Please refer to the attachments.

Please refer to the attachments.


Diversity: Children, Families and Communities Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (age 0 – 5 years) Assessment 2: Academic essay Word/time limit: 1750 words (+/- 10%) Study resources: Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings Book Cover Image by Leonie Arthur, , Bronwyn Beecher, , and Elizabeth Death This assessment task requires you to explain diversity and difference in the form of an academic essay. You will be using theory to discuss challenges and possibilities for children, families and communities in the context of early childhood education. Assessment details To prepare to write your academic essay, you should revisit the theories and their implications for understanding diversity and differences. Review “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2” and “Paper” attached . You should also read Chapter 4 Reflective and evaluative practices (Arthur, Beecher, Death & Dockett, 2021, pp. 141–188) as a starting point. Use the following headings for a clear organisation of your academic essay: Introduction, Discussion, Summary and conclusion ______________________________________________________________________________ Introduction: In your introduction, you should include the following: · Definitions/ explanations of various forms of diversity (e.g. gender identity, cultural, socio-economic backgrounds, minorities). · A brief outline of the challenges and possibilities for diverse children families and communities. · A brief outline of the argument to be presented in the essay. Discussion Questions Your discussion will answer the following questions in the early childhood educational context: · What are some of the challenges children, families, and communities face in social and educational spheres? · How can teachers support a sense of belonging/ wellbeing in early childhood centres? · What should an inclusive curriculum in an early childhood education setting look like? · How will partnerships between teachers and parents look like? Please note that these questions are only to guide and provoke discussions and that discussion is not by any means limited to the questions provided. Use of theory You are required to use theory to help underpin your discussion. These theories may include one or many from the following list, depending on whether it is relevant for your discussion.   · Feminist poststructuralist approaches  · Foucault’s discourses  · Social theories  · Cultural theories  · Postcolonial theory  · Queer theory  · Critical theory.  Tip: Try to focus on one to three theories, but if you find it easier to talk more generally about how different theoretical perspectives impact inclusion and understandings of diversity in Early Years Setting, this is ok too. Your argument would then be more broad in scope. For example, ‘many different theoretical perspectives are relevant to understanding diversity and difference in the early years education context (citations)’. Summary and conclusion The last paragraph should be a summary of your argument with a conclusive remark on diversity and difference in early childhood education and its implications for all stakeholders in the centre. Ensure that you do not introduce any new discussion in this section. Tip: How could I tackle this task?  One way to approach this assessment would be to divide the essay into seven 250-word paragraphs (aim to use at least 3 references per paragraph in the body). Note: the reference list is not included in the word count.  · P1. Introduction with argument​ · Eg. This essay will discuss the ways in which examining diversity and difference using poststructuralist and post-colonial lenses can promote inclusive practices in Early Years Settings.​ · ​P2. Definitions of types of diversity/difference​ · *Relate back to theories if suitable​ · ​P3. Challenges that children, families, communities and educators face in Early Years Settings​ · *Relate back to theories if suitable​ · ​P4. Ways teachers can support a sense of belonging/ wellbeing in early learning environments ​ · *Relate back to theories​ · ​P5. Effective partnerships between parents and Educators​ · *Relate back to theories​ · ​P6. Inclusive curriculum in an early childhood education setting​ · *Relate back to theories​ · ​P7. Conclusion  This assessment supports unit learning outcomes K1, K2, K3 and K4. · K1 Consider beliefs, prejudices and biases with respect to diversity. · K2 Examine human difference as a social construction and explore issues related to equity for children, families and communities from minority groups. · K3 Explore a range of theories to critique and analyse existing views and practices in relation to diversity and difference. · K4 Consider the role of teachers in supporting a sense of belonging and participation for all children. Assessment criteria 1. Introduction 2. Discussion 3. Summary and conclusion. 4. Academic conventions. Your work will be assessed using the following marking guide: someTitle 1 Changing paradigms and theory in childhood education: critical perspectives on diversity and difference in childhood Writing this book This book is based primarily on the research we have conducted together and separately around issues of equity and social justice in childhood education in Australia over the past 20 years. It is also based on our experiences as pre-service teacher educators working with early child- hood students for the past two decades in a metropolitan university in Sydney, in one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse commu- nities in Australia. Over the past three years, Kerry Robinson has contin- ued her work in the field of childhood studies and gender and sexuality studies, but has shifted her employment focus with pre-service teachers to working with students in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology. Many of these students take up employment as social welfare workers, child psychologists, and government and community-based professionals working in children and family services. Criss Jones Díaz has retained her focus working with pre-service early childhood and primary teachers in the School of Education. Her research interests have expanded beyond the field of languages education to diverse literacies, cultural studies, critical ‘race’ theory and postcolonial studies. Despite the fact that it is Australia-based research we undertake, we feel that the issues we are dealing with are equally relevant to childhood educators and community- based professionals elsewhere in the world. The social, political and eco- nomic factors that are impacting on children and their families, as well as the social inequalities that continue to plague the lives of many of these families, are operating on both global and local scales. Our joint research has focused on exploring early childhood educa- tors’ perceptions of diversity and difference, and the impact these have on pedagogy, policies and practices. Through the utilization of surveys rob6364X_ch01_001-025.indd 1 08/01/16 03:46 PM Robinson, K., & Jones-Diaz, C. (2017). Diversity and difference in childhood : Issues for theory and practice. McGraw-Hill Education. Created from ballarat on 2024-08-04 11:17:41. C op yr ig ht © 2 01 7. M cG ra w -H ill E du ca tio n. A ll rig ht s re se rv ed . 2 DIVERSITY AND DIFFERENCE IN CHILDHOOD and individual interviews we have focused on early childhood educa- tors’ perceptions and practices around issues of gender, multiculturalism, bilingualism, sexuality, Aboriginality, family and social class issues, as well as how early childhood institutions incorporate these equity issues into their policies and organizational practices. Unfortunately, a book of this scope, which critically examines difference and diversity within a social justice agenda in education, cannot deal adequately with all the relevant social, political and economic issues facing children and their families. Consequently, the different foci of the chapters are a represen- tation of our combined and separate areas of research expertise, partic- ularly in the areas of bilingualism, diverse literacies, multiculturalism, racism, gender, sexuality, family, childhood, social class issues, asylum seeker and refugee issues, globalization and neoliberalism. It is these areas that we feel that have particular international relevance and significance. It is also important to highlight that childhood educators and community-based professionals are heterogeneous groups from a variety of backgrounds, with a multiplicity of perspectives and voices based on their different locations within social discourses that operate around diver- sity and difference. Consequently, the perspectives and voices presented in this book do not speak for all childhood educators and community-based professionals, but rather represent the dominant discourses prevailing among those educators, other staff, resource workers, children and their families, and pre-service teachers with whom we have worked in Australia over the past decade or so. The state of play The international fields of childhood education and community service provision are currently experiencing a major challenge to the authority of many of the long-standing traditional theories and practices that have been utilized in approaches to children and children’s learning. This challenge has stemmed largely from the new sociology of childhood, crit- ical psychology, historical anthropology and cultural historical psychol- ogy, critical theory, critical ‘race’ theory, cultural and postcolonial studies, new materialism, and the utilization of queer and feminist postmodernist/ poststructuralist frameworks, which call for educators, researchers and others working with children to begin to reconceptualize their under- standings of childhood and their work with young children. Consequently, many of the universalized ‘truths’ about ‘the child’ established in mod- ernist perspectives and underpinning taken-for-granted or common-sense assumptions about childhood and what it means to be a child, are being seriously critiqued and disrupted by these new and different ways of understanding children as subjects. rob6364X_ch01_001-025.indd 2 08/01/16 03:46 PM Robinson, K., & Jones-Diaz, C. (2017). Diversity and difference in childhood : Issues for theory and practice. McGraw-Hill Education. Created from ballarat on 2024-08-04 11:17:41. C op yr ig ht © 2 01 7. M cG ra w -H ill E du ca tio n. A ll rig ht s re se rv ed . CHANGING PARADIGMS AND THEORY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION 3 This book has been written in the light of these significant and excit- ing social and educational changes, and is a contribution to the growing body of work that aims to reconceptualize childhood, childhood educa- tion, and the delivery of child and family-based services. These perspec- tives have particular significance for understandings of diversity and difference, social inequalities, and for doing social justice education with children and their families. Utilizing a feminist poststructuralist approach, informed by other social theories, including queer, critical, cultural and postcolonial theories, we explore the possibilities these perspec- tives have for extending understandings of childhood, constructions of identity, and the negotiation of power that underpin social relationships and perpetuate social inequalities, as well as for personal, institutional and social transformations. Since the late 1980s there has been a significant increase in awareness of the importance of childhood education policies, practices and curric- ulum positively reflecting the diverse cultural identities of children and their families. Today, this embracing of the diversity that exists in children’s lives is a central feature of the different philosophies that broadly underpin childhood education in Western countries – for example, those encompassed within the anti-bias curriculum that emerged from the United States (Derman-Sparks and the ABC Task Force 1989) and in the perspectives of Reggio Emilia, stemming from Europe (Dahlberg, Moss and Pence 1999). Recently, in Australia, the first national curriculum, the Early Years Learning Framework Australia (EYLFA) (DEEWR 2009), has had an important impact in providing a set of principles, practices and learning outcomes that are informed by a variety of theoretical perspec- tives including critical theories, socio-cultural theory and poststructural theories to emphasize the notion of being, belonging and becoming in children’s lives. Such philosophies that enhance and foster diversity and difference are critical in a world that is encountering broad social, cultural, eco- nomic, political and technological shifts that are continually challenging and changing the lives of children, their families and communities at both global and local levels. In this book we are particularly concerned with how and to what extent these philosophies, founded on concepts of plu- ralism, inclusion and democracy, are put into practice on a daily basis in early childhood institutions. How diversity and difference are perceived and taken up by individual childhood educators and community-based professionals, and are included and articulated into everyday policies and practices with children and their families is critical. It is important to address social justice and equity issues. To date, there is a growing body of research on how childhood educators’ perspectives of diversity and difference impact on their pedagogy, and how institutional policies rob6364X_ch01_001-025.indd 3 08/01/16 03:46 PM Robinson, K., & Jones-Diaz, C. (2017). Diversity and difference in childhood : Issues for theory and practice. McGraw-Hill Education. Created from ballarat on 2024-08-04 11:17:41. C op yr ig ht © 2 01 7. M cG ra w -H ill E du ca tio n. A ll rig ht s re se rv ed . 4 DIVERSITY AND DIFFERENCE IN CHILDHOOD and practices either disrupt or perpetuate the social inequalities that exist broadly in society. This book is also a reflection of our growing concern with the potential impact that the global movements of neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and the marketization and corporatization of childhood can have on children, families, and childhood education and child/family community services. Of particular concern is the growing homogenization of social, cultural and linguistic identities of children and