Early Childhood Australia: Research In Practice Series

Early Childhood Australia is an early childhood advocacy organization, advocating in the interest of young children, their families and those associated with early childhood field. The vision of the Early Childhood Australia organization is that every child is thriving and learning. The organization strives for champion outcomes in effective quality early childhood education and care.

• The mission of the Early Childhood Australia organization is to advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from ages birth to eight (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/position_statements.html).

The organization currently holds eight branches is different parts of Australia, all integrals parts of the organization. They all play a helping hand in identifying issues and priorities for state and national actions, while influencing policies regarding young children.
There are no current projects posted on the website as yet, however, there is a plethora of interesting information provided.


One innovative practice effectively being used now is the Research In Practice Series, RIPS. Research In Practice Series is a practical, easy-to-read resource that offers effective new approaches for those challenging issues that arise in the care and education of young children (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/position_statements.html). These practices can be used in the classroom to help promote effective learning practices in spite of  the challenges that arise in the early learning field. Some of the topics discussed in the RIPS are:

• Learning positive behavior through educator-child relationship
• Critical reflection as a tool for change: Stories about quality improvement
• Respecting diversity: Articulating early childhood practice
• The Code of Ethics: A guide for everyday practice
• Understanding children's feelings: Emotional literacy in early childhood
• Aggression and young children
• Managing difficult behavior in  young children

Each section in the book covers a distinct questions many teachers seek answers for. For example, in the section entitled 'Learning positive behavior through educator-child relationship', questions addressed are:

1. What do we mean by "positive" behavior?
2. Reasons for behavior: Children's perspectives/Educators perspectives
3. Understanding children's feelings and intentions

The website also allows its' viewers to download sections of the RIPS, enabling immediate access.


Overall, the website is extremely informative, providing a plethora of innovative ideas and programs that can be integrated into the classrooms all around the world. In response to the work being in Australia, I am very motivated to incorporate some of the ideas and programs viewed on the website into my classroom. I am also very interested in learning more about how to approach and handle the many challenges that arise in the early childcare field.

Unlimited Resources in Poverty Research

For this week's blog assignment, I chose option 2, which reads:

• Imagine that you possess the means and the knowledge to conduct research studies about any topic in the early childhood field. Imagine further that you are not restricted by the reality of the present. Imagine that your study will make a major positive contribution to the well-being of children and/or their families. What topic would you choose? What can you imagine the positive contribution(s) would be?

If I had the ability to conduct any research of any topic, it would have to be research in Poverty and its' effects on young children and early learning and development. In this research, I would provide families suffering from the epidemic of poverty useful resources and economic benefits to assist in the beginning stages of providing adequate living and quality early childcare for their children. I could only imagine positive contributions would be that these young children would benefit from the results of this research. I would also hope that the families participating in this research would 'pay it forward' and help to provide other families, living in poverty, similar, if not, the same opportunities provided to them. Children involved in this research would be the opportunity to learn and develop their early learning abilities in adequate learning environments with well trained and qualified teachers. They would have exposure to and benefit from governmental programs such as School Readiness, to help minimize the educational and language gap affecting our young children today.