Valuing the work of early childhood educators
Highlights
- Dr Victoria Minson highlights the vital role early childhood educators play in shaping children's learning, development and future success.
- She explains that early childhood education is far more than childcare, requiring specialised knowledge, professional expertise and intentional teaching.
- She calls for greater recognition of early childhood educators and the lasting impact they have on children, families and communities.
At an early childhood learning centre somewhere in Australia, two children race their way around the playground, side-stepping through their self-styled obstacle course to see who can get through it fastest.
A girl enters the fray, younger than the other two children, but instead of racing, this child picks up the obstacles. She plays with a wooden block as if it’s an aeroplane, holding it out in front of her and making whirring noises as she moves along.
“One of the things you’ll start to see little children do as they play is that they’ll transform an object into something else,” says ACU’s Dr Victoria Minson, a researcher whose work has focused on early childhood education assessment practices.
“So, a block might become a phone, and they’ll hold it up to their ear and say ‘hello’, but what’s significant is that they’re using their imagination and changing the meaning of an object.”
This developmental milestone means the child is starting to think symbolically, building the foundations for abstract thought.
“This can really help with things later in childhood – say, when they’re learning algebra and they have to use X in an equation. Playing and experimenting helps them to think beyond an object’s appearance and lean into some of those more abstract concepts.”
In decades past, those working in a preschool or daycare setting would typically leave the child in this scenario to explore on their own. More recently, however, advances in early childhood theory and brain development science have found that while child-led play is important, often adults can introduce concepts that extend and expand a child’s learning.
A skilled teacher or educator might therefore encourage the child to continue their symbolic play, sharing their ideas with others and creating new concepts and narratives to explore.
“A really intentional educator will know when and how to respond to such situations, taking the child’s learning in other directions and helping them to understand whatever the concept is,” Dr Minson says. “They can use their knowledge and skills to create interactions that are meaningful and attuned to a child’s specific interests.”
Why labels matter
“The childcare debate is over. It’s not babysitting. It’s early education and it’s critical to preparing children for school.”
It was a watershed moment for many in the early childhood education sector. In announcing a long-awaited wage increase, the federal education minister echoed the sentiments of early childhood educators and teachers all over Australia in saying the words: “It’s not babysitting.”
Described variously as “historic”, “significant” and “a game changer”, the announcement followed years of advocacy, with early education professionals pushing not only to be paid enough, but also to be valued for the important work they do.
“These big groundbreaking moments don’t just come out of thin air – there’s a lot of lobbying and advocacy that happens prior to it,” says Dr Minson, who has extensive experience working in the sector.
“We need early childhood educators to be paid in a way that is commensurate to the work they do, but that’s just one element of a series of changes aimed at positioning educators in a way that shows how significant their role in society is.”
But here’s the rub: Much of the media reporting that followed the wage announcement referred to early educators as “childcare workers”, a label that some in the industry would prefer to see phased out.
Months earlier, Dr Minson published a piece in The Conversation titled, “Early childhood educators are not ‘babysitters’. What do their jobs really involve?”
In the article, she argued that early education is “not just care”.
“We’re talking about professionals who have undertaken specific training that enables them to work with children as educators and teachers,” says Dr Minson, a lecturer and course coordinator of ACU’s Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (Birth to Five Years) (Accelerated).
“That makes the language we use around early childhood educators really important. When we emphasise the ‘care’ label more than the ‘education’ label, we’re not recognising the training and skills required to create the educational environments that early childhood educators create every day.”
These professionals do more than wipe noses, they also use the principles of play-based learning to teach social skills, expand vocabularies, and introduce children to concepts that stretch their thinking to higher levels.
“Our brains develop faster in our early years than any other time in our lives,” says Dr Minson, pointing to neuroscience and behavioural research showing that 90 per cent of brain development happens in the first five years.
“The science shows that we lay the blueprints early on that help a child to develop and reach their full learning potential. Children having access to high-quality education therefore enables a positive trajectory, and educators and teachers play a crucial role in that process.
“There is still a care element to the profession, and it’s a very important element, but we must also recognise the role they play in providing the building blocks that prepare children for school and later life.”
Who’s who in early education
For many parents arriving for the morning drop off, it might not be clear exactly who is who at their child’s kinder or preschool.
At last count, the early childhood education and care sector numbered some 216,000 employees, mostly women. Around 85 per cent of these workers have undertaken training, with a diploma or certificate III qualification to be an early childhood educator.
