http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/services/Feed ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:17258 Early childhood settings provide a place for children to develop connections with their local community. Whilst social capital is recognised as an important factor in community life and a sound determinant for this practice; early childhood services in New South Wales have been further prompted to create and maintain these links through policy and curriculum documents which exist at a State and more recently Federal level (Australian Government Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009; National Childcare Accreditation Council, 2003, 2006; NSW Department of Community Services, 2001) and highlight the importance of community context and authentic experiences for children as a part of these connections. Initially, the role of the New South Wales Police Youth Liaison Officer was defined as working with children and young people under twenty five years of age; particularly in relation to juvenile justice and reducing youth related crime and victimisation (New South Wales Police Service, 2001). However their role has significantly broadened. The authors of this presentation have been commissioned by the New South Wales Police to develop and deliver training to all Youth Liaison Officers around how children learn and effective teaching practices particularly aimed at children in the early years of school. This initiative has developed out of the implementation of the Keeping Me Safe (New South Wales Police Force, 2007) program which must be delivered by a Police Officer in schools. This paper describes a pilot study, exploring Police aspects in their connections with early childhood settings; the research aims to explore the current role Police Officers play in early childhood settings and identifies the role police believe they can play in connecting with early childhood settings. The research has been conducted with Police Youth Liaison Officers across New South Wales, Australia . A phenomenological approach was enacted to gain an insight into their perceptions and lived experiences through their interactions with early childhood settings. An open ended questionnaire was developed to elicit responses in the following areas: 1) years of service and how they came to the role of Police Youth Liaison Officer; 2) prior experiences with young children; 3) expectations from the local early childhood community in terms of visits; 4) types of information provided in presentations to children (expected and developed) and 5) benefits and constraints of visiting early childhood settings. The findings from this study will provide a starting point for discussion and reflection for the early childhood field in relation to effective community connections. It will allow teachers to understand Police perceptions of their role in early childhood settings. It will provide an opportunity to begin to reconceptualise the role of Police in settings and will inform the direction of further research in this area. 2012-07-26T18:01:46.898Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:19295 For the past three years, considerable media and governmental attention has been directed towards the study of Australian literature. This focus on the ways in which schools and universities teach and select Australian literature has been reflected in many articles printed in the mainstream media (for example: Neill, 2006; Donnelly, 2007; O'Connor, 2007; Topsfield, 2007) and in governmental and institutional responses to this issue. In August 2007, the Australia Council for the Arts convened an Australian Literature in Education Roundtable. Since the publication of the Communique following this event, the first national survey of the teaching of Australian literature in senior secondary and tertiary institutions has been completed and the first comprehensive anthology of Australian literature has been published (Jose, 2009). An interest in the teaching of Australian literature is particularly evident in both the selection of the material for the Macquarie Pen Anthology (Goldsworthy, 2009), and also in the extensive support material provided free online designed for secondary teachers which accompanies this substantive volume. Further, and most significantly, the debate about the teaching of Australian literature, as I have argued elsewhere (McLean Davies 2008a, 2008b and 2009) has significantly influenced the various iterations of the Australian curriculum for English released since October 2008.In light of the sustained and considerable interest in the teaching of Australian literature, and the ways in which the debate around this issue has informed the development of the Australian Curriculum for English, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, I will draw on Pierre Bourdieu's notions of capital, legitimacy and consecration (Bourdieu, 1993; Moi, 1999) in order to analyse and critique the way in which first complete draft of The Australian Curriculum: English-released on March 30, 2010-represents, defines and positions the study of Australian literature in subject English. I will consider the extent to which the representation of Australian literature in current draft of the Australian Curriculum: English resonates with the rationale, to create a curriculum which will help students to "extend a deepen their relationships, to understand their identities and their place in a changing world, and to become citizens and workers who are ethical, thoughtful and informed" (ACARA, 2010, p1).In response to this analysis, and in the absence of explicit pedagogical approaches to the teaching of literature in the Australian Curriculum: English, the second part of the paper will draw on and appropriate Ken Gelder's recent work on "proximate reading" (Gelder, 2009) in order to suggest a framework for teaching and studying Australian literature in subject English. I will argue, in this substantive part of the paper, that a 'proximate pedagogy' which directs attention to issues of closeness and distance in Australian writing can provide a useful framework for the teaching of Australian literature in a globalised, post-colonial context. In order to advance this contention, I will draw on Richard Flanagan's award winning novel Wanting (2008), a text marketed for use in senior English classes. By offering a reading of this text in terms of proximity, I will explore the study of Australian literature might 'make a difference' to the ways in which secondary school students engage with the complexities facing Australian writers and readers as they negotiate concepts of nation, identity and belonging in the 21st century. 2012-05-21T18:41:47.471Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:17183 A growing body of research has provided evidence of both children’s desire for challenging play that involves a degree of risk-taking and the role that positive risk-taking has in fostering children’s optimal health and development. At the same time, there is mounting concern that Western societies are becoming increasingly risk averse with many everyday activities now being seen as dangerous and something to be avoided. Consequently, safety concerns and stringent risk minimisation strategies are eroding children’s opportunities to take sufficient risks in play in order for their playground experiences to be interesting and developmentally challenging. This paper presents the argument that factors such as the Early Childhood (EC) regulatory environment, high child-staff ratios, poor outdoor environments, fear of litigation and an inadequate understanding of the benefits of risk-taking contribute to minimisation of opportunities for risk-taking play. Possible outcomes resulting from these measures include changes to both the quality and quantity of physical play, poor evaluation of risk situations, and increases in unsafe risk-taking. The present study examined these factors through semi-structured interviews with 17 Early Childhood practitioners (16 female, 1 male) recruited from 6 EC centres located in different regions of Sydney. The findings suggest that from a pedagogical perspective, practitioners believe opportunities for risk-taking are important for all aspects of children’s development however the regulatory environment places constraints on their ability to provide sufficiently interesting and developmentally challenging experiences. The research findings support the call for more flexible enforcement of regulations and risk assessment procedures to allow practitioners to use their professional knowledge to make informed decisions in managing risk situations. 2012-02-14T09:30:41.396Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:17366 his study uses longitudinal telephone survey data gathered from using a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) facility to examine families’ use of multiple and changeable patterns of child care over the prior-to-school years. Despite the increasing use of multiple care arrangements, little is understood about why parents use mixed care or change the care arrangements for their child. Six-hundred and seventy-seven children and families were recruited from long day care centres and family day care schemes in metropolitan and rural New South Wales with 257 families participating in all six waves of the study. A factor analysis on the reasons offered by parents for their use of multiple care revealed two main factors: (1) families were in control of their child care choice or (2) families chose child care in response to outward pressure. The majority of children in all age groups did not change child care arrangements with most of the rest changing once only. Most parents felt that changing their child’s care arrangement was their choice although a substantial minority of parents felt the change was definitely out of their control. Parental choice may be an important factor in perceptions of quality in child care. 2012-02-06T18:21:28.798Z ]]> http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/mq:16493 The voices of Indigenous families living in the Sydney area are central to this paper, as they take part in yarning sessions about their young aged children. In the yarning sessions they talked about their experiences of early childhood education. The common themes of yarning sessions with 27 city families are presented as first findings of a research project involving close to 100 families across NSW. Child Care Choices of Indigenous Families is a project that has been underway over the last five years, funded by the NSW Department of Community Services. There has been little research on current patterns of child care for young Indigenous children or the attitudes of parents about what is important for them in early childhood programs. Using the culturally appropriate methodology of yarning, this project has yielded rich information about quality early childhood provision from the viewpoint of Aboriginal parents living in the city. 2011-12-20T23:30:44.451Z ]]>