Innehållsförteckning för NOVEMBER/DECEMBER ISSUE 16 CHILDREN'S RIGHTS från Pedagogy+

Where does the word ‘world’ come from? As I walk amongst the trees – the jali – at my home on Bundjalung Country in northern NSW, I fantasise that ‘story’ could be a metaphor for ‘world’. That these two words are, in fact, one and the same. That the world is simply story. And that thought expands my thinking. If our world is simply an infinite living library of stories, stories that belong to each and every one of us – as well as each and every thing that is here in this world – what does that mean? So, I start with the eight billion of us humans. Every single one of us has a story – our own unique story. And most of us, actually all of us,…

When it looked like the sun would not shine anymore God put a rainbow in the clouds – Look at that—look at that! That’s a library—a library is a rainbow in the clouds Maya Angelou Hi there! We hope we have caught you at a peaceful moment – find a quiet spot and enjoy! Firstly, you need to know that in Alma’s family, our daughter-in-law was pleased to find that the local library offered sessions for the very young – starting with shared nursery rhymes for babes in arms and going on to shared book reading. I was enjoying that discovery when this email arrived: ‘Hi Alma My thinking was around an article entitled The Public Library…our right to wisdom and learning. The article could explore the where, why and how…

What does acknowledging children’s rights in Australia mean when the recent Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) — the first nationally representative study of child maltreatment — revealed that about 30% of adults in Australia experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse when they were children? What does acknowledging children’s rights in Australia mean in light of revelations earlier this year (3 August 2023) that an Australian early childhood educator had been accused of raping and abusing 87 different children over a 15-year timeframe without being found out? The incidents allegedly occurred in 10 education and care services in Brisbane between 2007 to 2013 and 2018 to 2022 and one in Sydney between 2014 and 2017. The educator has now been identified and charged with over 1600 cases of abuse.…

The Practice Conference: Infants and Toddlers brings together a range of international and national speakers with expert content knowledge to help you connect theories with everyday practice. Working with infants and toddlers is a unique journey, requiring special skills and knowledge. If you’ve been on the lookout for a conference tailored to the needs of our youngest learners, your search ends here! The Practice Conference: Infants and Toddlers is designed to bridge the gap between theory and everyday practice, providing actionable insights to enhance your work with this age group. Why attend? • Hear from a diverse line-up of national and international speakers with in-depth expertise in early childhood development. • Engage in meaningful discussions, share experiences, and learn from the innovative practices of others in the field. • Walk…

Leadership within the Australian early education and care sector is a multifaceted commitment that demands more than administrative oversight. It’s an embodiment of core values such as fairness and justice—values that are imperative in shaping equitable learning environments for our youngest citizens. As educational leaders, we are tasked with moulding these values into the fabric of our pedagogical practices, ensuring that they touch the lives of children. Understanding Fairness and Justice in Early Education In the context of early education, fairness means providing equal opportunities for learning and development to all children, regardless of their background or personal circumstances. It is about ensuring that every child is given the chance to thrive within the educational setting. Justice, on the other hand, requires us to actively identify and dismantle the barriers…

I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE A CHILD Author: Alain Serres Illustrator: Aurélia Fronty Translator: Helen Mixter A provocative book guaranteed to spark awareness of children’s rights. With simple text accompanied by rich, vibrant illustrations, a young narrator describes what it means to be a child with rights--from the right to food, water, and shelter, the right to go to school, the right to be free from violence, the right to breathe clean air, and much more. The book emphasizes that these rights belong to every child on the planet. It also makes evident that knowing and talking about these rights are the first steps toward making sure that they are respected. I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAVE MY PLANET Author: Alain Serres Illustrator: Aurélia Fronty Translator: Shelley Tanaka This…

Melodie Davies is the Executive Director of fka Children’s Services. ‘…what keeps my focus and is joyful to me is our potential as early childhood educators to change the trajectory for a child, a family and a community not just now but well into the future. That’s the responsibility that we have and the power of what we do…’ LET’S BEGIN THIS INTERVIEW WITH A HISTORY OF YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROFESSION. I am one of six children, and from a very young age, I wanted to work with very young children. I qualified at Swinburne University. I was intent on working with the youngest learners. But as my studies neared completion, and I believe it’s common with many students, I began to disengage. I started to…

A$20.00 available for purchase at www.katienoonan.com.au/shop/ The new album from Katie Noonan and Australian String Quartet featuring the iconic poetry of Oodgeroo Noonuccal 1. NOCTURNAL © Iain Grandage (b.1970)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 4:55 2. AFTERWORD © Anne Cawrse (b.1981)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 6:42 3. THE GARDEN © David Hirschfelder (b.1960)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 4:38 4. SUMMER © Katie Noonan (b.1977)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 3:59 5. SUBURBAN © Robert Davidson (b.1965)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 4:16 6. IN THE SEA’S GIVING © Jessica Wells (b.1974)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 5:51 7. STARS © Stephen Leek (b.1959)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 5:59 8. ON REFUSING AN ALL-RISK INSURANCE POLICY © Connor D’Netto (b.1994)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 7:48 9. TYPEWRITER | FIRST NIGHT © Thomas Green (b.1976)/David Malouf (b.1934) - 5:01 10. THE CATCH © Isaac…

IN RELATION TO CHILDREN, I WILL: ▪ act in the best interests of all children ▪ create and maintain safe, healthy, inclusive environments that support children’s agency and enhance their learning ▪ provide a meaningful curriculum to enrich children’s learning, balancing child and educator initiated experiences ▪ understand and be able to explain to others how play and leisure enhance children’s learning, development and wellbeing ▪ ensure childhood is a time for being in the here and now and not solely about preparation for the future ▪ collaborate with children as global citizens in learning about our shared responsibilities to the environment and humanity ▪ value the relationship between children and their families and enhance these relationships through my practice ▪ ensure that children are not discriminated against on the…

Imagine you were in a horrific accident (and I hope this is ever only imagination for you), and you lost the ability to speak and the ability to control your movements. Stretch the picture in your mind now to your normal every day activities. How do you imagine you would feel when you have to be dressed by someone else? What would you feel like when your clothes were chosen by someone else – the style, the shape and feel of them, the colours? What would you feel like when someone fed you, and the food was not something you chose, perhaps even things you did not like and had not eaten before your accident? How would you feel when you could not communicate your feelings by telling your carer…

I have never really been able to fully get my head around the countless number of Pokémon characters that exist! (‘David – how do you spell “Charizard?”’) They have continually presented a spelling challenge when supporting a child to write about them as the main protagonists in their stories! Over my thirty years in education, I have seen a plethora of superheroes, pizza-loving turtles specialising in martial arts, orange clown fish, spacemen crying ‘To infinity and beyond’, sisters delighting in building snowmen, and various colourful, long-maned ponies come and go, and, in many cases, re-emerge. A certain doll, at the time of writing this, is currently enjoying a massive resurgence in popularity, thanks to a new movie. And throughout this time, I have heard the adults in various educational contexts…

Children are the future of society, so what damages childhood damages society. Deprivation and trauma can have lasting effects on young people’s future development, determining whether their lives will contribute to or become a burden on society. With growing cooperation among the international community after the First World War and a new awareness of the plight of children around the world, declarations on children’s rights were discussed and adopted, first by the League of Nations in 1924 and then by the United Nations in 1959. Maria Montessori was one of the loudest voices for the rights of the child. In 1951, she delivered a speech at the first preliminary meeting of the UNESCO Governing Board in which she referred to children as the only population without rights. ‘The child is…

Every child has the right to grow up receiving education and care that respects and nurtures their being, sense of belonging and who they are becoming. For the Culturally & Linguistically Diverse (CALD) child, this encompasses their linguistic and cultural heritage. The UN Convention on The Rights of The Child (UNCRC) recognises and protects specific rights for children from CALD backgrounds. It aims to ensure that every child, regardless of their cultural or linguistic background, is treated fairly, with dignity and receive equal opportunities. This article explores the fundamental rights dedicated explicitly to CALD children and the challenges faced in having their rights realised. It also highlights how all children’s rights are embedded within our Learning Frameworks— its outcomes, objectives and guiding principles and considers how practitioners can create an…

First published in Pedagogy+ Issue 5 Social Justice. We thought this relevant today as a follow-on to Deborah’s article ‘children’s rights…’ The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has three pillars of rights – sometimes called the three Ps: Children’s right to protection, provision and participation. Under the UNCRC, along with many other rights, children have the right to play, the right to rest and leisure, the right to an education and most importantly for this discussion, the right to actively participate in decisions about their lives. The UNCRC is very clear in this regard for children not to be expected to share a mature viewpoint, but rather given the opportunity to offer a viewpoint (Article 12), AND to have access to communication tools that best…

The Thinker in Residency Program at Semann & Slattery aims to insert new dialogue and thinking into the early years sector. It builds an alliance of thinking across a range of providers and agencies and inspires possibility through new ways of thinking and doing. The scholarly work of Professor Peter Moss has and continues to have a global impact on education. The publication ‘Beyond quality in early childhood education’, co-authored with Gunilla Dahlberg (our previous Semann & Slattery Thinker in Residence) and Alan Pence, challenged the notion of quality as a definable, fixed universal construct. Such a construct limits the possibility for variation and contextual relevance. The publication, 25 years after its first release, continues to offer a refreshing counter-narrative offered in the mainstream scholarly and policy space. Peter Moss…

There is something about walking which stimulates and enlivens my thoughts When I stay in one place, I can hardly think at all; my body has to be on the mov to set my mind going Jean-Jacques Rosseau In the fast-paced life of modernity, the simple act of walking is often overlooked, relegated to a mere mode of physical transition from one point to another. However, throughout history and across many cultures, walking transcends the physical act, morphing into a rite of passage, a social ritual, and a philosophical endeavour. Rebecca Solnit tells us, ‘The history of walking is an unwritten, secret history whose fragments can be found in a thousand unemphatic passages in books, as well as songs, streets, and almost everyone’s adventures’. From a bodily perspective, walking chronicles our…

First published in Pedagogy+ Issue 5 Social Justice. We thought this relevant today as a follow-on to Deborah’s article ‘children’s rights…’ ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice’ MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR Much has been said about the place of social justice in the early childhood education landscape. A growing collection of thinkers - theorists, pedagogues and practitioners, along with children and families, have encouraged a way of approaching the delivery of programs for young children that privileges a deep examination of justice, equality and the right of everyone to truly belong. Increasingly daily curriculum decisions are being made that hold a commitment to fairness at their very core and in many cases, programs are constructed to deliberately challenge the dominant (white) ways of understanding…

SEMANN & SLATTERY SUMMARISE RECENTLY PUBLISHED RESEARCH ABOUT, AND FOR, THE EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE SECTOR. WHAT WAS THE RESEARCH Exemplary Early Childhood Educators at Work: A Multi-Level Investigation. WHY WAS THE RESEARCH CONDUCTED To work out what exemplary (really great) early childhood educators do, what informs their practice, and how workplaces support these educators in ways that allow them to be exemplary. It was done with the understanding that quality matters to children both in the short term and long term. WHO DID IT? Professor Linda Harrison; Professor Sandie Wong; Assoc Professor Megan Gibson; Dr Tamara Cumming; Professor Frances Press; Professor Sharon Ryan (The research was a collaboration between researchers from Macquarie, QUT, CSU, Manchester Metro and Rutgers Universities.) HOW DID THEY DO IT? They recruited educators from preschools…

The following is a fantasy; an imagining of what might have been. It draws together some facts, readings, and anecdotes to help me to answer my wondering, ‘What would Malaguzzi be reading now? Who would he invite to the table?’ On the Reggio Children (2020) website, is written, ‘The history of Reggio Emilia’s municipal infant-toddler and preschools is profoundly woven with the life and thinking of Loris Malaguzzi.’ Most of us in early childhood education in Australia would be familiar with Loris Malaguzzi, the founder and first Director of the schools in Reggio Emilia. Whether we know our teaching has been informed by this giant in education or not, chances are it has. Over the years since the end of World War II, as more and more of us read…

‘An ally is when a person uses their position in society to counter discrimination of marginalised groups’ University of Melbourne, 2022 About 4% of the Australian community identifies as LGBTIQA+, and family diversity is becoming more visible with changes to the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act (2013), more accessible access to assisted reproductive technologies, and general evolution in culture and society. There has been a 5-fold increase in families that identify as having members of diverse genders or sexualities since 2010 (ABS, 2021). Over the past few months, we’ve been speaking to LGBTIQA+ families to learn more about how early childhood services can offer more of what does work for their family and less of what doesn’t. We’ve also been talking to early childhood professionals so we can support them to…

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is regularly referenced in early childhood. As a teacher, as a human being, first-time learning about the Convention can be exciting, motivating, reassuring even. Third, fourth, fiftieth, one-thousandth time … perhaps not as inspiring or meaningful. Vital, but not as moving. It’s doubtful that children were consulted in writing the Convention or invited to contribute. Perhaps this is understandable, but clearly, it’s also ironic when Article 12 requires signatories to ‘assure to the child … the right to express … views freely in all matters affecting the child.’ The Convention itself obviously is a ‘matter affecting the child’. Adults effect how child participation is undertaken and how children are or are not consulted. When working with children, there can…