Abstract:
The years 3-5 are part of the formative years that create meaningful and lifelong experiences for young children from different cultures. Education during these years is a responsibility of different partners and stakeholders, including families, early childhood educators, tertiary training institutions and policymakers – each with their own separate roles. There is an urgent need to build a collaborative platform for these players to ensure there is an effective monitoring of the quality of these early formative years in building the foundations of citizenship development based on moral and civic values – as well as on tolerance and understanding. Dewey (1915) argued clearly in “The Schools of Tomorrow” that teachers should focus on educating children to become future citizens, which requires all children to be given the information necessary to play an active role in society.
This presentation is based on findings from a research study that aims to provide a resonant, rigorous and transparent methodology that draws on the researchers’ practice and experience in the Australian early childhood sector. This new and comprehensive approach is based on collaborative autoethnography (Chang, 2021) and is enacted by addressing two research questions:
“What are the possibilities and limitations of developing citizenship attitudes in future Australian early childhood educational settings with multi-ethnic and multi-cultural backgrounds?” and
“How do these future citizenship attitudes contribute to broader debates about Australian policy settings and sociological experiences?”
In contributing to relevant recent literature on this topic; this paper seeks to distil broader lessons about an overlooked but crucial part of the early childhood education sector. The study presents an opportunity to lay robust foundations for future citizenship development. The methodology in these papers builds on the national developments in curriculum and pedagogy that can potentially facilitate the quality of these foundations - yet this study also highlights possible threats to such facilitation, including partnership challenges, as well as increasing pressures on the Australian childcare workforce.
The authors believe that, securing a change in citizenship attitudes will requires the exercise of clear-sighted vision, courageous leadership and support from the broader community - if the ideal of children as social agents enacting their full potential as active citizens is to become a reality.
We believe that it is never too early to teach children to be valuable social agents who have a clear-sighted vision that promotes courage in leadership and contributes to a sense of a broader integrated community.
This presentation is based on findings from a research study that aims to provide a resonant, rigorous and transparent methodology that draws on the researchers’ practice and experience in the Australian early childhood sector. This new and comprehensive approach is based on collaborative autoethnography (Chang, 2021) and is enacted by addressing two research questions:
“What are the possibilities and limitations of developing citizenship attitudes in future Australian early childhood educational settings with multi-ethnic and multi-cultural backgrounds?” and
“How do these future citizenship attitudes contribute to broader debates about Australian policy settings and sociological experiences?”
In contributing to relevant recent literature on this topic; this paper seeks to distil broader lessons about an overlooked but crucial part of the early childhood education sector. The study presents an opportunity to lay robust foundations for future citizenship development. The methodology in these papers builds on the national developments in curriculum and pedagogy that can potentially facilitate the quality of these foundations - yet this study also highlights possible threats to such facilitation, including partnership challenges, as well as increasing pressures on the Australian childcare workforce.
The authors believe that, securing a change in citizenship attitudes will requires the exercise of clear-sighted vision, courageous leadership and support from the broader community - if the ideal of children as social agents enacting their full potential as active citizens is to become a reality.
We believe that it is never too early to teach children to be valuable social agents who have a clear-sighted vision that promotes courage in leadership and contributes to a sense of a broader integrated community.