Early childhood education in Australia prides itself on its significant impact on the lives of children and families in the communities served, IEUA NSW/ACT member and early education specialist Janelle Gallagher writes.
While many families and children have an enriched experience, where children and families are nurtured and feel a sense of belonging, others report the opposite.
The Childcare Package Evaluation 2021, completed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found that discriminatory practices were occurring for children with additional needs in early learning services across Australia. The practices are often exclusionary and unintentional. Nevertheless, they negatively impact the child, family, and community.
Often, families recount stories where a child has been excluded from enrolling in an early learning service. The reason for declining the child’s enrolment is “the additional burden of children with high care needs or the inability to accommodate specific needs due to lack of skills to care for children with high needs” (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2021).
The adverse experiences of parents with children with additional needs in accessing early education and care are not new. One parent reporting in the Department of Education/ORIMA Research survey said: “Seven childcare services turned us down, saying he was too much work”. To download the survey see: bit.ly/3utiTUr
Early education and care can and must do better.
Embedding inclusion into early learning services is not complicated. It is as simple as this: “Every child has the right to access, participate, and be included in all aspects of community life, including children’s education and care.”
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) is a law that protects Australians from discrimination based on disability. The DDA makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of the person’s disability. This includes discrimination in the context of accessing and participating in children’s education and care services. All children’s education and care services (including family day care) must comply with the DDA.
Equity and the EYLF
The vision of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) V2.0 (p6) says ‘All children engage in learning that promotes confident and creative individuals and successful lifelong learners’. It outlines the expectation for all children and is further unpacked under the updated Principle of Equity, Inclusion, and High Expectations (EYLF p17).
However, educators must first understand the term equity. Equity refers to fairness and is different from equality, where everyone ‘gets the same.’ Equity recognises diversity and different starting places and takes action to address the imbalance. The ongoing process calls upon educators to reflect critically and be responsive to unintentional or intentional barriers arising from bias or systemic structures.
This requires a commitment from educators to ensure every child’s right to an equitable early learning experience. This is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Professional responsibility
It is a professional responsibility for all educators, approved providers and management within an early learning service to implement inclusive and participatory practices in their services.
Unpack how your service currently supports inclusion. Is there a statement within the service philosophy? What is your philosophy on inclusion, and how does this guide your practice?
In the EYLF V2.0 (p65), inclusion is defined. It outlines clear expectations, regardless of children’s social, cultural, and linguistic diversity (including learning styles, abilities, disabilities, gender, sexual identity, family circumstances, and geographic location) on curriculum decision-making processes.
Leadership within the service has a legal and moral responsibility to ensure inclusion for all children and their families. As part of the National Quality Standards in Quality Area 6, collaborative partnerships with families and communities, element 6.2.2 discusses access and participation, asking services to implement effective partnerships to support children’s access, inclusion, and participation in the program.
Services must begin by closely examining and questioning current inclusion practices. Educators may consider the actions they can implement immediately.
Discourse around difference
In her book Inside the ‘Inclusive’ Early Childhood Classroom, the Power of ‘Normal,’ 2017, Karen Watson offers wise words to guide educators. She suggests stop applying labels, stop looking for new labels for children who don’t conform, and consider the discourse around difference, which promotes difference as a problem and something that needs to be fixed or changed. And remove the ‘norm’ as a measurement to privilege those who conform.
Challenge the idea of ‘sameness ‘. Be responsive to unfair encounters of exclusion and diverse perspectives on issues of inclusion witnessed and encourage others to identify unfair behaviour. Begin open and transparent conversations with colleagues around difference and be comfortable in the uncomfortable space of not knowing. Karen calls this the “elephant in the room”.