A comparative study of early childhood curriculum documents focused on education for sustainability in South Korea and Australia

This thesis is about a comparative study of early childhood education (ECE) curriculum documents focused on education for sustainability (EfS) in South Korea and Australia. It examined how the national ECE curriculum documents in two culturally different contexts align with contemporary concepts of sustainability and activist early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) principles. Drawing on systems theory, Korean and Australian ECE curriculum documents were used as the primary sources for this study within the framework of critical document analysis (CDA). This study offers a step forward in developing culturally inclusive/holistic understandings of sustainability and more contextualised/localised approaches to ECEfS.

Teacher knowledge, child interest and parent expectation: Factors influencing multicultural programs in an early childhood setting

© 2015, Early Childhood Australia Inc. All rights reserved. MULTICULTURAL CURRICULA/PROGRAMS assume an important role within a cultural approach to learning and teaching in early childhood education in New Zealand. Te Whariki, the national early childhood curriculum framework of New Zealand, is an emancipatory and socially constructive document that emphasises equity, social justice and the important position of culture in children's learning and development. In practice this means developing early childhood programs that are sensitive and responsive to the needs and interests of children and families of minority cultures. Drawing on a critical social constructivist framework, this study of one early childhood centre in New Zealand identifies the features of its multicultural curriculum. The paper argues that a devotion to supporting children of minority cultures has persisted in the curriculum, but there is a reliance on mainstream pedagogy focused on children's learning within the centre environment and teachers' subjective knowledge about children's needs.

What is early childhood education for sustainability?

Julie Davis canvasses the literature to explain why sustainability issues are important for young children and why early childhood educators should become engaged with EfS. She outlines the short history of ECEfS in Australasia and internationally, emphasising its marginalised and fragile early phase that is now beginning to coalesce into a robust international movement. She then highlights two recent studies undertaken in child care centres that illustrate the learning and actions that are possible when education for sustainability is incorporated into early childhood curriculum and pedagogy. Julie ends the chapter by identifying the qualities that might characterise early childhood education for sustainability, stressing its requirement to be transformative education that builds the capabilities of young children as agents of change for sustainability. In so doing, she draws together theoretical strands from both early childhood education and EfS, beginning the process of constructing a theoretical framework for ECEfS.

Teacher decision making in early childhood education

The study investigated early childhood teacher decision making at the preschool level in the state of Victoria, Australia. Victorian teachers at the preschool level were in an interesting position in 2004. Unlike most other Australian states Victoria did not have a curriculum framework guiding educational content and pedagogy. Consequently, this study was able to take advantage of this situation and examine teacher decision making at a time when early childhood teachers were relatively autonomous in deciding curriculum content. The opportunity to study teacher decision making in this way has since passed, as Victorian preschool teachers are now regulated by newly introduced state and national curricula frameworks. To identify influences affecting teacher decision making three preschool teachers were interviewed and curricula related policies were analysed. The data were analysed using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) technique. Critical discourse analysis enabled a close analysis of influences on teacher decision making illustrating how discourse is legitimated, marginalised, and silenced in certain curricula practices. Critical theory was the underpinning framework used for the study and enabled taken-for-granted understandings to be uncovered within early childhood policies and teacher interviews. Key findings were that despite there not being a government-mandated curricula framework for Victorian preschool education in 2004, teachers were held accountable for their curricula practice. Yet as professionals, early childhood teachers were denied public acknowledgment of their expertise as they were almost invisible in policy. Subsequently, teachers’ authority as professionals with curricula knowledge was diminished. The study found that developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) was a dominant discourse influencing teacher decision making (TDM). It operated as legitimated discourse in the 2004 Victorian preschool context. Additionally, the study found that teacher directed practice was legitimated, marginalised, and silenced by teachers. The findings have implications for early childhood teacher decision making at the practice, research, and policy levels. Findings show that the dominance of the DAP discourse informing teacher decision making limits other ways of thinking and practising.

Early childhood education

Young children are the most vulnerable and most at risk of environmental challenges, current and future. Yet, early learning around environment and sustainability issues and topics has been neglected and underrated in early childhood education even though there is an expanding body of research literature – from economics, neuroscience, sociology and health – that shows that early investments in human capital offer substantial returns for individuals and for communities and have a long reach into the future. Early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) - a synthesis of early childhood education (ECE) and education for sustainability (EfS) - builds on groundings in play, outdoor learning and nature education, but takes a stronger focus on learning about, and engagement with, environmental and sustainability issues. Child participation and agency is central to ECEfS and can relate, for example, to local environmental problem-solving such as water and energy conservation or waste reduction in a childcare centre, kindergarten or preschool, or young children’s social learning for Indigenous Reconciliation and cultural inclusivity. While the ECE field has been much slower than other educational sectors in taking up the challenges of sustainability, this situation is rapidly changing as early childhood practitioners begin to engage – it is fast moving from the margins of early childhood curriculum and pedagogic decision-making into the mainstream. This presents challenges, however, as ECEfS is somewhat misunderstood and misrepresented and, as a new field, is under-researched and under-theorised.

Embedding information and communication technologies in the early childhood classroom

New technologies and the pace of change in modern society mean changes for classroom teaching and learning. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) feature in everyday life and provide ample opportunities for enhancing classroom programs. This article outlines how ICTs complement curriculum implementation in one year two classroom. It suggests practical strategies demonstrating how teachers can make ICTs work for them and progressively teach children how to make ICTs work for them.

Examining the rhetoric : a comparison of how sustainability and young children's participation and agency are framed in Australian and Swedish early childhood education curricula

This article scrutinizes the ways that young children are described and supported as active participants for change within the Australian and Swedish national steering documents for early childhood education. A critical theory lens was applied in combination with document analysis that looked for concepts related to environment and sustainability i.e. environmental, social, economic and political dimension of development, humans place in nature, and environmental stewardship. Concepts concerned with critical thinking, and children as active participants for change were used as specific dimensions of curriculum interpretation. Analyses show that, while both the Australian and Swedish curricula deal with content connected to environmental, social and cognitive dimensions, there is limited or no discussion of the political dimensions of human development, such as children as active citizens with political agency. In other words, children are not recognised as competent beings or agents of change for sustainability within these early childhood curriculum frameworks. Hence, these supposedly contemporary early childhood education documents lack curricular leadership to support children to contribute their voices and actions to civic and public spheres of participation as equal citizens.

Investigating early childhood teachers’ understandings of and practices in education for sustainability in Queensland: A Japan-Australia research collaboration

In a study undertaken in Queensland, Australia, analysis of a survey that included both qualitative and quantitative questions revealed that, like their Japanese counterparts, early childhood teachers do not have well-developed ideas and practices in education for sustainability (EfS). Instead, they mainly practise traditional nature-based activities, such as gardening or playing outdoors, and teaching about resource conservation through books, posters or fact sheets. Teachers’ understandings of nature education, environmental education, and education for sustainability seem to influence their educational practices. Deeper understandings about sustainability are necessary to extend beyond such traditional practices. Even though national curriculum frameworks and guidelines point to the importance of sustainability within early childhood curriculum, these appear to be insufficient in strengthening early childhood teachers’ ideas of sustainability and how to practise it effectively. We suggest that it would be beneficial for early childhood teachers, both preservice and inservice, to have professional development opportunities that build deeper understandings of sustainability and its implementation in their settings.

Preservation of confucian values in early childhood education : a study of experts’ and educators’ views

Confucian values form the core of the Chinese culture, penetrating all levels of social life, and also set the standards for family, community and political behavior. The teaching of values is deemed to be an important aspect of young children’s education and usually the responsibility for this is seen to rest with the family. Much interest has been generated recently on the teaching of core values in early childhood curriculum in order to encourage tolerance, acceptance, trust, openness, and honesty in children. Research on Confucianism is popularly conducted in different cultural contexts all over the world. Furthermore research has shown that Confucianism continues to exert a major influence on the everyday lives of Asian communities. Given the interest in Confucian values, this research study was designed to examine the expressed views of three cohorts of professionals in Hong Kong about the preservation of such values and their application to early childhood teaching. This study confirmed the view that there is a need to preserve cultural values to enable the child to be accepted in the society, especially with the value of ‘Ren’ helping one to learn how to interact with others and with the value of ‘Li’ further defining the appropriate behaviour in this interaction.

Promoting healthy eating, active play and sustainability consciousness in early childhood curricula, addressing the Ben10™ problem: a randomised control trial

Background: This paper details the research protocol for a study funded by the Australian Research Council. An integrated approach towards helping young children respond to the significant pressures of ‘360 degree marketing’ on their food choices, levels of active play, and sustainability consciousness via the early childhood curriculum is lacking. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of curriculum interventions that educators design when using a pedagogical communication strategy on children’s knowledge about healthy eating, active play and the sustainability consequences of their toy food and toy selections. Methods/Design: This cluster-randomised trial will be conducted with 300, 4 to 5 year-old children attending pre-school. Early childhood educators will develop a curriculum intervention using a pedagogical communication strategy that integrates content knowledge about healthy eating, active play and sustainability consciousness and deliver this to their pre-school class. Children will be interviewed about their knowledge of healthy eating, active play and the sustainability consequences of their food and toy selections. Parents will complete an Eating and Physical Activity Questionnaire rating their children’s food preferences, digital media viewing and physical activity habits. All measures will be administered at baseline, the end of the intervention and 6 months post intervention. Informed consent will be obtained from all parents and the pre-school classes will be allocated randomly to the intervention or wait-list control group. Discussion: This study is the first to utilise an integrated pedagogical communication strategy developed specifically for early childhood educators focusing on children’s healthy eating, active play, and sustainability consciousness. The significance of the early childhood period, for young children’s learning about healthy eating, active play and sustainability, is now unquestioned. The specific teaching and learning practices used by early childhood educators, as part of the intervention program, will incorporate a sociocultural perspective on learning; this perspective emphasises building on the play interests of children, that are experienced within the family and home context, as a basis for curriculum provision. Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12614000363684: Date registered: 07/04/2014

Practice links [Issue 35, December, 2009]

Practice Links is a free e-publication for practitioners working in Irish social services, voluntary and nongovernmental sectors. Practice Links was created to enable practitioners to keep up-to-date with new publications, electronic resources and conference opportunities. Issue 35 examines the work of Positive Behaviour Ireland and the new pre-school Curriculum framework; Aistear

Pursuing better childhoods and futures through curriculum : utopian visions in the development of Australia’s early years learning framework

In recent years, globalised curriculum discourses have given rise to local curriculum texts that convey and produce particularised imaginings and narratives, as well as hopes for, and expectations of, young children, their childhoods and their futures. In this article, the authors employ concepts from utopian studies and Deleuzeguattarian concepts of assemblage, rhizomes and lines (supple, rigid and lines of flight) to undertake a preliminary and partial rhizomatic mapping of utopian visions of better childhoods and futures evident in the development of the Early Years Learning Framework, Australia’s first national curriculum for early childhood settings. Drawing on the perspective of policy makers, News Corporation, the public, politicians, academics and practitioners who shaped the development of the Framework, the authors seek alternatives to the well-rehearsed dichotomies that so often characterise and confine curriculum politics and debates, and ways of exploring spaces between the possible and not (yet) possible.

Departures from tradition : the early years learning framework for Australia

In 2009, the Commonwealth Government of Australia published the first national learning framework for use with children aged birth to five years. The framework marks a departure from tradition in that it emphasizes intentional teaching, learning as well as child development, a particular type of play-based learning, outcomes, and equity. This article analyzes aspects of the document that depart from well established approaches to early childhood education in Australia and identifies challenges for educators who are required to use the document. It concludes that ongoing and supportive professional learning opportunities must accompany the introduction and enactment of the document.

Teachers in early childhood policy

This paper examines teacher accountability and authority in early childhood policy. It reports on data from a study that investigated the influences affecting early childhood teacher decision-making at the preschool level in Victoria, Australia. Using a question raised by Ball ‘Where are the teachers in all this [policy]?’ provided a starting point for the critical discourse analysis into how forms of control, teacher authority, obligation and constraint within policies potentially influenced teachers’ curriculum decisions. The study found that despite no government-mandated curriculum framework at the time, teachers were held accountable for their curricular practice. Yet as professionals, early childhood teachers were denied public acknowledgement of their expertise as they were almost invisible in policy. In the four policies analysed, proprietors of early childhood settings and preschool agencies held authority over curriculum. Subsequently, teachers’ authority as professionals with curricular knowledge was diminished.

Feeling the pressure: Early childhood educators’ reported views about learning and teaching phonics in Australian prior-to-school settings

Early childhood educators’ beliefs about literacy teaching can impact on the types of phonics experiences educators provide for children in prior-to-school settings. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework supports a play-based, intentional approach to teaching phonics, however little is known about what Australian early childhood educators believe is important in teaching phonics in the prior-to-school years. Using a qualitative content analysis, this research study investigates 115 early childhood educators’ views about how phonics should be taught and the use of commercially produced phonics programs (e.g. Jolly Phonics and Letterland) in prior-to-school settings. This study further investigates educators’ perceived pressures to include structured phonics lessons, as a way of addressing parental notions of ‘school readiness’. The results of this study indicate conflicting views were held about how phonics should be taught. Some educators also experienced external pressures to engage in literacy practices that may be in opposition with their own beliefs about how literacy is learnt. This study provides insights into the pedagogical practices early childhood educators believe are appropriate when teaching phonics. The educational implications are discussed.