Getting To Know International Contacts

Alec Duncan of Child’s Play Music is from Perth, Western Australia. He has been in the field for over 20 years now, working in child care, out of school hours care and now traveling around to the various programs through Child’s Play Music. His website is http://childsplaymusic.com.au (Personal Communication, May 1, 2012). His travels allow him exposure to the wide variety of programs for young children; interacting with hundreds of carers and teachers. He is an active opponent of corporal punishment, which is still legal in Australia. We discussed Quality and the National Accreditation System that came into force in the early 90’s. I found this fascinating as it felt like looking at our own future. Many of the features, including a tiered rating system are utilized. The one distinction is the financial backing of free preschool to those centers that qualified. This quickly sifted out the low quality sites as they could no longer afford to continue servicing families. As in Michigan, their system began with self-assessments and a visit from a evaluator. A big difference is that this outside evaluator stayed on site for 3 full days! We are lucky to get a full day in. A plus for us is that our visits are unannounced (within a month’s time) and in Australia, they knew when they were coming making it possible to get their act together for those three days. Duncan shared spot checks are now being implemented, which helped tremendously (Personal Communication, May 2, 2012). He identifies the increased demands for documentation, low pay, and poor public perception of caregivers as resulting in low motivation and high turn-over. I can see this beginning to happen here already and we have barely gotten started with our QRIS. Currently, a more costly, integrated National regulation/accreditation/curriculum system is being rolled out in Australia. The results remain to be seen but certainly puts them right back into some of the growing pains we are currently experiencing with CHANGE.

            Regarding Poverty, due to an extensive social security system, support for parents with children and comprehensive free medical system, most people have access to adequate food and housing, and the basic necessities of life. The minimum wage is higher than that of the United States. However, income inequalities are growing and there are fewer opportunities for a child in the system as opposed to “well-to-do” families (Personal Communication, May 13, 2012). Extreme poverty can be seen with Indigenous Australians or “Aboriginals” Duncan describes conditions as “third world”, especially for those living in remote areas (Personal Communication, May 13, 2012). Australia has a history of oppression and genocidal policies. Fortunately, the status and position of Indigenous Australians within the broader Australian culture has vastly improved, and while prejudice still exists it is vastly decreased.  The government is taking the issues very seriously and a lot of money is being spent to try to fix the problems. Duncan shared the following link; a report on the issue. http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/statistics/index.html#Heading136 (Personal Communication, May 13, 2012)

Liz Butler is a Childminders’ Advisor in North West Dublin, Ireland. She was originally a Montessori Directress and Playgroup Leader and has provided some interesting information on the popularity of Montessori , especially among the wealthy. Butler then worked for 15 years in a Women's Refuge, (Shelter as it would be called in the US) as one of the two children's workers with children from birth to 18 years escaping physical, sexual and / or mental domestic violence. Her current job as a Childminders’ Advisor is providing networking, information, training and support to childminders, (Family Daycare Providers as they would be called in the US) She has been an invaluable source of information about the structure and quality efforts of early childhood in Ireland. 

When discussing quality and Aistear; Ireland’s curriculum framework, she shared the opinions of some parents, educators and even politicians that a push for early academics may do more harm than good as it potentially inhibits learning through play. Butler believes that children “need a supportive but free environment, companions and adults able to observe from a distance and supply that little extra enrichment to the child's own explorations.” (Personal Communication, May 11, 2012) When talking about children in need, she shared about the efforts of Early Start; a play-based program started as a pilot 17 years ago to address falling numbers in schools in deprived areas. With assistance of a childcare worker, classrooms and teachers were retrained and redeployed to take in 3-4 year-olds (Personal Communication, May 11, 2012). There are two sessions a day and each group had the 2 adults, the possibility of several childcare students, resource teachers and fifteen 3-4 year-olds. The program is free and really well resourced in comparison to community or private playgroups and other classes in schools. Unfortunately, there are mixed opinions on the impact on children and families.