Research UNE Collection:

Resisting Neoliberalism: Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education and Care

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Resisting Neoliberalism: Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education and Care Contributor(s): Moloney, Mary; Sims, Margaret; Rothe, Antje; Buettner, Cynthia; Sonter, Lisa; Waniganayake, Manjula; Opazo, Maria-Jose; Calder, Pamela; Girlich, Sarah Abstract: Despite the relevance of early childhood services to children, families and nation states, the sector is largely undervalued and under resourced and, is not recognised as an established profession. Using collaborative auto ethnography, researchers from six different countries (Australia, Chile, England, Germany, Ireland and the United States) all members of the EECERA Professionalisation Special Interest Group (P-SIG) share their reflections on the professionalisation of early childhood. While professionalisation is associated with discretionary decision making that is premised upon an accepted body of knowledge, neoliberalism imposes constraints from on top, identifying through various forms of curricula, legislated standards, and policies what is appropriate and desirable practice. As a consequence, early childhood personnel are restricted in their professional agency and, their work is characterised by tension, as they strive to balance external expectations from a neoliberal stance and their own perspectives that prioritise a children’s rights perspective. This paper questions how the sector manages the constraints imposed on it in a neoliberal political and social world. It calls upon those in the profession to resist neoliberalism and, to make a stand in terms of what is considered best practice. It further argues that ongoing debate is required as to the boundaries of what would be called the early childhood profession: considerations of ways in which the different sectors (education, health, and welfare) contribute to a holistic approach in working with children balanced against the requirement for a profession to have an identified and discrete body of knowledge. The implications of this for professionalisation of early childhood are widespread and, worthy of debate. While the inclusion of different sectors for example, addresses the holistic nature of early childhood work, it risks creating a broad and diffused knowledge base that might make it difficult to claim professionalisation. We hope that this paper contributes to reenergizing conversations on the professionalisation of the early childhood sector.

Organisational narratives vs the lived neoliberal reality: Tales from a regional university

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Organisational narratives vs the lived neoliberal reality: Tales from a regional university Contributor(s): Rogers, Marg; Sims, Margaret; Bird, Jo; Elliott, Sue Abstract: Organisational narratives are foundational to inform the actions and directions of an organisation. Modern organisations often place great weight and invest significant time crafting their narratives that are communicated through mission statements, strategic plans, policies, directives and self-promotion. Sometimes these narratives align with the lived reality of the workers and those who deal with the organisation, but at other times there is a significant gap, or even chasm, between the portrayed ideal and the reality. This paper situates such narratives, and the lived experiences within critical organisational theory and a neoliberal framework. Utilising auto-ethnographic accounts of four academics within a higher education context, it highlights this gap and the need to voice concerns about this misalignment. The paper raises awareness of both organisations and workers to the importance of being true to narratives and ensuring they are an accurate representation of what happens. It offers ideas for resisting the disjunction between narrative and reality and a way of challenging neoliberalism within higher education.

Early childhood help for children of deployed military personnel

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT

Title: Early childhood help for children of deployed military personnel Contributor(s): Rogers, Marg Abstract: One parent shared with me that she was told 'You're just on your own until they go to school. There's nothing out there'. She was part of my research project to find out what 2-5-year old children understand and experience when their parent worked away due to military deployment and training.
During the project many other parents and early childhood educators repeated this problem, telling me about the lack of resources. They told me they wanted storybooks and apps for children from Australian Defence Force (ADF) families to help them understand and build resilience to deal with the stresses they face.
These stresses include: long parental deployments, frequent parental training, frequent relocations and a parent who may get injured or suffer mental health conditions when they return. Children can react to parental deployment in many ways, including emotionally, socially, physically and in their learning and development (cognitively).

On sourcing obsidian assemblages from the Mediterranean area: analytical strategies for their exhaustive geochemical characterisation

Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Title: On sourcing obsidian assemblages from the Mediterranean area: analytical strategies for their exhaustive geochemical characterisation Contributor(s): Orange, Marie; Le Bourdonnec, Francois-Xavier; Bellot-Gurlet, Ludovic; Luglie, Carlo; Dubernet, Stephan; Bressy-Leandri, Celine; Scheffers, Anja; Joannes-Boyau, Renaud Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the work conducted by our research group in the Mediterranean area. Initiated in the 1990s by the late Gérard Poupeau, our research relies on international and multidisciplinary collaborations to endeavour archaeological and anthropological issues linked to the diffusion and consumption of the obsidian rawmaterial during the Neolithic period. Our line ofaction is to develop flexibly unique analytical strategies, tailored to each obsidian assemblage considered for a sourcing study. Drawing its strength from the complementarity of the methods available within our group, i.e. visual characterisation, SEM-EDS, ED-XRF, pXRF, PIXE, and LA-ICP-MS, this approach allows for the exhaustive and non-destructive analysis of those assemblages, thus optimising the potential of sourcing studies. Working hand in hand with archaeologists, the results are closely integrated to the information brought by the typological and technological characteristics of the artefacts, in the aim to reconstruct an overview of the obsidian economy at site level, but also to replace it in a broader - regional and supra-regional - context.