Snow

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Early childhood teachers are well-positioned to maximise preschoolers’ development in oral language and emergent literacy; both of which are vital predictors of academic success at school. Research investigating their pre-service training in language and emergent literacy remains limited. This issue is addressed in the present study, with the first nation-wide review of the oral language and emergent literacy course content across all 84 Australian early childhood teacher pre-service courses. Qualitative Content Analysis was employed to gain an overview of language and emergent literacy teaching content reported in publicly available course documents. Study findings demonstrated large variation in the oral language …

Investigating Self-Efficacy: Early Childhood Teachers’ Understanding Of Self-Efficacy, Dimity Franks

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Students are experiencing an increased pressure to perform academically at a younger age with reports of the narrowing of curriculum and student disengagement. Current research literature suggests curricula should reflect the increased pressures students are facing. A focus on the social and emotional skills to support student learning is recommended to increase student engagement and enrichment and prepare students for their future. Self-efficacy is one element of social and emotional learning that demands attention. Self-efficacy is considered important for teachers to understand as it can predict how students approach their tasks as well as influence their levels of motivation and …

An Investigation Of Early Childhood Staff And Their Transition To The New Western Australian Humanities And Social Sciences Curriculum, Jane Loxton, Christine Cunningham, Marianne J. Knaus

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In 2017, a new Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) curriculum was introduced into all of Western Australia’s classrooms. The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers transitioned to that new HASS curriculum. Using case study methodology, the experiences, opportunities and challenges faced by the early childhood (EC) staff in two Perth schools were investigated as they prepared for and implemented a new HASS Curriculum. The results suggested the need for strong leadership in times of change. The results also indicated that these small, independent schools needed good resources and professional development to help understand the changes. The research …

A Fish Out Of Water: Developing Intercultural Understanding Of Students In Higher Education, Nicole Leggett

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Experiential learning is a critical, dynamic and powerful element of learning in Higher Education. Often named international and domestic study trips or study tours, this educational strategy has the potential to transform the lives of students through engagement with another community or culture. This qualitative study explored the effects of experiential learning during a two-week study tour to Italy, involving two groups of students from an Australian University during 2017 and 2018. Students enrolled in the Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood/Primary) degree, who were in their third year of studies, could enrol in the elective course entitled ‘Intercultural Understandings’ which …

Book Sharing With Young Children: A Study Of Book Sharing In Four Australian Long Day Care Centres, Helen Adam, Caroline Barratt-Pugh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Research has consistently established the positive impact of sharing books with young children. Evidence suggests several important factors when evaluating book sharing with young children, including the quality of educator practice = and the nature of groupings, as well as the frequency and duration of book sharing sessions and access to books.

Other evidence suggests book sharing may be particularly important for children from low ses backgrounds attending early learning settings.

This paper reports on a larger study which investigated the factors and relationships influencing the use of children’s literature to support principles of diversity in kindergarten rooms of long …

Enchanted Animism: A Matter Of Care, Jane Merewether

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© The Author(s) 2020. Jean Piaget, whose work continues to be very influential in early childhood education, associated young children’s animism with their ‘primitive thought’ claiming children remain animists until they reach a more advanced and rational stage of development. This article proposes a rethinking of the Piagetian view of animism, suggesting instead that children’s animism be conceived as a ‘matter of care’ which may then offer possibilities for living more responsively and attentively with non human others. Drawing on two recent research projects involving two-to-eight-year-old children, the article contends that children’s playful and speculative ‘enchanted animism’ can create a …

The Effect Of Structured Journals On Reflection Levels: With Or Without Question Prompts?, Canan Cengiz

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of question prompts on the process of journal writing by comparing unstructured and structured journals from pre-service teachers in the context of a Teaching Practicum course. Four early childhood pre-service teachers in their final year of undergraduate study constituted the case of this study. The unstructured and structured journals they kept in this process were compared in terms of content and reflection levels, and a questionnaire was utilized to determine their views. The study showed that when compared to unstructured writing, the use of question prompts assisted the pre-service teachers …

Alannah, Bree And Cassie: The Abc Of Girls On The Autism Spectrum In Early Years Classrooms, Jillian Stansfield

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The prevalence of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in classrooms is an increasingly common phenomenon in schools in Australia and in many other countries. While there is increasingly growing literature on how autistic boys manage and are managed in schools, little is known about the learning needs of girls on the autism spectrum. One reason offered for this imbalance of literature is that fewer girls are diagnosed than boys, as their presentations may differ. As girls on the autism spectrum are an underdiagnosed phenotype, it is little wonder that teachers do not have adequate knowledge or strategies to support …

From Pink Floyd To Pink Hill: Transforming Education From The Bricks In The Wall To The Connections Of Country In Remote Aboriginal Education., Elizabeth M. Jackson-Barrett, Libby Lee-Hammond

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper, we present findings from an eighteen-month research project conducted in a remote community school in Western Australia. The data from this project includes documentation pertaining to the practices of educators engaging with Aboriginal Elders and children on Country. The aim of the project was to document the transformative potential of learning on Country for young Aboriginal children (4-8 years). We discuss our findings in the context of Pink Floyd’s metaphor of formal education being built and maintained as a Wall in which children are ‘just another brick’. We argue that education is an institution that produces and …