Executive Summary
It is important to note that the report is aimed to inform the council on the existing trends within the early childhood profession in Australia with a focus on core underlying issues as well as strengths. In sum, the observation and analysis reveal a strong negative tendency of educators to leave the profession, indicating a future increase in labour shortage among early childhood teachers. The troubling trend is exacerbated by the fact that fewer people are becoming interested and attracted to becoming new professional members of the educational community. These changes showcase a substantive loss of both specialized teacher numbers alongside the experience accumulated throughout the years of service. The movement is that although the system of the early childhood profession in Australia is outstanding in regards to satisfying the interests and needs of children, the same cannot be said about the teachers. In other words, the Australian education system is experiencing problems in retaining the existing pool of professionals as well as attracting new talent to the field.
Moreover, despite the major strengths of the early childhood profession in Australia, it can still be further improved by introducing novel ways to fund community-based early childhood education (ECE) services. The problem lies in the channels of funding these services, where the indirect nature of money delivery results in large sums of resources not reaching the educators. Therefore, there is an inherent inefficiency in providing the necessary capital for human resources. In addition, there is an element of incoherency, inconsistency, and non-cohesiveness with respect to the foundational and obligatory legislative frameworks imposed on teachers, which require better integration of requirements for the education process. The first recommendation involves revising the latter issue for increased cohesiveness, either by merging them or making them more integrated. The second recommendation is to transition the funding framework to a more direct format in order to ensure that the capital reaches the educators fully.
Introduction
One should be aware that education is a long, multifaceted, and intricate process where there is a multitude of different parties involved. These can include parents, children, communities and their leaders, regulatory bodies, international standards, children development professionals, and politicians. Therefore, any effective solution requires balancing by considering each group’s interests, needs, and issues. The Early Years Learning Framework is the core educational framework and curriculum utilized for the report in order to determine the structural basis for the early childhood profession in Australia. The findings of the analysis showcase an imbalance in the education system, where the failure to properly address the educators’ needs causes the loss of teachers as well as lowered influx of new ones. Thus, early childhood education in Australia should urgently deal with the problem by improving its talent attraction and retention measures by improving the pay and funding mechanisms.
Terms of Reference
Key terms critical for the given report are listed in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Key terms of reference
Report: Main Body
Early Years Learning Framework
The Early Years Learning Framework is comprised of three pillars of children’s needs, which include Belonging, Being, and Becoming. Firstly, the element of Becoming is about “identities, knowledge, understandings, capacities, skills and relationships” (ACECQA, 2018, p. 7). In other words, it reflects the process of transformative changes taking place in a child’s development as a social person. Secondly, when it comes to the component of Being, it reflects one’s growth in becoming more competent and courageous at being able to address the complicatedness and hardships of life (ACECQA, 2018). Thus, the underlying drivers of such a change involve a child’s awareness about himself or herself as well as self-understanding. Thirdly, the element of Belonging addresses a child’s ultimate need to be a part of a group, such as a family, community, or larger society (Osgood, 2012). It is stated that “a child’s ability to make relationships and to acknowledge their cultural identity. Children need to know where they belong to know what they can be or become” (Twinkl, 2022, para. 7). Therefore, it encompasses the critical aspects of self-identity, cultural identity, and close relationships.
Subsequently, the Early Years Learning Framework is a form of guide and protocol, which includes helpful directions for early childhood professionals in their endeavour to educate children. The primary goal of the EYLF is to “assist educators in providing young children with opportunities to maximise their potential and develop a foundation for future success in learning” (Twinkl, 2022, para. 2). The framework emphasises the importance of understanding and accounting for children’s diverse sets of needs for becoming a member of society, being competent person, and belonging to a group.
The Developmental Processes in Early Childhood
Early childhood is a complex process in a person’s development, where foundational changes take place, which determine one’s wellbeing and competency in the long-term. It is reported that “rapid brain growth and development and the benefits of exposure to high-quality early years learning and development opportunities has lasting impacts … to the individual child across their lifetime” (Capital Health Network, 2017, p. 3). In accordance with Australian education system, the given stage of development and growth takes place between an individual’s moment of birth until he or she becomes reach the eighth birthday (Capital Health Network, 2017). This period of change is of paramount importance, which is why providing the most effective form of education, learning facilitation, and assistance can ensure a future success of a learner. The changes during early childhood are physical, cognitive, psychological, emotional, and social, which shows that the early childhood professionals need to be competent at accounting for all these dynamics. The early childhood education is not only providing knowledge, but enhancing the growth in these domains as well.
The Early Childhood Profession: Characteristics
In the case of the core characteristics of the early childhood profession, the core elements include qualifications and their categorical groupings. Becoming such an educator is no easy task since one needs to complete and obtain a wide range of diplomas and certificates in order to be able to teach young children. It is stated that “any Australian registered training organisation or accredited higher education provider” is allowed to obtain a qualification at the level of diploma (ACECQA, 2022a, para. 16). For example, a teacher can have a document called Diploma of Community Services (ACECQA, 2022a). Thus, the total variety of different qualification metrics can be divided into categories, such as early childhood teaching qualifications, certificate III level qualifications, as well as diploma level qualifications (ACECQA, 2022b). ACECQA should be utilised by educators in order to ensure that they are qualified and check their levels of qualifications. The latter recommendation applies to non-standard qualifying materials since they will still fall within one of these categories.
On the basis of the information provided above, one can see that early childhood education in Australia takes the competency and expertise of educators seriously. Each qualification level is accompanied by a range of responsibilities and opportunities to provide an educational service to young children. For instance, a teacher with the Advanced Certificate Course from Montessori World Education would be qualified as someone holding the Certificate III level (ACECQA, 2022b). In other words, ACECQA is the authority in these assessment and comparative measures, which every early childhood educator consults.
The Early Childhood Profession: Core Aspects
All early childhood professionals in Australia need to have a set of skills necessary to be able to work with young children. Firstly, each teacher must be highly communicative since communication lies at the core educational process (Department of Education, 2021). Secondly, an early childhood professional must have a capacity for quick learning in order to be fast at adapting to new changes in the education system. Thirdly, educators must be both passionate and authentic about their profession since these are fundamental characteristics which need to be developed among learners (Department of Education, 2021). Fourthly, early childhood professionals need to conduct themselves with a great deal of respect towards young children and their family members since they are the closest stakeholders in the developmental process.
Fifthly, creativity is highly valued and mandated among teachers, who need to adapt and implement the standardised protocols of education for their classrooms comprised of diverse children with unique backgrounds (Department of Education, 2021). Sixthly, educators must be energetic and proactive in their efforts in order to ensure that the learning environment is dynamic. Lastly, all teachers should approach their work with a degree of organisation in their knowledge, lessons, and methods (Miller & Cable, 2011). Thus, it is safe to state that a mere qualification is not sufficient for a person to become a competent early education professional.
Existing Issues
The first and most critical weakness of early childhood education in Australia is poor leadership, which is evidenced both by the professionals’ perception of them and the funding flaws discussed in the later sections. For example, in an analysis conducted through extensive interviews of people working in the field, it was found that many tensions and system fragmentations are due to the incompetence of leaders (Cortis & Head, 2019). Both the government and educators are willing to improve the system, but coordinating the necessary changes is not conducted appropriately based on the perceptions of the teachers. Therefore, even if it is a mere subjective perspective of professionals, it cannot be ignored as a non-issue.
The second significant weakness of early childhood education in Australia is the poor integration of policies and standards coming from different authorities. Teachers state that:
the attempts to bring things together around a common definition of what early childhood services should look like, that’s been a bit thin. Those discussions have been slow and cumbersome and fraught, and that’s what’s holding up early childhood policy in Australia. (Cortis & Head, 2019, p. 7)
In other words, a multitude of stakeholders promote their vision for early childhood education, and some of them establish specific standards and requirements. However, the lack of cohesiveness with each other generates a complex legal and professional environment for educators. The third challenge is “an unstable service delivery workforce,” which is closely tied to another issue of “unsustainable resourcing” (Cortis & Head, 2019, p. 1). It should be noted that the term ‘unstable’ refers to surges in numbers of people leaving the field insufficiently supplemented by new teachers entering it. Thus, this trend results in a total loss of experience in early childhood education as well as a low replacement of the ones who left. The problem is tied to unsustainable resourcing, which is due to low wages and low appreciation of their work by communities (Riley, 2021). In the end, these problems amount to a single major challenge, which is poor talent management stemming from the system’s inability to retain and attract talent.
Key Strengths
The core strengths of the early childhood profession in Australia include a focus on the future success of learners, an emphasis on multidimensional development, encouragement of developmental stage distinction, and specialisation in categorical age groups. The first key advantage of Australian early childhood education is the focus on the future success of learners because the efforts are aimed at ensuring that young children develop foundational skills. In other words, the goal is to provide the learners with skills and competencies which will help them in their long-term future (NSW Government, 2022). The second core strength is the emphasis on multidimensional development, which means that educating young children academically is only a small part of the entire process. The learners are not simply provided with knowledge, facts, and concepts but additionally given opportunities to develop social skills, communication skills, and personal traits of resilience, curiosity, persistence, and grit (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2022). In other words, each dimension of early childhood development is included in the education protocols and curricula.
Moreover, the third advantage of Australian early childhood education is the separation of childcare and preschool because they serve different purposes. The latter constitutes the encouragement of developmental stage distinction and functional responsibilities since one is about preparing for school and the other is focused on catering to the existing needs (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2022). Lastly and most importantly, the education system in Australia is precise at delivering educational services, which is achieved through differentiating between age groups. Instead of dividing childhood into arbitrary stages, it assesses the unique characteristics of each age group to categorise them.
Trends, Movements, and International Context
Australian ECE: Trends and Movements
Figure 1 presented by the Australian Industry and Skills Committee, reveals a troubling and problematic movement in the labour market for ECE teachers by 2025. Arguably, one can state that teachers are the most important professionals within the preschool education industry since they are tasked with the educational, academic, and social growth of children. Currently, ECE professionals comprise a small proportion of 25% of the total industry workforce, which is already considered a primary cause of shortages (Australian Industry and Skills Committee, 2021). However, the estimated projections by 2025 indicate a massive reduction in the given number to around 7-8% (Australian Industry and Skills Committee, 2021). Similar labour decreases will likely be observed among child carers and child care centre managers as well, and only educational aides are expected to grow due to a reduction in other professions. The presented movement clearly showcases the upcoming labour shortages among the ECE teachers in the near future, which will profound impair communities, the education system, and, most importantly, children.
Figure 2 created by the Australian Industry and Skills Committee, paints an alarming picture of the current situation in labour dynamics within the early childhood profession of Australia. Considering the modern economy and markets are primed with an expectation of growth, the projection of stagnation in the number of ECE workers is troubling at the least (Kearns, 2021). Despite the drop in workforce in child care services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected to rebound in the near future. The same pattern or trend cannot be observed for the ECE teachers, which means that there will be even worse shortages than what is taking place today. The Australian Industry and Skills Committee (2021) projects that the estimations presented can go downwards as well if the necessary measures for talent retention and attraction being implemented now fail. Thus, the identified trend is clear and supported by analytical evidence from a credible institution.
Figure 3 below shows even more concerning movement in regards to the training and preparation of ECE professionals. It reveals that the training enrolment in ECE programs is falling every year, and a larger percentage of enrolees do not complete these programs (Australian Industry and Skills Committee, 2021). Therefore, it is not unexpected that there is a problem with talent attraction in the context of early childhood education.
International Context: Comparative Analysis
In order to draw a valid and sensible conclusion from the international context analysis, it is critical to compare ECE in Australia with equally developed nations. Norway has one of the most well-developed and well-designed education systems. According to OECD (2021), Norway spends one of the largest shares of its ECE funds on teachers. In other words, Norwegian ECE professionals are compensated satisfactorily and sufficiently, which is why there is no ECE labour shortage in the country. It can serve as an example of Australia’s problematic funding mechanisms, where teachers are poorly compensated or the resources do not reach the community-level educators in full.
Policies, Obligations, and Implications
In the case of legal policies and obligations, it is important to highlight the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF), the Early Childhood Australia’s Code of Ethics, and the NQF. Firstly, the UNICEF outlines the fundamental rights of children by clearly stating that they “are human beings and individuals with their own rights” (UNICEF, 2022, para. 6). The organisation defines childhood as “a special, protected time, in which children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity” (UNICEF, 2022, para. 6). Therefore, the core obligations of parents, ECE teachers, and other involved parties is to ensure protection, growth, healthy development, dignity, and learning.
Secondly, Early Childhood Australia’s Code of Ethics plays a major role in setting the standards for ECE professionals in Australia. The Code is defined as “a set of statements about the appropriate and expected behaviour of early childhood professionals” (Early Childhood Australia, 2022, para. 1). In other words, in addition to the core components outlined by the UNICEF, ECE teachers must adhere to the statements of the Early Childhood Australia’s Code of Ethics.
Thirdly, the National Quality Framework is an Australian regulatory document setting critical educational standards. These include how the country manages education, assesses its quality, and continuously improves its applicability both in schools and outside of the latter (ACECQA, 2022c). Although these documents are important for children’s wellbeing and development, their collective set of obligations imposed on an ECE teacher creates a restrictive environment with limited space for creative action.
The implications lie not in the validity of the outlined standards and measures but rather in the lack of their mutual integration with one another, making it a challenge for ECE professionals to decipher. In other words, early childhood education teachers are not able to operate within a cohesive and clear legal framework. The combination of poor pay, demanding qualifications and requirements, and a complex legal environment drives the current problem of labour shortage and its future exacerbation.
The SWOT Analysis
Table 2 below shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis in regard to the state of early childhood education in Australia. The council should support and fund community-based ECE services because the core problem is poor funding for teachers, which is reflected in their compensation. It is stated that pay is the single most critical factor for talent attraction and retention (Whitty & Furlong, 2017). In other words, the supplementary or alternative measures are secondary to this aspect. Considering the fact that the existing resourcing system does not deliver all the funds fully to final recipients, allocating the resources to communities will be a major improvement.
Table 2: The SWOT analysis table
Recommendations and Conclusion
In conclusion, early childhood education in Australia succeeded in catering to the needs of learners comprehensively but failed to address the demands of ECE professionals. The first recommendation is to transition the funding framework to a more direct format in order to ensure that the capital reaches the educators fully. The second recommendation involves revising the latter issue for increased cohesiveness, either by merging them or making them more integrated.
The extensive analyses conducted in the report show the six identifiable items within each category of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Firstly, the key strengths of the existing ECE system and profession include the focus on the future success of learners, the emphasis on multidimensional development, and the encouragement of developmental stage distinction. In addition, the advantages are the specialisation in categorical age groups, promotion of diversity and inclusivity, and the implementation and establishment of high national standards. Secondly, the case of weaknesses is poor leadership, industry tensions, system fragmentations, poor integration of policies and standards, unstable service delivery workforce, unsustainable resourcing, and poor retention and attraction of the ECE workforce. The lack of integration is exemplified by the documents, whereas the decline among ECE workers is due to compensation, funding, and resourcing issues.
Thirdly, the opportunities include the introduction of direct funding for the community-based ECE, increased training and compensation for ECE professionals, as well as progressive benefit increases for experienced ECE professionals. The latter is needed to address the retention problem in the industry. In addition, the other opportunity is the integration of the legislative frameworks to eliminate the legislative framework weakness. Increasing grants for students seeking to become ECE professionals can be an improvement as well. Fourthly, the threats involve the collapse of ECE due to labour shortages and subsequent closures of ECE organisations. These events can lead to a cascading effect on other non-ECE students in the future since many children will not have access to ECE professionals. The poor retention trend is a collective industry-wide loss of experience due to a mass leave and full privatisation of the field by education businesses. Thus, community-based early childhood education services are a valid solution to address a multitude of the identified problems.
References
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