Early Childhood Education In Australia: Emphasizing Inclusive Pedagogical Frameworks

The Australian Early Childhood Education Framework

Discuss about the Literature Review for Early Childhood Education and Care.

According to the Australia’s first national early years learning framework, children in their primary learning year should be guaranteed through quality teaching and care. An emphasis on play-based learning and teaching provides a thrust on communication and language. The early childhood learning framework in Australia has been designed with the aim of establishing partnership with children and families. The Melbourne Declaration aims at improving the outcomes of the Aboriginals and Torres Islanders and aim to strengthen early childhood education. The Council of the Australian government strives to close the gap in educational achievement between the non-indigenous and the indigenous population of Australia (Australia 2006). In Australia, the government has directed is attention to the investment in compulsory schooling and as a result of that there has been a rapid growth in the early childhood and care provision. In 2010, the Council of Australian Government has agreed to the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care that has established the National Quality Standard from 2012 with the objective of ensuring high-quality education across all the states and territories in Australia. Early childhood education in Australia has been designed to deliver a critical outcome.

The key aspects of early childhood learning in Australia emphasizes on play-based learning that would help the child in making sense of the social worlds. In this orientation of early childhood learning, children are expected to engage actively with the representations, people and objects. In the Australian framework of pedagogy being, becoming and belonging are important elements the growing up of the children.  The term inclusive education is largely associated with the incorporation of disabled children into the mainstream culture of schools and ensures that they are not faced with discrimination, negligence and marginalization. According to the estimates of the World Bank there are about 115 million children who are not in their school ad 30-40 per cent of the children are with disabilities (De Boer, Pijl and Minnaert 2011). Children with disability are part of the 600 million populations that is 10 per cent of the World’s population. Students with disability have been denied disability specific services in the areas of early intervention and rehabilitation.

Given the context of early childhood framework and the thrust of education in Australia, the aim of this study is to intervene into the early childhood setting and discuss about literature pertaining to children in the age group of 3-10 years. The review of literature focuses on inclusive education with a special emphasis on children with disability and children who belong to the diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Two broad research questions have shaped the study. Firstly, what are the different pedagogies for early childhood learning in Australia that would promote inclusive education? Secondly, how can I draw on differentiated assessment strategies as part of my teaching?

Key Aspects of Early Childhood Learning in Australia

This section of the study aims to discuss about a range of theoretical framework in the context of early childhood learning in Australia that would be instrumental in facilitating the study and gaining deeper insight into collaborative, equitable and holistic education. According to Carrington, Mercer, Iyer and Selva (2015), inclusive education has become integral part of early childhood learning and the members of the society and the school community values it. The inclusive approach in education indicates the community orientation of education and the democratic participation of the teachers who collaborate with the aim of meeting the challenges.  These challenges include responding to the diverse needs of the students who belong to the multiple layers of the society. Inclusion has been understood as the ethical project that debunks the web of hierarchical values that are applied to people n which some are considered as more deserving than the others. It has been argued by scholars that pre-service teachers need to strengthen and consolidate their values that exemplify the social justice and the spirit of inclusive teaching. There is an emphasis that pre-service teachers to incorporate values especially the values of citizenship and social justice that would promote equity, recognition and respect for diversity, participation and care and entitlement (Petriwskyj 2010). There may be the propensity among the teachers to be caught in the judgments, assumptions and interpretations. It is important to prepare the teachers to meet the requisites of the students. Another aim of the teacher training for early is to prepare the teachers for critical reflection of the educational practices and the social values that would support inclusion and exclusion in the schools (Mills 2014). The purpose of transformative learning enables a person to achieve a shift in the outlook due to the feature of critical reflection. In case of pre-service teachers it can be seen that that their perspectives are different from the teachers who are associated with the university.  Therefore, there needs to be the incorporation of transformative learning that would that promotes the values of critical reflection and in making informed decision. Te service teaching is a powerful pedagogy that has been conceptualized with the aim of fostering the notion of transformative learning. According to scholars there is a growing movement with the aim of improving the quality of the teachers. Studies have shown that that the teacher training program play a crucial role in changing the attitude of the teachers and encourages them to adopt new pedagogical tents based on the teacher’s training program through the promotion of critical reflection. It has been found that the teacher’s training program can prepare the teachers to become inclusive in their teaching practice by instilling the values of social justice

Inclusive Education in Early Childhood Learning

In this light, the first theoretical framework would be the Montessori philosophy of education. The Montessori Method was pioneered by Dr. Maria Montessori and is characterized by its experiential style of learning in the classroom. The feature of this kind of teaching is that it instills in student a sense of deeper understanding towards the subjects like mathematics, language, music, science and social interactions. In Montessori method of teaching and learning there is an emphasis on the holistic development of the child in creating a match between the interests of the child. The Association Montessori  Internale (AMI) that was established in the year 1929 have set high standards for the teachers and have ensured that they abide by certain protocols that would promote the development of the child along with the facilitation of the interest of the child. The thrust of Montessori teaching is to provide a nurturing, safe and engaging environment for the child during the formative phase of the early child. This kind of pedagogy fosters the principle of helping the children in trusting themselves with their world.

There is also an emphasis on developing confidence in the merging abilities and development of the gross motor coordination of language skills and the motor skills. The theoretical framework of the Montessori teaching enables the children to have confidence in gaining independence in their everyday tasks (Education.com 2018). The discourse of Montessori teaching can be incorporated into the framework of early childhood teaching as it promotes the social development of the children and encourages the children to have task persistence and self-regulation. Another feature of the Montessori teaching and learning that would be compatible with encouraging the child for imaginative exploration and lead them to become confident. The Montessori Method of teaching and learning would be compatible with the vision of inclusive education as Montessori teaching method encourages teachers to respect children. The aim of this is to instill confidence in the children and enable in developing their skills and abilities that would be important in effective learning autonomy and the positive self esteem of the children (Montessori Northwest – Montessori Teacher Training & Professional Development in Portland, Oregon 2018). It considers children to be continuous learners believing that they are absorbent minds who would learn from the environment and the everyday experiences. In this kind of pedagogical tent, the role of the teacher is to render the children the centre of learning, encouraging them to learn, observation of the children, preparation of the children for different kinds of learning environment, respecting every child and their interest and activities, and incorporating learning materials that would support the learning of the children.

Theoretical Frameworks for Promoting Inclusive Education

The second theoretical framework that can be considered and drawn from is the revolutionary pedagogical tenet of Reggio Emilia approach that emerged in Italy. The pedagogy pertaining to children’s learning is that children have the agency and they are innocent, helpless and dependant as viewed through the different conceptual framework of childhood. According to this view, children are viewed as capable of acquiring knowledge within themselves through their curiosity and the creativity (Childdiscoverycenter.org 2018). It is the children who get to decide what they have become in their life and in what ways children are interested and in becoming an important element in their won learning process. Unlike the other learning process where the teachers lead and supervise the children in learning knowledge, in the Reggio Emilia approach early school children are encouraged to learn on their own and their learning is tapped through recorder, speaker, observation, documentation and boosting the talent of the children by encouraging them to deliver their best. In this method, the surrounding of the child plays a pivotal role in allowing classroom mobility and fostering communication between the peers. The aspect of group and peer communication is important in the context of the Reggio Emilia approach in early childhood education. There are children who are entailed in the large and small group projects. This emphasizes on the collaborative learning that encourages children to participate through comparison, negotiation, critique, hypothesize, solving the problems and the collaborative learning process. As it has been found that the Reggio Emilia approach is dedicated in teaching children independent learning that is crucial for the learning progress that is to be documented.

According to this approach, such kind of documentation is necessary, as it is visible in the visual manner. The teachers engage in clicking pictures of the children and thereafter save the work of the child in a journal entry (Runswick?Cole 2011). These creative documents include crafts, works of art and drawings and the transcripts that contain the thoughts of the children. The Reggio Emilia approach of pedagogy firmly believes that children can learn through multiple modes, methods and manner. In other words there should not be any fixed or unimodal ways of learning for children. This is further manifested in different kinds of materials like the methods, instruments, ideas, tools and the activities. Schools that are oriented towards the Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching ensures that all the tools and resources

Montessori Method of Teaching and Learning

Thirdly, the strength-based approach will be useful in promoting inclusive education in the early childhood learning in the Australian context. The strength-based approach to learning is concerned with the possibility of enhancing the teacher protection of children. There is immense potential in strength-based approach in ensuring that education follows the perspective of the psychology origins and the social services (Dirkx 2015). The highlight of the strength-based learning is permeating positive attitude in the people and inspiring them to maintain their dignity making full use of the capacities, uniqueness, rights and the commonalities. This kind of approach enables the children and the teacher being their won agents of change and realizes their true potential. This kind of learning encourages children to recognize their strengths, value it and in the mobilization of the strength that is in contrast to the compensation of the deficits. In Australia, the early childhood teachers have to complete an integrated strength-based child protection course and they need to take into account the ethical considerations and the boundary considerations in the role of colleague and educators.

The government of Australia has a range of policies and legislation to address the diverse issues pertaining to early childhood education. This can be manifested in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, Human rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) Act 1986, Racial Discrimination Act 1975, Racial Hatred Act 1995 and Sex discrimination Act 1984. Policies are subject to modification based on the needs of change (Graham and Spandagou 2011). The Australian Capital Territory would be important in providing safe and supportive schools policy. In NSW (New South Wales there is  an emphasis on the student discipline, student welfare policy, bullying and the anti-racism policy. In Northern Territory there is an emphasis on the health and well being of the children along with provisions to curb bullying and cyber bullying. In Queensland, there is the legislation of safe and supportive environment for the child and inclusive education policy (Piscitelli, McLean and Halliwell 2012). Therefore, it can be stated that Australia has robust legislation and policy for promoting inclusive education for children. The literature that have reviewed so far have not addressed the policies and legislation related to inclusive education but have been concerned with the meaning and the scope of the inclusive education.

In Australia, the early childhood programs that focused on the special education took place in the nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia. It commenced with the belief that thee are children who are incapable of learning, in this case it was disabled children who had to be dependent on home tutoring, as schooling was not available for these children. It has been found that in the Australian early childhood learning context, discrimination emanating from the ethnic identity of the person and their ability has been banally evident. There was the introduction of compulsory universal primary school education for the children from the age of six in the states of Australia in the early twentieth century has drawn attention to the abilities of the children of children who are outside the purview of the conventional academic program. (Garvis, Lemon, Pendergast and Yim 2013). There has been a shift in the policy emphasis and it is being increasingly realized that the teachers have an important role to play in the education of the children and their participation in the everyday learning. The current understanding of inclusive education go beyond the access and support framework with the aim of incorporating the pedagogic and curricular differentiation that would support the learning and values of children in becoming more responsible towards the children. The assumptions about the equity role in the general early childhood programs have led to the establishment of the universal provision of the prior-to-the-school services ad the public funding of childcare support programs for the children with disabilities and the children who belong to the ethnic and linguistic minorities. It has been found that the UNESCO Salamanca Statement and the evidence regarding effective intervention approaches, school programs have been reframed to support the specialized services (Fenton 2012). There has been studies on the perceptions of the principal along with the school and community environment where there have been the creation of the actual spaces for the inclusion of children. The perception of the principals regarding inclusive education is premised on their attitude and understanding of inclusion in addition to the contextual characteristics of the school. Principals have identified that they essay an instrumental role in promoting the values of inclusiveness, pluralism and equity in the school (Washor 2013).

Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education

Based on the review of literature it can be stated the existing literature on inclusive education and early childhood learning in Australia it has been found that there has been rigorous scholarship on this issue. Scholars have engaged with the phenomenon through secondary data analysis as well as primary data analysis. However, there an absence of the mixed methods approaches in the given literature in understanding about the inclusive education in Australia. The incorporation of the mixed methods approach would have been more useful in deriving data that would enrich the study.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Drawing from the existing review of literature therefore, it can be stated that there is a need to understand inclusive education and its importance followed by incorporating the principles from different kinds of pedagogical tenets that encourages the holistic development of children and would play an instrumental role in the growth of the child. Inclusive education has been there in the forefront on the Australian early childhood curriculum that is evident in the existing legislation and policy. It has been found that principals, pre-service teachers and educators play a key role in perpetuating inclusive education. Secondly, the existing pedagogical frameworks on the Reggio Emmilia is the most appropriate approach for the teachers in creating a collaborative environment for the learning of the children and promoting equitable, non-hierarchical and critical learning among the children in their formative period. Similarly, the Montessori method that emphasizes on play as a mode of learning would be useful in creating a compatible environment for children with different needs. 

References

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