Drawing from equity and plurilingual lenses, this qualitative research explores opportunities for parents from Language Backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) to engage in their children's school learning. Twenty-six Vietnamese and Burmese parents from two Australian primary (elementary) schools were interviewed. Three family engagement strategies, 1) open communication between teachers and families 2) homework/home learning 3) student conversations with their families about school learning were pertinent, and at times, problematic according to the parents. Implications from the study are how to find equitable and inclusive ways for teachers and schools to engage families with LBOTE in their children's learning.

Young children’s spatial reasoning is critical to mathematics learning from an early age. Recent reviews have drawn attention to the importance of mathematical experiences in the early years; however, an explicit focus on research in spatial reasoning can contribute to a more coherent account of the field. This paper reports a scoping review of qualitative studies ( n = 37) during the years 2009–2021. The studies analysed in this review provide insight into children’s embodied spatial concepts and non-verbal expressions such as gesture and the relationship between spatial reasoning and mathematics learning in early childhood (birth to 8 years). Four main themes were found: (i) children’s manipulation and transformation of objects, (ii) children’s bodily engagement with and within spaces, (iii) children’s representation and interpretation of spatial experiences, and (iv) contexts for spatial learning. While the review illuminates a deeper awareness and a more holistic and embodied view of children’s spatial competencies, there remains few studies focussed on children under three years of age. Future directions for ongoing research are identified.

Research into pedagogical approaches used in early years' nature education, more specifically European and UK forest schools, remains according to Leather, 'undertheorised.' In a similar situation in Australia, the bush kindergarten programmes (referred to as 'bush kinders'), have had limited research attention. Influenced by European and UK forest school approaches, bush kinders are a recent development in Australian early years nature education. We discuss an ethnographic study where teaching and learning in three bush kinder settings was observed, each with different pedagogical approaches. The paper reports one main finding, where a wide range of pedagogical approaches were observed across the different bush kinder sites. To theoretically frame these pedagogical approaches, our analysis builds on Edwards' notion of play-based learning, along with a model of inquiry-based teaching proposed by Furtak et al. Using ethnographic methods we draw on fieldwork data and research literature to analyse bush kinder pedagogies. The paper contributes to the conceptualisation of pedagogy in early childhood nature and bush kinder programmes.

In this paper we examine the role of the Educational Leader in early childhood education and its day-to-day pedagogical leadership enactment. The aim of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of, and insight into, the role of the Educational Leader in an Australian setting. We use shadowing as a research methodology, along with observation, contextual interviews and reflective conversations as data collection methods in this single case study. This enabled us to closely observe participant actions of early childhood educators and the situated leadership behaviours of the Educational Leader. Findings include discovering the interplay between the pre-school and the primary school with the glass doors situated between the two forming an 'invisible barrier'. Additionally, the care and consideration shown by the Educational Leader created and supported the conditions for collaboration and collegiality among colleagues. We conclude that the use of the shadowing methodology in early childhood education and care contexts is a useful methodology, particularly for research involving small-scale studies.

Fostering families' connectedness to their children's learning has become a focus for schools, based on growing evidence that family engagement positively influences student learning outcomes. This paper highlights ways in which teachers' family engagement practices can be adversely impacted by limiting and ambiguous terms of reference for family school partnerships. The experiences of four primary school teachers, working within a low socio-economic and culturally and linguistically diverse school community in Melbourne, Australia are the focus of this small-scale study. Teacher participants undertook a two-cycle process of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), where they examined school family engagement practices to identify opportunities to rethink and ultimately improve practice. The theory of practice architectures provided a scaffold for critical reflection, where the teachers' ways of understanding (sayings), facilitating (doings) and connecting (relatings) with students and their families were critically examined. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, transcripts of reflective practice meetings and reflective practice tools utilised throughout the CPAR cycles. Data analysis was underpinned by a practice architectures framework of cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements to allow for consideration of factors which enable and hinder practice. The study found that the teachers' self-described family engagement strategies initially stemmed from a parent involvement discourse that situated school as the central learning platform, with family and community contexts seen as peripheral. Throughout the CPAR cycles, facilitated reflective practice meetings supported the teacher participants to be able to differentiate family engagement from parent involvement. Teacher participants adapted their homework practices to provide opportunities for informal learning, occurring within family homes and community contexts, with the aim to connect with school curriculum. This study highlights opportunities for teachers to enhance family school partnerships through distinguishing and reconsidering parent involvement and parent engagement practices.

In recent times, education policy and reform discourses have become increasingly politicised by neo-liberalism, with critical policy methodologies struggling to catch up. Critical policy sociologists have noted that critical commentaries rarely succeed in changing or impacting dominant education policy pathways. This article presents a framework for critical engagement in education policy drawing on Foucauldian notions of governmentality, with the aim to imagine a path to policy discourse intervention, or truth-telling. The 'affirmative discourse intervention' model comprises three interrelated processes to engage and respond to discourse as a function of governmentality: discourse recognition, discourse disruption and discourse agency. The article outlines the affirmative discourse intervention model and its theoretical underpinnings, then draws on data from the recent and ongoing Australian early childhood quality reform policy to illustrate the affirmative discourse intervention processes in application. The final section offers possibilities that emerge when re-imagining discourse agency in early childhood education and invites further commentary.

Bush kindergarten programmes (known as bush kinders), where preschool children learn in, about and with nature, are proliferating in Australian early childhood education. This scoping review reports on, and analyses, the research literature pertaining to how ethnography has been applied to the bush kinder context. We included studies conducted in related contexts, such as forest schools, and other programmes that focus on nature pedagogy, as these contexts assist us to better understand bush kinders. The findings from our literature review illustrate and confirm that empirical research in bush kinder settings is in its early stages. Consequently, bush kinders present opportunities for piloting research methodologies. After a review of the research literature, it was found that ethnography as a research methodology is valuable to understand teacher pedagogy, young children’s learning, the implications of researcher positionality, the context and the place of bush kinders in early childhood education and care.

This paper presents data from interviews undertaken with teachers and parents of children who attend Australian bush kinders (kindergartens). The bush kinder approach is a recent adaptation of the European and UK forest school approaches, one that continues to gain momentum as increasingly teachers and parents come to understand the benefits associated with this type of outdoor learning environment. The research was undertaken using ethnography (Delamont, 1992; Madden, 2012), a useful method of research in this type of setting as ethnography enables a deep understanding of how children ‘notice’ in nature over time. The paper applies a discourse analysis (Gee, 2011) of teacher and parent interviews critically exploring the learning and development benefits children experience from attending a bush kinder program. Findings reveal that through their noticing, preschool children make a transition from being nature novices to nature experts. The data demonstrate the benefits preschool children can gain from learning and being ‘in’ and ‘with’ nature and the important role adults play recognising young children’s noticing in nature.

This chapter reports on a practice review which used mixed methods, enabling the perspectives of professionals, teachers, and families on early years transitions to be gathered in respectful and responsive ways. Methods were designed to be flexible to address issues of data collection across different situations and locations. Implementing a statewide survey and targeted focus groups helped maximise the data available. Key findings point to the importance of collaborative professional networks; the identification of effective and promising practices and resources; the significance of respectful, responsive, and supportive relationships with families; and the need to build professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes around transition and vulnerability.

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the book, focusing on how the book came about, and the intention for educators and professionals to have an opportunity to revisit and revitalise practice. As the book has deliberately selected the term evidence-informed, instead of evidence-based, a rationale is provided for this focus.

This chapter explores patterning as a transdisciplinary approach to conceptualize childhoodnature through the ways patterns of self and environment interconnect, relate, and resonate. In doing so, we aim to critique the compartmentalization of education through discipline foci, space and time limitations, and separations from nature. We argue that despite trends toward integrated and holistic approaches in education, such as STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics), and inquiry-based learning, a deeper, more aesthetic and ecological approach that encompasses childhoodnature is needed. Analyzing research on patterning in the early years of education and development, it has been noted that patterning is mostly conceptualized and understood through discipline-focused lenses, such as in mathematics, science, and the arts. Putting forward the argument that innate knowledge of patterning has been eroded from our everyday lifeworlds, a holistic concept of childhoodnature is required. We contend that knowledge and learning about patterning could enable children to make complex connections with their selves and environment, as ecological and aesthetically engaged learners. Based on eco-critical perspectives and incorporating Indigenous cultural arts, this chapter reconsiders and reconceptualizes ways pedagogies and curricula in education to encompass a more transdisciplinary approach with a biophilic focus.

澳洲幅員廣大，以總面積計是大洋洲中最大和世界第六大國家。澳洲聯邦有6個州和兩個領地，人口超過2,500萬，主要集中在東南海岸線和各州、領地的首府。澳洲幼兒教育和關懷服務的發展幾經轉變，自數十年前由家庭各自安排，到近期由聯邦政府擴大和增加服務，以提升兒童學習和發展的成效和質素。本文參考現有政府檔案，了解澳洲如何開展非正規的幼兒教育和關懷服務，以至於近期服務經過改革，制定出國家質素架構以引領服務發展，目的是提升教育成效，從而改善就業和社會狀況。要逹致全面而暢順的質素保證，尚有不少障礙。本文會討論當前澳洲在這方面的挑戰，並提供應對建議。

Research highlights the importance of seamless transitions between early childhood services and schools to ensure a positive start to school for young children. Drawing on an ecological model of transition where positive outcomes for children depend on the relationships formed between key players in their transition, this paper examines cross-sectoral relationships between the professionals involved. It categorises interactions taking place within the transition then utilises Bourdieu's field theory to explore and illuminate the social processes involved in the pre-school/school relationships. Data are drawn from field visits and interviews with early childhood teachers at 12 services and primary school teachers in 11 schools across the state of New South Wales, Australia. The findings show that not all categories of professional relationships are apparent when classified through transition activities, with personal experiences and historical positionings accounting for such differences. This paper argues that more effort and support is required to build collaborative partnerships that move from being unidirectional to mutually respectful and responsive. This move will enable teachers to engage in professional dialogue and build sustainable professional networks; however, for this to occur teachers need to become aware of how their practices have been shaped by their habitus, capital and the field.

Children’s agency and capabilities are often overlooked in the research literature, in particular, when it comes to young children’s reflections on their transnational childhoods and migration experiences. Nestled within an intergenerational family migration story, this article reports on a study that investigated childhood identity, home and belonging. The catalyst for the study came from N.D.’s (then) 6-year-old daughter who asked ‘ Mummy, am I Australian?’ and ‘ Am I more Australian than you?’ Embedded in these seemingly simple questions are complex layers of hegemonic ideology located within broader intergenerational family migration stories. Thus, to gain insight into these questions posed by N.D.’s daughter, a small-scale study was developed taking a postcolonial perspective and using narrative analysis to make sense of the ‘ordinary’ within family narratives. The study found that common themes arose for the participants, these being, nationhood and all the contradictions and challenges that can occur when an ‘outsider’ is ‘othered’ and distinct discourses of un/belonging. The findings of the study add to the growing literature on transnational childhoods. It reiterates the complexities that the child as social actor in their environment mediates and the identity making that young children undertake as agentic citizens in their own right.

Discursive insights into early childhood teacher views of parenting in a Chinese context is the focus of this paper. A critical discourse analysis was conducted on teachers' professional accounts captured on an online discussion forum uncovering how parenting and the role of parents in children's education were represented. Emphasized in the analysis is the importance of situating teacher discourse within the context of ‘glocalization’, acknowledging the influence of Confucian ideology on their professional stance, and recognizing the position of Western approaches in early childhood education. The findings reveal a tenuous place for teacher-parent partnerships in teachers' dialogic space and practice.

This chapter introduces, explores, and analyzes Australian policies with respect to early childhood education (ECE). It does this by using the 3A2S framework: accessibility, affordability, accountability, sustainability, and social justice. The last decade has seen large-scale and significant changes to the Australian early childhood sector, an ambitious reform agenda that is still in process. The major features of these changes have seen early childhood education move from a sanctuary for children's health and safety while their parents worked to settings advocating for young children's educational development. Discourse has shifted from ECE viewed as a "cost" to government and families to an "investment" for the future of the social and economic growth of the country, leading to a more highly educated workforce. However, as governments change and political persuasions alter, the movement between these positions varies across time and impacts the rate and direction of change within the ECE sector.

THIS PAPER HAS TWO AIMS. First, it examines how children's resilience is being defined and discussed in literature, and second, it presents findings from a small-scale study that investigated early childhood educator understandings of children's resilience across the curriculum. Considering resilience as a multifaceted construct, the authors question why children's resilience should be a focus for educator practice and how research literature is portraying the role of educators in supporting children to become resilient. The findings illustrate that educators in the study had varied understandings of the notion of resilience and how to support children's resilience. Spontaneous and unplanned teaching strategies were revealed as the educators' main approach of supporting children's resilience. There was also some uncertainty about how to identify resilience according to educators in the study. The study's findings raise critical implications and questions for the early childhood sector, one of these being: Is the fostering and supporting of children's resilience too important an educational issue to be left to the fate of spontaneous incidents to arise in practice?