Action Plan for an Advocacy Issue

Running head: ACTION PLAN FOR AN ADVOCACY ISSUE
ACTION PLAN FOR AN ADVOCACY ISSUE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
Given that early childhood education is one of the most crucial steps in the
development of children, it is a matter of utmost importance and priority that the process of
delivering an effective early childhood education be taken with serious consideration
(Margets & Raban-Bisby, 2011). At the same time, it also becomes equally important to
understand the various issues and problems that the process of delivering early childhood
education entails as well as how to resolve these issues. This is where advocacy comes into
play. Mevawalla and Hadley (2012) has described advocacy from an early childhood
perspective as the actions that empower or protect the best interests of children. Going by
that, it also becomes equally important to understand what, in the context of early education,
can be described as ‘best interests’ for the children. This is where the Early Years Learning
Framework comes to play. The EYLF documents five specific learning outcomes as follows:
 Children have a strong sense of identity.
 Children are connected with and contribute to their world.
 Children have a strong sense of well being.
 Children are confident and involved learners.
 Children are effective communicators.
Diving deep into these outcomes we can see that each of these outcomes focus upon a
specific developmental aspect of children, be it social, cultural, communicative, cognitive or
linguistic. These can be defined as aspects of ‘best interest’ for children.
However, the aspect of advocacy in early educational context also needs to be
clearly understood and defined as to why such advocacy is required to be put in place.
Stamopoulos and Barblett define advocacy as “the action of advocating, pleading for or
supporting a cause or proposal... can be implemented within and outside of the early
childhood context on behalf of individuals or groups or in partnership with others” (2018, p.

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27) Advocacy comes from one’s own values and beliefs and tends to identify a particular
issue n early educational context that needs to be resolved. However, the need for resolution
may be too urgent whilst the resources available are too meagre. That is where and advocacy,
especially in the form of an action plan comes into play, as it not only identifies the issue in
detail, but also identifies the specific stakeholders, their roles, the outcome sought, the time
expected to reach the outcome and the steps that are required to be followed for that case
(Mittler, 2012).
In this current advocacy action plan, the issue that has been identified for resolution is
“How to improvise insufficient teaching – learning strategies for better development
of cultural competence of children 3 – 4 years old.”
This issue will be explored in depth in the action plan and specific guidelines and
steps will be mentioned that can be used to resolve it.

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Advocacy action plan
Issue How to improvise insufficient teaching – learning strategies for better
development of cultural competence of children 3 – 4 years old.
Description Cultural competence in early childhood education is defined as the
opportunity to enhance the children’s sense of belonging or acceptance of
individuals from other cultures and societies. It derives its rots from
understanding the fact that cultural diversity is an important and addressable
aspect in the early childhood spectrum itself. According to Kupetz (2012), 3
– 4 years of age is when the children start to observe human characteristics
and specific physical differences that form the part and parcel of cultural
diversity. Thus they subsequently ask questions that direct to the aspect of
cultural diversity, like why someone’s skin colour is darker than others or
why someone speaks differently or is unable to speak good English. These
questions do not arise out of the intent to hurt someone’s sentiments. There
is no malicious or discriminatory aspect involved in the questioning.
Children in this age are naturally curious (Gordon & Browne, 2013) and
therefore they ask questions that they want answered.
Early educational settings therefore need to identify that developing cultural
competence does not only mean that the children should be able to identify
the differences in cultures or be able to work together with peers from
different cultures. It means that children across cultures will be able to
develop harmonious, accepting and respectful relationships with people
from diverse cultures through their learning. The aspect of understanding
cultural diversity pertains to the following EYLF practices and outcomes:
EYLF Principle 4. Respect for Diversity
EYLF Practice 5. Learning Environments
EYLF Practice 6. Cultural Competence
EYLF Outcome 1. : Children Have a Strong Sense of Identity
EYLF Outcome 2. : Children are Connected With and Contribute to their
World
Coming to the issue in context, in one of my previous practices, I had
noticed that the insufficiency in dealing with the cultural diversity in an
early learning context often leads to underdeveloped cultural competency in
children. There are four basic reasons for that as identified below:
a. The educators are unaware of how to properly respond to culturally
sensitive questions when they come from children.
b. The learning environment is not suitable for incorporating holistic
cultural developmental aspects.
c. The educators and the parents of the children do not share a
commonality of views when it comes to development of cultural
competency in children.
d. Lack of proper resources and strategies that can help the children as
well as the educators in developing proper cultural competence in
the children.
Keeping these factors in mind, the need for an advocacy plan was identified
to be crucial for the particular early learning centre. Some key instances of
incompetency in developing cultural competency includes responding

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inappropriately to culturally sensitive questions (Durand, 2010), more focus
on literacy and numeracy strategies that do not include aspects of cross
cultural relevance, lack of proper inclusive activities and games (Davies et
al., 2013) and finally, lack of sensitive communication between parents and
the educators that address the importance of cross cultural communication
and understanding cultural diversity.
Outcome /
Goal
The main outcome for this advocacy action plan is to develop better and
more inclusive teaching – learning strategies for the education centre that
will allow the educators as well as the parents to understand the aspect of
cultural diversity and why it is important in an early educational context for
children (Abraham, 2005). The goals identified with this outcome are as
follows:
Goal 1 – Develop better knowledge and skill base of the educators to deal
effectively with early childhood education of cultural diversity.
Goal 2 – Incorporate the parents in the objective and help them understand
the importance of cultural competency.
Goal 3 – Develop inclusive classroom environment.
Goal 4 – Develop inclusive, active and fun teaching and learning strategies.
Steps /
Actions /
Strategies
The first step in resolving this issue will be to identify the level of
competency of the educators in dealing with this problem. Secondly, to
align the set goals with the EYLF (Belonging, Being and Becoming: The
Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, 2009) and the National
Quality Framework (NQF) and understand specific outcomes and focus
areas that need to be addressed while dealing with this issue. Based upon
that, each goal will be specifically addressed as follows:
Goal 1 –
The most effective way that educators can improve their cultural
competence is by introspection and reflection. However given that that is a
very subjective approach and cannot always be justified practically, there is
a need to develop specific programmes and interventions for them.
a. Engage the educators as participants in a cultural diversity survey
and try to understand where their levels of cultural competency lies.
b. Ensure that the survey questions are directed towards understanding
their level of acceptance and respect for people from diverse cultures
and how much they value their participation in early education.
c. Organise a workshop for the educators with the specific goal of
incorporating culturally sensitive values and beliefs in them.
d. Organise impromptu response sessions where the educators will be
put through a series of tasks including development of teaching and
conversational strategies that help incorporating culturally diverse
ideas and values in children.
Goal 2 –
Including parents in the children’s early education is identified to provide
the children with great benefits. The step here refers to how to capitalise on

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that opportunity and include parents in the development of cultural
competency in their children.
a. Organise regular meetings with parents and try to understand how
their understanding of cultural diversity affects the development of
their children.
b. Inform and train the parents on how to include culturally diverse
topics and subtopics in their daily activities with the children. For
instance include short stories and children’s bedtime stories that
reflect cultural competency and inclusivity.
c. Inform the parents on how to respond positively and respectfully to
children’s inquiries about culturally sensitive questions (Sylva et al.,
2010).
d. Organise a separate workshop for the parents where they will be
trained to effectively understand and address the aforementioned
issues.
Goal 3 –
A classroom environment is the primary environment where the children
learn and therefore developing an inclusive classroom environment for
fostering cultural awareness (Durand, 2010) is one of the key steps in
addressing the issue that has been identified here.
a. The first step is to make sure that the physical classroom
environment has ample space for the children to move around as
kids in this particular age group learn better when they are given the
opportunity to engage in active play based learning (Ponciano &
Shabazian, 2012).
b. Install a big map or globe in the classroom where children from
different locations can pin their country / place of origin along with
their pictures, name and the name of the country or place. This
resource can later be used to teach literacy and language to the
children in an inclusive manner.
c. Hang pictures of people of different countries and ethnicities in the
classroom. Attempt to include as many and as diverse cultural
elements like clothes, food, dance forms and household types.
Goal 4 –
Developing teaching and learning strategies becomes the final aspect of this
advocacy plan (Keengwe, 2010). Classroom learning and teaching strategies
are the best and most efficient way of ensuring that the children receive
direct help and intervention from the teachers as well as the curriculum
(Gregory, 2017).
a. Firstly, ensure that the educators respond to the questions asked by
the children in a respectful manner. For instance, if a child asks why
some people speak English differently than them, tell them that it is
because they belong to a different country and their mother tongue is
not English. In the response, the educator must try to ensure that

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negative denotation of a culture is avoided as much as possible.
b. From the map based identification of children, engage the children in
a weekly activity where the educational centre will take up a
different country each week and use the opportunity to enhance
cultural diversity by inviting parents to share something that relates
to their culture. They can share anything ranging from traditional
songs, music, clothing styles, food, dance as well as language.
c. Help the children develop cultural competency by celebrating
different culturally diverse events from the calendar throughout the
year.
d. Develop children’s linguistic and literacy skills by developing
multicultural and multilingual resources.
e. Use culturally inclusive games and activities in the class, as well as
promote diversity by showing films and animated videos on cultural
inclusivity
Timeline Goal 1 – One week, preferably the first week
Goal 2 – One week, can be clubbed with the activities of the first week or a
separate programme in the second week.
Goal 2 – Two to three days, preferably the first two to three days of the third
week.
Goal 4 – week 3, can continue till the end of the programme and onwards.
Who are
responsible
Educators in the early education centre, parents of the children concerned,
other responsible authorities like curriculum developers and director of the
centre.
Resources National documents:
 Early Years Learning Framework
 National Quality Framework
Websites:
 Legislation, ratings and standards information on the National
Quality Framework (NQF) -
https://www.education.gov.au/legislation-ratings-and-standards-
information-national-quality-framework-nqf#a-national-legislative-
framework
 Australian Children’s Education and care Quality Authority -
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/assessment/assessment-and-rating-
process
Other important resources –
 Classroom resources include maps / globe, photographs of
multicultural identity of people.
 Culturally diverse materials like music and films displaying
diversity, animated videos sourced from YouTube.
 Chart papers, colourful pencils and other resources commonly used
in an early learning centre.

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References
Abraham, C. (2005). Welcoming New Children in Your Child Care Program. Retrieved 6
October 2019, from http://www.childcarelounge.com/articles/welcomin.htm
Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.
(2009). [Ebook] (1st ed.). Australia. Retrieved from
https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/belonging_being_and_becoming
_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P., & Howe, A. (2013). Creative
learning environments in education—A systematic literature review. Thinking skills
and creativity, 8, 80-91.
Durand, T. M. (2010). Celebrating diversity in early care and education settings: Moving
beyond the margins. Early Child Development and Care, 180(7), 835-848.
Gordon, A. M., & Browne, K. W. (2013). Beginnings & beyond: Foundations in early
childhood education. Cengage learning.
Gregory, E. (2017). One child, many worlds: Early learning in multicultural communities.
Routledge.
Keengwe, J. (2010). Fostering cross cultural competence in preservice teachers through
multicultural education experiences. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(3), 197-
204.
Kupetz, B. Early childhood NEWS-Article Reading Center. 2012. Early childhood NEWS-
Article Reading Center.
Margetts, K., & Raban-Bisby, B. (2011). Principles and Practice for Driving the EYLF.
Teaching Solutions.
Mevawalla, Z., & Hadley, F. (2012). The advocacy of educators: Perspectives from early
childhood. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(1), 74-80.

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Ponciano, L., & Shabazian, A. (2012). Interculturalism: Addressing diversity in early
childhood. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 40(1), 23-29.
Stamopoulos, E., & Barblett, L. (2018). Early childhood leadership in action: Evidence-
based approaches for effective practice. Allen & Unwin.
Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B. (Eds.).
(2010). Early childhood matters: Evidence from the effective pre-school and primary
education project. Routledge.