Research Around the World

Early Childhood Australia about us states that they will advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years old.  Their values are the rights of children, leadership, excellence and respect, courage, honesty, and openness, collaboration and diversity, justice, and social inclusion of children(ECA, 2011).  This site announces upcoming conferences and offers books and journal subscriptions.  One of the journals I found was Australasian Journal of Early Childhood is Australasia’s foremost scholarly journal and the world’s longest running major journal within the early childhood field.  This journal is published quarterly and offers evidence-based articles that promote an exchange of ideas among early childhood practitioners, students and academics.  I found a list of various topics related to the early childhood filed such as Aggression and young children, dealing with bullying together:  Preventions and resolutions and Learning and teaching through play.

What I found interesting was an article Young Children as active learners this article states that the way children were once viewed or the Western perspective about young children assumed that they were vulnerable so they are viewed in terms of what they cannot do, requiring adult care during this time.   Adults must always determine what is best for children.  The article states that the traditional ideas  about childhood is changing such as time of dependency on adults and a time of innocence due to children’s access to computer games, mobile telephones and obtaining information from the internet.  “It is argued that this greater access to popular culture has subverted contemporary children’s consciousness of themselves as incompetent and dependent entities”.    Children are now considered as active agents in and of their own learning.

Early Childhood Australia has taken a position regarding children of refugees and children in detention the paper is called ECA Position Statement :  Children of Asylum Seekers.  Asylum seekers are people who have entered Australia claiming refugee status under the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and seeking protection of the Australian Government.  The children of these people are experiencing their childhood in detention centers or in the communities of Australia.   The ECA developed principles  that should be applied to all policies and practices as they relate to the children of asylum seekers and children of refugees.  The main goal of these principles is to ensure the protection and healthy development of all children and to achieve durable solutions which are appropriate to the immediate and long-term developmental needs of children.

Reference:

ECA. (2011). Early Childhood Australia: A Voice for Young Children. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/resource_themes/resource_themes.html