While this guest post from Andrea Doyle focuses on the Australian education system, many of her points are also valid here in the United States. Read and let us know what you think.
Plus, check out the observation app that she has created for the iPad. It could come in handy!
This is a sponsored post via Fiverr.com
Is
it just me? I don't think so. In fact, I know so. Early years carers,
educators and leaders are frazzled, frustrated and in many cases
burnt out.
Why?
Is
it the myths and misconceptions we hold about what is required of us
in our current roles, in the current educational climate of new
regulations and frameworks? Do we do it to ourselves? No, there has
always and will always be changes in education systems. As educators,
we except, and expect this and have rolled with it for decades. I
believe it is the magnitude of multiple changes all at once and the
absence of support structures to assist in implementation and
embedding into practice. We were balancing the ‘Reflect, Respect
and Relate: Observation Scales’ and devising clever inquiry
questions when we were handed the EYLF and almost immediately the NQS
on top of it. We had no hands left. In comparison, look how slowly
and steadily the Australian Curriculum has been rolled out. That's
because when it was handed to school principals they had the strength
and courage to hand it back, knowing that they would support each
other in their refusal, that they would have one another's back,
prepared to cause waves and rock the boat if necessary, to avoid
additional stress and pressure and to maintain the dignity of their
role. They said, 'The quality of my school, wellbeing of my teachers
and learning of my students would be compromised if I agreed to such
a task so no thank you, not until you tell me about and provide me
with the support structures I require in order to implement this
successfully. My teachers need training, release days and time to do
this.' Leaders in the early years must find this courage too.
The
sad fact!
I
have experienced it myself and witnessed it personally over the past
year or two and I bet you have too; Directors and team leaders
stepping down from their role, an increase in significant medical and
emotional illness and leave from work, family breakdowns and
excellent, but bewildered, educators leaving the profession they once
loved (and often still do).
Why?
Lack
of understanding from the community, lack of support from demanding
parents, lack of funding from government departments and therefore
lack of sufficient administration time to do their job, the job they
want to do to the best of their ability. They want the best outcomes
possible for their little learners but there is no balance, most work
many extra hours above their paid hours, they have to in order to try
to meet the expectations of their role, they sacrifice time with
their own families, time for their own professional and personal
interests and as for leisure time, what's that? They are left with a
deep aching conflict within themselves, the desire to make theirs the
most exceptional early year’s site ever but an overwhelming feeling
of job dissatisfaction because they are spread so thin they are
unable to give 100% to any of the tasks required of them. This is not
about a cry for more pay, I believe 99 out of 100 early years staff
would just like a reasonable amount of admin time to meet the
requirements of their role, time to write meaningful child
observation records, to discuss and analyse the play program and plan
together, to enter attendances into their Early Years systems and to
follow up that issue that occurred today with a phone call to the
parent - today.
Tell
me why a small country school site with an enrolment of 100 students
can have a full time Principal with no teaching load (and even a
part-time deputy too) and yet an integrated Kindy site with childcare
facilities and an enrolment of 120 three and a half (early entry) to
five and a half year olds (due to the 'same first day' policy, I'm in
SA) has a Director who is still required to teach two days on the
floor?
In
many sites, Directors, teachers and ancillary staff do not have
breaks, they eat with the children because children must be
supervised at all times with certain ratios but no additional staff
has been employed/allocated to cover these ratio requirements. Even
staff toilet breaks are taken at rocket speed, so as not to leave
another staff member with too many children to supervise alone, the
paper is off the roll before your backside hits the seat. It sounds
like some kind of joke doesn't it? But, I am very serious. New young
fresh graduates walk in with big smiles, plans and high hopes,
excitement and a genuine love for children and go home by the end of
their first week shaking their heads and asking 'This can’t be
right, can it?'
The
fact is, our early years sites and services are filled with maternal
nurturing women (mainly, though I respectfully acknowledge and admire
our few male colleagues dedicated to early years education) and they
are wearing capes, scared that if they express concern over current
demands placed upon them, if they question, complain, admit they need
help or support, if they buckle under the strain or don't dot every
‘i’ and cross every ‘t’ as required they may be stripped of
at worst, their job or what little super human powers that remain.
Have I lost you? I’m talking about those super powers which allow
these dedicated educators to miss their own children's Sports Days,
Concerts, award ceremonies and school assemblies so they can be there
to act as teacher, advisor, guide, counsellor, nurse etc to teach,
challenge, develop imagination as well as water, feed, bandage, tie
shoelaces, wipe noses, and generally 'mother' other people's children
as if they were their own.
Do
they receive medals, certificates, praise (let alone appropriate
financial remuneration) or even just an occasional little ‘thanks’
for their choice, for the sacrifice they make? Rarely, in fact they
mainly hear from parents when they wish to complain and bosses when
they are requesting to add something more to the already overflowing
sink of (becoming very cloudy) dish washing water. A commitment to
continual improvement is one thing, I don't think there's many of us
that don't want to be the best we can be, but to continue to raise
the bar without proper acknowledgement of what has already been
achieved is not just unfair, it’s plain rude.
The
National Quality Agenda was necessary and long overdue, we all know
why so I'm not going to go in to a lengthy rant about it, and I am
not disputing that. I personally believe the National Quality
Standards cover all they should and are well set out and written. I
love the National Early Years Learning Framework. I believe it
captured the recognised and unseen principles, practices and learning
goals for children that Early Years educators have been dedicated to,
enacted and aspired to for many years. To me it was like the old
'Teachers Work' document had been rewritten for the early years. It
defines what we already believed about community, parents, children
and learning, what we were already doing in practice and what we
already aimed for children to know and do before beginning school.
Now,
with implementation complete, QIP’s written and submitted, on-going
assessment and validation continuing and a new deep understanding
permeating all we do, as we deal with the continued lack of
understanding, support, funding, and admin time, we need to be kind
to one another, support one another, encourage one another and praise
one another for all we have achieved in the Early Years over the past
two to three years. For our sanity, we must prioritise the most
important administration jobs, prioritise the needs of the children
and let the rest go. It is hard and we hate it but the children will
survive without pre-entry visits and huge bound scrapbooks of every
painting they completed at Childcare. Some things have to go. It’s
time to work smarter, not harder.
I
wonder if maybe the next time we are handed that new massive
framework of expectations we will have the strength and courage to
hand it back, but likely we'll continue to be superheroes, waiting
for the understanding, support, funding and time we need to make our
good Early Years sites and services places of excellence.
Written
by Andrea Doyle, Teacher, Leader, Learner and Business Owner of
Teaching Made Easy
‘Teaching Made Easy’
During her Master Class, renowned
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explores ways to de-stress and relax to deal with the unique
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In fact, I designed the ‘Teaching
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educators crying out for help and after working as a Preschool
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The ‘Teaching Made Easy - Child
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curriculum frameworks (EYLF and the Australian Curriculum) and to
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We recommend you check it out and see
if it would be an observation tool that might work for you.
The ‘EYLF Made Easy’
programming and planning package can be found in the featured
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www.teachingmadeeasy.com.au
If you are still not sure, join over
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