The website that I chose to look at was http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.
Some of the research topics that I found were quite interesting. The first one that caught my eye, and could be used world wide, was Dealing with bullying together: prevention and resolution. Since you have to pay to see the full report, I am going to share the brief overview that they gave. The research talks about being a careful observer, gives strategies for helping children who are bullies or have been bullied, tips on supporting the parents, and preventing bullying all together in the early childhood field. Anti-bullying programs have always been an interest to me, and I think it is important that every teacher learns the signs of bullying and takes an active role in stopping bullying.
A few other topics that they have were:
Children's resilience: Working with the Early Years learning FrameworkNurturing the spiritual child: Compassion, connection, and a sense of self
Aggression and young children
and many more!
One piece of information that I found interesting was that there was a section under position statements that has a statement of regret. Here they talk about how they are taking a stand and are recognizing and committed to reconciliation with the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander children and families that were forced out due to new settlers. I think that by taking a stand, they are showing that they care for all children and believe that all children deserve the same rights and education.
I did learn that just recently all childcare settings in Australia have a ration set in place of one teacher for every for infants in a room. They put this into effect so that all children under the age of 24 months will have a higher quality in care and development. With this development they have also put in place a rating systems so that parents can see how their child care setting compares to others in the area. They stated that this is the biggest reform in the child care setting they have had to date (Early Childhood Australia, 2011).
This was definitely an interesting website. I just wish that there were more free resources to see some of their findings.
References
Early Childhood Australia
Bullying is definitely a hot topic all over the world! I am so happy that Australia is seeing this as a problem and realizing that it needs to be addressed. Many peeople assume that bullying doesn't occur until pre-teen or teens years, but that is entirely not true. As Australia has recognized, bullying can occur as early as the early childhood years. For example, my daughter has a female student in her Kindergarten classroom that is a bully. My daughter comes home daily to tell me what this child has said or done to her or the other children. It is very concerning that this child is bullying at this young age.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Hi Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteI agree that bullying is an important topic. It’s great that Australia is taking a stand and is working to prevent or resolve the problem in early childhood settings. I read Kristen’s comment and it’s true that it starts in the preschool years. I’ve seen a few kids show the signs of becoming a bully. It’s important to show kids to show respect towards others even if they are different.
I also found it interesting that one of their topics is Nurturing the spiritual child. I think many times that gets left out. Many people automatically think religion when they hear that something is spiritual, but I think compassion, developing a strong sense of self and connections to other people and the natural world is apart of it too. When I was exploring the website for the trends in early childhood class, I had the same feeling as you did. I wished more of the content was free.
Hi Charlotte,
ReplyDeleteI too, chose Australia to report on this week. I found different information than my classmates which is good. We all had different findings. The one insight I learned from your comments was about the ratio of teachers and infants. This was awesome information to learn! This is great for children especially children under 24 months old. Young children need the extra care to help with their development. I am excited to see Australia being responsible on the behalf of young children.
I like the idea that they are focusing on early childcare and the ratios of teachers and children. There are many bullying programs in the schools, but I do wonder if they help prevent bullying or help when a child is being bullying. This would be a very interesting research topic.
ReplyDelete