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

ACTION PLAN FOR AN ADVOCACY ISSUE
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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.

ACTION PLAN FOR AN ADVOCACY ISSUE
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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.