Looking at some early childhood educators posts I noticed people posting questions for answers because they are told two different things by different people within their workplace and they are unsure what to do or they don’t know how to deal with a situation where their colleague has different opinion to them. If we don’t work through these issues in appropriate manner it can lead to unhappy and confused staff or even to compaliance and quality issues. We need to find ways to support our staff to feel comfortable to talk also within their team.
Every decision we make in early childhood is easier to look at by asking ourselves what are the compliant and quality aspects to the question. Compliance is anything we are mandated to such as early childhood and related laws/acts and regulations. These are put into place as to what is believed to be the bareminimum. We can go above this and if we do this becomes a quality move in the best interest of children.
When we make decisions in what we should do we also are influenced by our values, beliefs and attitude and sometimes this may not be inline with compliance or quality decisions and instead think sometimes that because it has always been done that way its correct.
To support early childhood educators approach researching and getting to know mandates more and to reflect more on what they believe quality practice should look like I have designed a form with some visuals to try and make this process where possible a little more clearer and enjoyable when trying to come to an answer and decision of what is best practice.
As a part of self assessment and quality improvement processes we are required within our practices to understand our services self context, have a philosophy in place, know legislation, allow children to have a voice and direct their own learning in a playbased enviornment, where staff collaborate with families and are reflective continuous learners. This can be challenging for staff and this form is designed with the intention to try to breakdown these components to address them and utilise them when making decisions. The form is also a way for early childhood educators to research and seek the truth and improve and strengthen their practices.
The process allows educators to think about other peoples perspective, where they can utilise empathy to try and consider both points of view and come to a win:win solution and if doesn’t work reflect further together to work through their conflicts. This will help educators to collaborate, learn together, reflect together and ideally build a relationship if done in a calm, respectful and assertive manner. Having a mentor or manager support staff in utilising this form and going through the process may be a high priority when getting started if there maybe difficult communicating. It is important then mentor or manager that is supporting is impartial and allows the educators to not be persuaded by their own values, beliefs and attitudes as this will help to make more compliant and quality decisions and with the intention of having an opportunity to work through differing ideas feeling empowered and having formed a stronger team cohesion.
Please feel free to print off and scribble on or save the forms to your computer and type into them as they are in PDF writable format.
This form is to give a two-page overview and then page 3 and 4 is the format that two or more people write on or type in together.
These next two forms are some examples to show you some rough hypothetical scenarios.
All the best with your team decision making and collaborating and please don’t hesitate to contact us. We do have courses and facebook learning groups to further support you and your team in understanding compliance and quality (self assessment) and theories.
