|
LAUNCH RELEASE
|
TREVOR MALLARD SPEECH
5 July, 2005
Linda Mitchell is a
Senior Researcher, NZ Council for Educational Research and founding
member of the Federation of Early Childhood Education Organisations,
predecesor to the Early Education Federation
I am delighted to be
speaking at the launch of the Early Education Federation. It’s
lovely to see so many familiar faces, and new faces too, and to know
that your organisation is thriving, with a new name and a common
focus on what is at the heart of your role and influence –
developing a collective voice to influence and promote good quality
ECE. It may seem hard to believe, but the Department of Education
paid representatives of national ECE organisations in 1986 to
fly to Auckland and attend the week-long course at Lopdell House
where the aims and constitution for this organisation were
developed. I was a participant on this course, and when we thought
up the name FECEO none of us liked it much – it was one of those
names emerging from committee decision-making - it wasn’t snappy and
we weren’t very keen on the acronym. Early Education Federation is a
great name.
Then as now, FECEO
members had their eyes set on goals for children and families, and
good conditions for the staff and parent educators who work in early
childhood education settings. FECEO has been an advocate for good
quality early childhood education since its inception, sometimes
stronger in offering a voice than other times. One of the
organisation’s first submissions was to the Social Assistance
Cabinet Committee in April 1991 following on from the four major
reviews of early childhood education funding, staffing, curriculum
and properties. Reading the submission, I was struck by the
persistence of the arguments. While they have changed in some shape
and detail, core ideas have remained, and are now being implemented
through the strategic plan for early childhood education,
Pathways to the Future - Nga Huarahi Arataki. In April 1991, the
organisation cautioned against increased access at the expense of
quality and argued for [and I quote]:
?
the right of every preschool child to
attend an early childhood education service delivered by trained
competent people, and to have needs met regardless of gender,
ethnicity, class, special need or location, in a specifically
equipped environment which meets the child’s developing needs;
?
a funding formula linked to costs and
operation;
?
weighting in the formula for aspects
that now form most of the components of equity funding;
?
assistance for staff to undertake
training towards a teacher qualification;
?
three age bands in the staffing
regulations; and
?
greater governmental support for
community-based provision to meet needs of all families, including
better planning.
The submission wasn’t
listened to then. Quite the reverse – I remember Crispin Gardiner, a
member of the early childhood funding review team at that time
publicly stating that none of the submissions were read. He left the
team in protest and wrote his own independent report. And I’m sure
many here will remember the “mother of all budgets” in July 1991
when the then Finance Minister Ruth Richardson cut funding for under
twos from $7-25 an hour to $4-50, when staff: ratio requirements for
under twos were reduced from 1:4 to 1:5, and when the blueprint goal
for improving teacher qualifications was dropped.
Despite these
setbacks, the basic ideas continued to be advocated by members of
this organisation in the 1996 Early Childhood Education Project
Future Directions, and in the Strategic Plan for Early
Childhood Education Working Group. Some fundamental aspects – a
greater role for the state in supporting early childhood education
provision, support for teacher education, and a funding system that
moves away from low levels of funding with everyone treated the same
towards a better funded system based on costs - are now embedded in
the strategic plan, Pathways to the Future - Ngä Huarahi Arataki,
alongside an emphasis on pedagogical support.
I was asked to
contribute to your celebration by “looking at where the organisation
has come from, what you have been through and where you are going”.
I believe your continued viability 19 years after being established,
is because members have a vision for what they want that is wider
than individual interests, believe in collective work to achieve
goals that respect the diversity of early childhood education, are
able to explain their position, and have a commitment to good
quality community-based early childhood education for all children.
I can’t tell you
where you are going but I do see three key immediate challenges:
?
First, to work together on aspects of
the strategic plan that are currently unformulated and awaiting
policy development so that your views about it are heard. And I’m
thinking particularly of the expected policy development on parent
and whänau –led services, so that the high levels of volunteer
workload are reduced, parents and whänau are supported to take up
training opportunities provided by their own infrastructure, and the
contribution of these services to parent learning and support is
acknowledged within the policy framework. And of resource
development to support Pasifika centres, multi-cultural resources
for working with a more ethnically diverse New Zealand, and the
up-coming consideration of professional development and leadership
programmes.
A second
challenge is for ECE services themselves to offer pedagogical
support for the teacher/educators who are directly working with
children. There is evidence for example
that centres that found it easier to meet qualification requirements
of the strategic plan were those that relied on providing
opportunities for professional development and staff training,
rather than on recruiting new staff with the necessary
qualifications. The best evidence synthesis on characteristics of
effective professional development linked to children’s learning
that I and Pam Cubey wrote showed the
importance of centre management that value and support ongoing
professional development and teacher/educators having time and
effective opportunities within their working week for reflection and
discussion. As national organisations representing your own
membership, there is a role in encouraging responsibility for these
framing conditions. These include rates of pay.
?
And, given that the strategic plan for
early childhood education Pathways to the Future – Ngä Huarahi
Arataki encompasses ideas advocated by the Early Education
Federation, the third challenge is to ensure that the government
that is elected this year will retain the strategic plan and further
the interests of the early childhood education sector, because
history tells us that long term plans have a habit of going astray.
Education Review Office. (2003). Readiness for new qualification
requirements in early childhood services.
www.ero.govt.nz/reports.
Mitchell, L., & Cubey,
P. (2003). Characteristics of effective professional development
linked to enhanced pedagogy and children's learning in early
childhood settings. A best evidence synthesis. Wellington:
Ministry of Education.
| 