PowerPoint Presentation
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
ECTPP302A
REFLECTIVE & PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
Week 6: Critical reflection about partnerships
• Beginning, extending and deepening critical reflection
about partnerships with professionals
• Reflecting with children
• Families - Reflecting on continuity
• Community
1
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Partnerships
Partnerships are based on the foundations of
understanding each other’s expectations and
attitudes, and build on the strength of each
other’s knowledge.
Early Years Learning Framework (DEEWR, 2009, p.13)
2
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Partnerships with professionals
‘Multi-disciplinary teams draw on the skills and approaches of each
professional to provide the best support for children and families to:
• Work collaboratively to share information
• Plan and develop holistic approaches to children’s learning and
development
• Understand each other’s practice, skills and expertise, and make
efe
als when appropriate
• Acknowledge the significance of transitions within and across early
childhood services and schools, and ensure that children
understand the process and have an active role in preparing for
these transitions
• Build on children’s prior learning and experiences to build
continuity for their learning and development’
(VEYLDF, 2009, p.10)
3
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
VEYLDF Practice Principles –
Partnerships with Professionals
Watch Part 1
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj3TuZMrw
4g
The critical reflection questions on the following slides have
een adapted from the resource that accompanies the
Partnerships with Professionals videos:
https:
view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.vic.gov.
au%2FDocuments%2Fchildhood%2Fproviders%2Fedcare%2Fpartnershipsreflectiontool.doc
x
4
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj3TuZMrw4g
https:
view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.vic.gov.au%2FDocuments%2Fchildhood%2Fproviders%2Fedcare%2Fpartnershipsreflectiontool.docx
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Beginning critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• Think about your local community. List the
early childhood professionals in your
community with whom you could potentially
collaborate to promote children’s learning and
wellbeing? What steps can you take to build
connections leading to an effective
partnership?
5
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Beginning critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• Can you think of examples when you share
information and collaborate with other
professionals to support a child’s or family’s
wellbeing?
6
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Beginning critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• Why do you think partnerships with other
professionals are important? How does
collaboration benefit children and their
families?
• Do you need family consent to share
information with other professionals? What
do you know about NSW privacy laws? Where
would you find them?
7
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
VEYLDF Practice Principles –
Partnerships with Professionals
Watch Part 2
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4BOPZple
uQ
The critical reflection questions on the following slides have
een adapted from the resource that accompanies the
Partnerships with Professionals videos:
https:
view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.vic.gov.au%2
FDocuments%2Fchildhood%2Fproviders%2Fedcare%2Fpartnershipsreflectiontool.docx
8
https:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4BOPZpleuQ
https:
view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.education.vic.gov.au%2FDocuments%2Fchildhood%2Fproviders%2Fedcare%2Fpartnershipsreflectiontool.docx
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Extending critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• How would collaboration with other
professional support services build
elationships with every child at a service?
• How can leadership and governance
structures support collaborative partnerships
with professionals? Are refe
al policies,
practices and procedures in place?
9
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Extending critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• The transition to another environment is not
just an event but a process.
• Which professionals you could liaise with to
support children through transitions?
• What strategies would you use to orientate
children and families into your service or
when transitioning to another service?
10
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Extending critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• The United Nations Conventions on the rights of the Child
(1989) advances an image of children as subjects of rights and
full members of society, capable of participating in their social
worlds through their relationships with others.
VEYLDF - (DEECD, 2011, p. 52.)
• What are the rights of children and families
during transitions?
• What can professionals do to support the
ights of children and their families during
transitions?
11
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Deepening critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• In the video, Anne Stonehouse asks the
question, “What does collaboration mean for
you as a professional”?
• What is a professional network? What are the
advantages of joining professional networks?
12
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Deepening critical reflection about
Partnerships with Professionals
• Is it the role of the leaders in the organisation
to develop relationships with other
professionals or is this a shared responsibility?
• What are some of the ba
iers to establishing
and building partnerships with professionals?
13
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Reflecting with children
Educators spend time reflecting about children
ut do they reflect with children?
• Ask children the big questions and listen to
their perspectives
• Don’t make assumptions about children’s
thinking
• Consider how children’s ideas and voices can
e heard – at all ages and stages of
development
14
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Reflecting with children
• Reflection in action with children
– Listen to their questions, discoveries and solutions
in the moment
• Reflection on action with children
– What happened? What did we learn? What did
we remember?
• Reflection for action with children
– What would we like to find out? What should we
change? What do we do next?
15
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Reflecting with children
‘Through whatever means children use, it is children’s
voices that matter when consulting with them about
issues affecting them. It is important not to impose our
adult frames of reference or put words in children’s
mouths. Children are insightful human beings, as
anyone who has had the privilege of really tuning into
children knows. To listen to a child with all our senses is
to wholly encounter the child in all their fullness of
eing and richness of thought. ‘
(Ha
is & Manatakis, 2013, p. 12).
16
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Reflecting with children
• Provide provocations and questions to
stimulate reflection
• Allow time and be prepared to go back an
evisit reflections
• Document by video/audio recording or writing
ut don’t let the act of recording get in the
way of listening and speaking (have another
educator scribe or video)
17
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Reflecting with children
• When recording and analysing children’s
thoughts and ideas ensure they are true to the
meaning the child intended
• Value and respect all thoughts and ideas
• Allow them to take the lead in discussions and
ask the questions of one anothe
• Are you the ‘knowledgeable other’ or is it the
child/children?
18
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Partnerships with families and
communities
Links to the National Quality Standard:
Quality Area 6: Collaborative partnerships with
families and communities
19
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
Based on Bronfen
enner’s ecological systems
theory is an assumption that a child’s transitions
etween home and early childhood settings will
e more successful, and the developmental
potential of each setting will be enhanced, when
there is ‘continuity’ and support between the
two settings.
20
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
• The time children spend in early years settings
is only part of their whole day.
• Family members and other people who have
the responsibility for the ongoing care of the
child must be consulted and involved in
developing the child’s care routine, so that
consistency is ensured and culturally sensitive
caregiving is implemented.
21
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
• A mismatch between the dominant Anglo-
Australian discourse and norms that shape
provision of care in Australia, and the values
and attitudes of families from non-Anglo
cultural backgrounds could create issues in
egard to continuity.
• Successful partnerships require trust, mutual
espect, time, empathy and honesty
22
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
Potential ba
iers:
• Time - for both families and staff
• Families reluctant to share home practices for
fear of being judged
• Language differences
• Difficulties in engaging families
• Differing expectations between staff and families
• Family silence treated as acceptance
23
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
Building a collaborative approach:
• mutually agreed upon goals and priorities
• shared planning and decision-making is also
important especially to ensure that families
etain some sense of control
• true partnerships require educators to view
families as key decision-makers rather than
simply consumers or clients of a service
(Rouse & O’Brien, (2017)
24
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
Ways to establish a welcoming relationship:
• develop a philosophy and policies that acknowledge the
important of the partnerships
• Provide comfortable spaces for adults as well as children
• Provide opportunities for various forms of communication
• Share information about the child’s day in an open and
honest manne
• Share positive information on an ongoing basis - avoid only
• discussing problems
• Invite parents and families to participate and share
information about their family but respect decisions not to
• Provide information in home languages
25
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
Benefits for children:
• Using similar routines across both the home and
service settings helps create a sense of security
for the child
• Consistent approaches to reinforcing positive
ehaviour are more effective for developing
successful social and emotional skills which are
linked to mental health and wellbeing later in life
• Social stories are an example of approaches to
supporting children that work best when used
consistently both at home and the service
26
www.tafensw.edu.au/degrees
Moodle: courses.highered.tafensw.edu.au
Families – Reflecting on Continuity
Consider:
• children’s sense of self and self esteem is tied in
with their family and ethnic identity
• the ‘family systems’ perspective – each child is a
member of a larger, interacting system called the
family
• how we value family diversity, show respect for
cultural traditions and be open to different ideas
of family members, including extended families,