Different lenses
The skills utilised and the roles performed by ECTs are seen through many different lenses.
While the vital contributions of the ECT are slowly bubbling up into the public discourse, your average person does not have knowledge of the skills utilised and the roles performed by ECTs. They instead rely on broad descriptions such as ‘that’s such important work’, ‘you must be an angel’, etc.
The hard graft and complexity of the role, including the intellectual endeavour and motivational skills required, are not fully appreciated. Partly, this is a function of the gendered nature of the work and its classification as ‘care’, rather than education.
In some respects, the inability of the general public to understand the skills used and the roles performed by ECTs is a function of how ECTs talk about their work.
Throughout the case, ECTs talked in short hand about their work and remained unnecessarily modest about the complexity of their roles.
This is understandable – ECTs on the whole, day in, day out, don’t crowd out children with their own ego, unlike other (mainly male dominated) professions (and some for profit child care operators) who can’t wait to tell you how fantastic they are.
Also, the true intellectual multitasking that effective ECTs utilise becomes almost second nature – and is glibly described as ‘being in the room with the children’. Whereas a business analyst, aware of the role of an ECT ‘being in the room’ would describe it as:
- developing differentiated programs of learning (and adapting them in real time) for each child
- assessing the real time needs of each child, taking into account their short and long term needs
- documenting the development of each child, against statutory and self-determined benchmarks
- liaising with the child as to their physical, mental and social wellbeing, utilising their extensive knowledge of child development and taking into account a wide differentiation in terms of cognitive and verbal development of each child
- undertaking real time risk analysis, both in terms of the organisation and each child, whilst at the same time being cognisant of the importance of experiential learning, and
- being required, often in a time critical context, to liaise with parents, health professionals and government officials and agencies about the needs of the child.
This list is far from exhaustive. It also leaves out the caring role that ECTs undertake, which complicates an already complex and invariably challenging role.
ECTs need to think about how they describe their profession and be able to explain more readily the complexity of their work (without self aggrandising jargon). We all know that ECTs engage in critical professional reflection – when they share it with the wider community they can blow people’s minds.
Part of exposing our professionalism to the world entails a discussion about the nomenclature of the industry. No doubt teams and teamwork are essential in a centre – but nonetheless, isn’t it time for the descriptions of the roles played by different team members to be revisited?
In the ERO case, many for profit employers went to extraordinary lengths to portray the work of ECTs as virtually identical to Cert III and diploma qualified educators and to devalue the skills and expertise of ECTs.
‘They are all educators’ was the catch-cry. In that context, perhaps it is time for the sector to have a thoughtful and respectful conversation on this issue – a conversation that ensures the labels that are applied to particular roles properly reflect the skills and responsibilities required of that role.
