Abstract
Catering for diversity within birth to 5-year-old settings continues to be an on-going concern for policy makers and educators worldwide. This research contributes to discussion on the value of children’s literature in achieving international principles of diversity and, in particular, the Principles, Practice and Outcomes outlined in the Australian Early Years Learning Framework. The article considers the selection and use of children’s literature related to diversity, as well as what influences these processes. Seventeen educators from five long day care centres located in or near the Perth metropolitan area participated in the study. Data were drawn from interviews and a book audit. The findings revealed educators had limited understandings of the role of literature in acknowledging and valuing diversity and rarely used it to promote the diversity-related outcomes of the EYLF. The key challenges which emerged from the findings concerned beliefs of educators, professional learning and the application of the EYLF in practice.
Highlights
Over the past 25 years, recognising and including diversity within education settings and programs has become a focus of policy makers and educators worldwide, largely due to the rapid increase in global integration and international mobility since the 1990s
Given the key role educators play in the use of literature to achieve goals related to diversity, this study investigated their perceptions and reported practices through the following research questions: What are educators’ perceptions of the role of children’s literature in supporting the EYLF Principles, Practice and Outcomes related to diversity?
This section reports and discusses these findings, their interrelationships and the role of children’s literature in achieving the Principles, Practice and Outcomes related to diversity in the EYLF
Summary
Over the past 25 years, recognising and including diversity within education settings and programs has become a focus of policy makers and educators worldwide, largely due to the rapid increase in global integration and international mobility since the 1990s. In Australia, since becoming a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, educational policy has promoted recognition of and respect for diverse families, cultures, languages and values. This attention to diversity is reflected in the current national policies guiding early childhood education in Australia. The Early Years Learning Framework [EYLF] (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations {DEEWR} 2009) provides guidance in the application of this standard to the curriculum of all early education and care settings for children aged 0–5 years of age
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