In the lead up to National Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June) and in celebration of the 2022 theme ‘Be Brave. Make Change’, we reached out to Aboriginal artist and early childhood professional, Emma Stenhouse to share part of her journey, experiences and wisdom. Emma describes herself as Indigenous artisan, Ngarrindjeri woman, artist, waver,…
This blog post from The Hon Stuart Robert MP, Acting Minister for Education and Youth, follows the federal election candidates forum with cross-party leaders co-hosted by ECA on 2 May 2022. Each candidate was invited to share their policies and plans to support Australian children if their party wins this federal election. If you missed…
In case you missed all the action from Early Childhood Australia’s Federal Election 2022 Candidates Forum, here is a quick summary to bring you up to speed because #EarlyLearningMatters this election. ECA’s Federal Election 2022 Candidates Forum saw key election candidates responsible for early childhood portfolio engage with the early childhood education and care (ECEC)…
This 2022 federal election we are calling on candidates across politics to support high quality early learning access, affordability, inclusion and stability for every child. On 2 May 2022 we invited cross-party leaders with early childhood portfolio responsibility to a virtual forum to share their policies and plans to support Australian children if their party…
This 2022 federal election we are calling on candidates across politics to support high quality early learning access, affordability, inclusion and stability for every child. On 2 May 2022 we invited cross-party leaders with early childhood portfolio responsibility to a virtual forum to share their policies and plans to support Australian children if their party…
How quality STEM education can be integrated into family day care through children’s everyday activities. Research shows that young children— including infants—are capable of learning mathematics and science concepts (Baroody, 2003). It shows that learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts in the early years is associated with children’s later school readiness and…
In this article, Lennie Barblett, Sandra Cheeseman and Catharine Hydon emphasise children’s right to learn through play no matter the age. Additionally, they suggest that all educators lead and be articulate in their advocacy of play-based pedagogies for children’s learning, development and wellbeing. At the 2021 Early Childhood Australia National Conference, we spoke about leading…
Artistic pursuits such as music, dramatic play and the visual arts contribute to how children understand creativity and develop their own sense of identity. Popular theories in this field suggest that children’s artistic abilities are often underestimated; and that when given opportunities to explore artistic practice and creative thinking, they generally have stronger outcomes in…
Agency is a concept that is familiar, but not always well understood in early childhood education and care (Burr & Degotardi, 2021). Whenever agency is made reference to in early childhood publications, the standard definition in the Glossary of the Early Years Learning Framework is often quoted to frame the discussion (see The Spoke –…
This year for Harmony week, we thought we would share with you some insights from Meni Tsambouniaris at Diversity Kids. Here they share with us the importance of incorporating inclusion into everyday practice, these examples provide discussion points that educators can engage with during Harmony Week and follow up with how these concepts might be…