International Contacts-Part 3

Alec Duncan of Child’s Play Music (http://childsplaymusic.com.au) completed his degree in Children Studies nearly 20 years ago. He worked for 10 years in child care but chose to leave that part of the field when he realized he had compromised what he believed to be developmentally appropriate practice through the pressures of policy and paperwork. He found himself burned out but still passionate about children, so began his own program, Child’s Play Music; working with children from 16 months to 8 years introducing or reintroducing play-based learning in the schools and daycare centers. He has literally met tens of thousands of children and inspired hundreds of teachers and carers in Perth, Western Australia.

Regarding quality, it wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that Australia began to look beyond basic safety standards to quality early education. They implemented a quality rating system which greatly reduced the number of “truly dreadful care” according to Duncan (Personal contact, May 2, 2012). Quality has increased with these efforts but Duncan believes that the highest of quality programs are still relatively rare, mainly because quality is really hard work. His words below encompass much of our recent discussion for Week 7!

If you are a person working in a difficult and demanding profession that is very badly paid and which is perceived by the public as being (essentially) baby-sitting it is unsurprising that many staff lose motivation.  And it is also unsurprising that staff turnover is massive - people leave the profession permanently in droves every year, to the point that the industry can't get enough qualified workers to fill all the positions available; as fast as they train new staff, experienced staff are leaving at a faster rate!  And it is also unsurprising that attracting applicants of a high standard to the profession is extremely difficult, for all the same reasons (Personal Contact, May 2, 2012).

A new integrated National regulation/accreditation/curriculum system that is being rolled out right now and a mandatory curriculum, the Early Years Learning Framework, is in place.  Info on the EYLF can be found on the following fact sheet: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Earlychildhood/Policy_Agenda/Quality/Documents/EYLF_FactSheet.pdf

A good deal of professional development is available, both governmental, related to the EYLF and also by thousands of providers and businesses offering every imaginable sort of training; seeing their opportunity to make a profit through the new National Regulations.  

                He freely admits he will never go back to child care, loving what he does now. Like Alec on Facebook for a periodic dose of inspiration! (www.facebook.com/ChildsPlayMusicPerth) Or check out his YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/childsplaymusic