Early Childhood Education and Care

This article discusses the importance of early childhood education and care, focusing on cultural diversity, stereotypes, and the anti-bias approach in Australia. It also provides a critique of the book 'I am Australian too' by Mem Fox, which celebrates the multiculturalism of Australia.

Running head: Early childhood education and care
Early childhood education
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author note

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The Australian society actually consists many of the other cultures around the world
as there are high number of immigrants in this country. Cultural diversity is important for
building a good society and widely held social norms. It has been assessed that in the early
childhood education there was shift of the child towards an anti-biased type of curriculum. In
the everyday life of children they are frequently exposed to stereotyping dominant discourses
on nationality which is currently reflecting on society and the community on which they live.
There are some rigid ideas are possessed by preschool aged children. The physical, social and
emotional development of the children has direct impact on their overall future development;
hence, understanding the process of child education and care will enhance their future well-
being. Moreover, the process of early childhood education encompasses several activities,
which implies to bring efficient developmental change within the children. Apart from that,
multicultural education or diversity can share goals of social justice and equity among the
children (Guo, 2015). “I am Australian too” is a book written by Mem Fox, which deploys
the stories of some Australians and the place from which their grandparents and parents have
come from. The book effectively identifies the value of one’s origin and deploys the fact that,
regardless of the place from which the Australians and their ancestors belongs to, they are
equally Australian. This report will discuss the process of teaching the children about
diversity and dominant discourse along with the issues, stereotypes and the biased behaviour
associated with it. This essay will be discussing the book “I am Australian too” and provide a
critique on the culture of Australia which is very much diverse in nature.
Mem Fox’s book I am Australian too deploys the tremendous cultural diversity of
Australia, where each single verse describes different families implicating their amazing
ancestral journey and the uniqueness of their family. Apart from that, the vivid illustration of
Ronojosh Ghosh depict each family scenario via capturing eye catching scenes from
Australian landscape. Moreover, there exist a little poignant reference for the children and

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refugees, where one young girl has depicted behind one grey wall, carrying one birdcage in
her hand, letting free one white dove that flies towards the wall of freedom. Furthermore, the
book describes the cultural understanding, love as well as kindness which implies the
testament of vibrant multicultural nation of Australia. In the early stage of the child’s
education, knowledge about the cultural diversity is important as it brings skills and talents
from their home and community. The book provides one vital message for the parents, which
says, children can get better outcome in future when they feel secure, loved and get emotional
support. The book celebrates rich diversity and multiculturalism of the Australian citizens.
This book actually provides the multicultural environment of the Australia and how all the
peoples are happy with this environment. The book can be advantageous in implicating the
multicultural society of Australia to the children by starting an effective conversation with
them regarding the values, tolerance, acceptance as well as the stress that requires to become
an Australian. Apart from implicating the story, the statement “How about you?” at the end
of each story, provides the kids to speak their own story regarding the citizenship of Australia
(Pagano, 2019). Thus this book is actually very much advantageous to demonstrate the
students about the multicultural aspects and the importance of it so that the students become
familiar with it.
Prior to the discussion regarding the process of educating the children, it is necessary
to understand the importance of early childhood education and care. Encountering with the
dominant sociocultural values starts with the process of early childhood education (Follari,
2015). Furthermore, providing early childhood education to the children regarding cultural
diversity can encourage their critical thinking, problem solving activity, communication
skills, social responsibilities and global awareness (Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 2013). The
necessity of early childhood care and education can be discussed as follows;

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 It enhances the process of brain development, which can have long term positive
economic benefits.
 Early childhood education can add value to a successful school life of every children.
 Effective education and care in early childhood can become impeding factor in social
skill and behavioural development of a child (Scarlet, 2016).
Considering the above factors, regardless of the place, it is necessary for every children to
get effective and intercultural early education. However, considering the case scenario of
Australia, the process of intercultural early education not only enhances the initial primary
school years, but also spans several fields such as, childcare, preschool education and school
aged care (Miller & Petriwskyj, 2013). The educators assigned for providing early childhood
education (ECE) must possess immense knowledge in numerous vocational training and
childhood training degrees. However, depending upon the education, provision of diversity
and professional preparation of the educators, the ideological perspective of linguistic and
cultural diversity varies.
Today’s technological era is evidencing dramatic change in the education methods.
Australia is one of the technologically developed country, where the teachers involved in
providing early childhood education, are looking forward to equip the children with several
skills required for gaining success in their future (Waller & Davis 2014).). Listed below are
some strategies that the early childhood educators are currently adopting for the boundless
future of the kids.
 Cooperative learning strategies
 Integrated technologies
 Goal setting
 Differentiated instruction

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 Assessment for learning
 Cross curriculum teaching
Despite of an effective consistency in the process providing intercultural education;
yet there exist some unsolved issues to this matter. As opined by Blank (2012), the early
childhood educators in Australia continues to expect cultural support staffs by offering
several learning support via removing the children from linguistically along with the
culturally diverse background from classroom. Furthermore, the demographic education
scenario in Australia is more conscious about policy implementation; hence, the multilingual
education service sometimes becomes hindrance for the intercultural practices (Scarlett,
2016). Apart from that, in Australia, having less content knowledge along with the feelings
of causing offence sometimes impede the teaching capacity of the educator.
Stereotypes reflects the misconception or mistaken idea that many people have based
upon the outside look of anything. However, in Australia, the preschool children have seen
holding rigid thoughts regarding cultural stereotypes, which might lead to major prejudices in
their lives. In the book “I am Australian too” there are two major kind of stereotypes comes
in to notice, which are ethnic or national stereotype and cultural stereotype. Mem fox’s story
“I am Australian too” revolves around the exploitation of the cultural diversity and the
multiculturalism concept. The ethnic or national stereotype explains the belief regarding the
typical characteristics of a particular ethnic group, their nationality status and the cultural
norms. Moreover, the explanation on culture uncover three vital concepts such as, culture
stereotype, culture discrimination and effective friendship; which can majorly affect the
children’s future perception regarding the future life (Buchori & Dobinson, 2015). However,
there exist some hindering factors to the concept of dominant discourse on culture. In
Australia, the families having high religious background and cultural beliefs in the
conformity to the culture stereotypes. Nevertheless, providing early education to the children

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regarding culture stereotypes can be advantageous as the concept explains that, culture not
totally defines them; rather culture explains a part of who they are as one unique person.
The concept of anti-bias approach in case of early childhood education and care in
Australia have become the vital compendium of works. Moreover, as the early childhood
teachers spend noticeable amount of time with the kids at the time of formative experience;
hence it is the vital responsibility of the educators to offer bias free education and care to the
children (Scarlett, 2016). Furthermore, having the belief that every children deserve to have
equal opportunity, care and education to enhance their future, can make an early childhood
educator to behave bias free. As discussed above, in the book “I am Australian too”, explains
the multiculturalism; however, regardless of their origin, they deserve bias free education and
care. The goal of providing anti-bias education in Australia can be explain as follows;
 Every child need to demonstrate positive social identity along with confidence, family
pride and self-awareness.
 The children must be provided the training of recognizing the unfairness and the
method to understand and explain the unfairness.
 Every child should demonstrate the skill of understanding the prejudice and empower
enough to take action against the discriminatory actions.
 It is important for every child to express the joy and comfort with the human
diversity, the exact expression of human difference, and the human connections.
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, in order to achieve
great success in the school life and future life, it is necessary for every child to go through
early childhood education and care. During the early development stage of child culture plays
an influential role on the child and for that perfect education about that must be convoyed to
the child. In this case, this book has played a perfect role by demonstrating the actual culture

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of the Australian Society. The report has provided one brief discussion about Mem Fox’s
book “I am Australian too”, which explains the multiculturalism of Australia. Apart from
that, the dominant discourse on diversity along with the issues, stereotypes and the anti-bias
approach associated to it have been emphasized in the report.

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References
Blank, J. (2012) Aesthetic education in the early years: Exploring familiar and unfamiliar
personal-cultural landscapes, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, March 13(1),
50-62.
Buchori, S., & Dobinson, T. (2015). Practitioners’ perspectives in a multicultural early
childhood setting in Australia. Australasian journal of Early Childhood, 40 (1), 71-79.
Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2013). Beyond quality in early childhood education
and care: Languages of evaluation. Routledge.
Follari, L. (2015). Valuing Diversity in Early Childhood Education. US: Pearson Education
Inc. (Chapters 2 and 3).
Guo, K. (2015). Teacher knowledge, child interest and parent expectation: Factors
influencing multicultural programs in an early childhood setting. Australasian Journal
of Early Childhood, 40(1), 63-70.
Miller, M. & Petriwskyj, A. (2013). New directions in intercultural early education in
Australia. International Journal of Early Childhood, 45(2), 251-266.
Pagano, A. (2019). I'm Australian Too by Mem Fox. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx1Y5UU9AG8
Scarlet, R.R (2016, March 13). Embracing, embedding and expressing cultural diversity in
early childhood (Video file). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=bdY6L1sbPnM

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Scarlett, R. (2016). The Anti Bias Approach in Early Childhood (3rd ed.). Sydney:
Multiverse. (Chapters 2, 3, 9 and 29).
Waller, T., & Davis, G. (Eds.). (2014). An introduction to early childhood. Sage.