International Contact - Part 3

As I continued to exchange my thoughts about excellence and quality in early childhood education, I also asked my professional contact her thoughts and opinions. Jodie shared far more than I thought I was going to receive.  She is a fantastic resource that I has helped me learn much more about the education system in Australia as well as about her own hopes and dreams.

·         What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

Issues  - staff qualifications are always being discussed. In our early years child care centers (prior to formal school) obtaining staff that are suitably qualified is always an issue. Here in Queensland all staff are required to have a qualification in child care to work with children. You can find the list of approved list of qualifications for child care staff here in Queensland, can be found here http://deta.qld.gov.au/earlychildhood/service/qualifications.html    They are also required to have a "Blue Card" which is a card they have to apply to have which shows they have no criminal history. Info on this can be found here - http://www.ccypcg.qld.gov.au/bluecard/index.html    Retaining appropriately qualified staff in centers which are high quality is a big issue also. Staff turnover is high and often we are left with a young inexperienced (yet qualified or close to completion of study) workforce. A concerning trend is for qualified child care professionals to leave the profession due to low pay, long hours and the large amount of paperwork involved (compliance, curriculum, quality assurance and accreditation). You can find a copy of the Queensland Child Care Industry award here -  http://www.fwa.gov.au/consolidated_awards/an/AN140060/asframe.html  You can also find information on our National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care http://www.deewr.gov.au/earlychildhood/policy_agenda/quality/pages/home.aspx. This framework is compulsory for all centers, family day care etc. to be involved in, it is law here in Australia that all care facilities be licensed and a requirement of licensing (and funding) is that they are involved in this framework. If centers are deemed poor quality and not meeting minimum requirements over a period of time (they will be given a time frame to improve) then they will be shut down. This law is strictly enforced and it is not unheard of for the government to shut down centers due to poor quality.

·         What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

There are many consultants which offer the child care industry professional development for a fee. That is the issue though, as the majority of our child care centers are privately owned, then funding for professional development of staff isn't as high a priority as it should be. Often professional development is self-funded, and although I personally see this as a commitment to furthering oneself personally and professionally, there are some that can not financially afford to do this on a regular basis. There are some community based organizations which run child care centers that run their own professional development in-house and invite others from the wider profession to register for these opportunities as another source of income. The child care award here in Queensland states that "Teachers will be provided with 5 paid days per annum professional development leave in addition to annual leave." This doesn't mean that the professional development will be paid for itself, rather the teacher will get 5 days of paid leave to engage in professional development. I should also mention that only applies to teachers, which by definition here is a professional which has a 4 year education degree. The child care award states "The parties commit themselves to continuing and upgrading the training provided to employees. It is agreed that the parties will co-operate in ensuring that training is maintained and improved and that qualifications within the Community Services Training Package will be utilized and accessed where appropriate.  This training will form the basis of an enhanced career structure in the industry."  You will note that there is no specifics about how many days of training staff other than teachers are entitled to, or if employees other than teachers will be provided paid time to complete training. So often the other staff do not get professional development unless they do it at their own cost on their own time. I should also mention that as a general rule (I'm sure there is an exception somewhere I've just never seen it) there is only one qualified teacher per center, as they are so expensive to employee in comparison to other staff. 

·         What are some of your professional goals?

My professional goals are 

• to complete my Master of Science and then progress onto my Doctorate;
• to design a framework to improve the quality of teachers existing in our workforce
• to advocate for high quality education for all
• to improve the quality of education for each individual 

·         What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

My professional hope is one day, every teacher a child encounters in their formal education will be a high quality teacher.

My professional dream is that every teacher/educators' moral purpose is to educate the whole child, for every child, and as a by-product to this, they will ace any standardized testing. 

My professional challenges?

• Getting educators/teachers on board the train of change of self-improvement professionally for the benefit of children worldwide. 
• Getting organizations to be brave and recognize teachers that are mediocre & below, and either work with them to improve or pay them out to leave the profession so they can retrain and start a new career.
• Encouraging and empowering professionals to speak up and demand excellence in their peers and organizations.