Belong, Being, Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) is the only approved learning framework for the learning, development and wellbeing of children preschool age and under. It comprises of EYLF Principles, Practices, Learning Outcomes and Themes.
Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) providers in Australia must use this framework when delivering education and care to children in their service.
For a full guide to the EYLF, you can access this guide. But for now, let's go through the EYLF Principles.
What are the EYLF Principles?
The EYLF Principles underpin practice that is focused on assisting all children to make progress on the learning outcomes. They reflect contemporary theories and research evidence into early childhood pedagogy and children's learning. They are:
Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships
According to research, babies are both vulnerable and competent. Their first attachments are very important in helping them with exploration and learning.
Therefore, educators who can build secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships with young children have help to provide a secure base for that exploration and learning.
Educators should be attuned to children's thoughts and feelings, and positively interact with the young child in their learning. Those that do this support the child's development of a strong sense of wellbeing.
Children develop confidence, and feel respected and valued through a widening network of secure relationships. As children develop these relationships, they become increasingly able to positively interact with others, recognising and respecting their feelings.
To assist children to develop the skills they need to positively interact with others, educators should give priority to nurturing relationships and provide consistent emotional support to them. Doing this also helps children to:
Learn about their responsibilities to others
Appreciate their connectedness and interdependence as learners
Value collaboration and teamwork
Partnerships
Families are a children's first - and most influential - teachers.
Educator who recognise this set children up for success by working in partnership with their families and creating a welcoming environment, where all children and families are respected and encouraged to collaborate on curriculum decisions to ensure meaningful learning experiences.
Understanding each other's strengths, knowledge, expectations and attitudes is the foundation for genuine partnerships, in which families and educators:
Value each other's knowledge of each child
Value each other's contributions to and roles in each child's life
Trust each other
Communicate freely and respectfully with each other
Share insights and perspectives about each child
Engage in shared decision-making
Children with additional needs should be provided opportunities to learn from active participation and engagement in every day events, routines and play - both in the home and in early childhood and specialist settings. In these instances, educators, families and support professionals should work together to explore learning opportunities as part of their partnerships.
Respect for diversity
Children are born belonging to a culture, which is influence by traditional practices, heritage, ancestral knowledge, experiences, values, and beliefs of families and communities. Educators can respect diversity by:
Reflecting the practices, values and beliefs of families within the curriculum
Honouring the histories, cultures, languages, traditions, child-rearing practices and lifestyle choices of families
Recognising that diversity contributes to the richness of our society and provides a valid evidence base about ways of knowing
Promoting greater understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and being
Making curriculum decisions that uphold all children's rights to have their cultures, identities, abilities and strengths acknowledged and valued
Responding to the complexity of children's and families' lives
Thinking critically about opportunities and dilemmas that can arise from diversity
Taking action to redress unfairness
Providing opportunities to learn about similarities, differences, interdependencies, and how we can learn to live together
When educators respect diversity, they are able to foster children's motivation to learn and reinforce their sense of themselves as competent learners.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
It is important for children to see themselves, their identities and their culture reflected in their environment, in order to create strong identity. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, reflecting these perspectives also works towards key commitments, such as:
Reconciliation
Closing the Gap
Fulfilling every child's right to know about Australia's First Nations' histories, knowledge systems, cultures and languages
Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives also encourages openness to diverse perspectives and enhances all children's experiences.
Although everyone shares the responsibility, educators should think deeply about embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the service's philosophy and curriculum. Where possible, educators should seek assistance by engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people about how to embed their perspectives and create a culturally safe space through pedagogy and practice.
Educators should also seek out reciprocal relationships between early childhood settings and the local community, growing their knowledge of kinships systems and cultural connections. This will help to reinforce and affirm a positive sense of identity both at home and in the community.
Equity, inclusion and high expectations
Children progress when they hold high expectations for their learning, alongside their families and educators.
Educators should be committed to equity, believing in all children's capacity to succeed regardless of circumstances or abilities. They should also recognise and respond to barriers to educational success. challenging practices that contribute to inequities and making curriculum decisions that promote inclusion and participation.
Educators should continually strive for equitable and effective ways to ensure all children to have the opportunities to achieve learning outcomes by developing their professional knowledge and skills, and working in partnership with children, families, communities, agencies and other services.
Sustainability
Educators and children have an important part to play in creating and promoting sustainability. This covers:
Environmental Sustainability: caring for, protecting, preserving, and improving our natural world and the environment
Social Sustainability: living peacefully, fairly, and respectfully in resilient, inclusive communities - both locally and global.
Economic Sustainability: supporting economic development with negatively impacting other dimensions (e.g. fair and equitable access to resources, conserving resources or reducing consumption/waste)
Educators should:
Recognise children's abilities and interests in the world, concepts of sustainability, and advocacy for positive change.
Support children's agency and their right to be active participants.
Encourage children to develop an appreciation of the natural world, understand our impact on the natural world, and the interdependence between people, animals, plants, lands and waters.
Support children to take an active role in caring for the environment and think about how to contribute to a sustainable future.
Learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and rich sustainable practices.
Provide opportunities for children to learn about - and appreciate - all of the dimensions of sustainability, and engage with concepts of social justice, fairness, sharing, democracy and citizenship.
Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning
Critical reflection differs from reflection. Where reflection involves think intentionally about practices with certain goals in mind, critical reflection is a meaning-making process which requires a deeper level of thinking and evaluation - i.e. engagement with diverse perspectives such as philosophy, theory, ethics and practice.
These factors should be evaluated in context and lead to transformative pedagogical decisions/actions. This then forms future practice in ways that demonstrate an understanding of each child's learning, development and wellbeing, and have implications for equity and social justice.
Some overarching questions that can help with critical reflection include:
What is our understanding of each child, their culture and context?
What questions do we have about our work?
What are we challenged by? What are we curious about? What are we confronted by in relation to our own biases?
What theories, philosophies and understandings shape and assist our work?
In what ways – if any – are the theories, knowledges and world views that we usually draw on to make sense of what we do limiting our practice?
What other theories or knowledge and world views could help us make sense of what we have observed or experienced? What are they? How might those theories and that knowledge affect our practice?
Who is advantaged/included when we work it this way? Who is disadvantaged, excluded or silenced?
These questions will help to examine practices, evaluate outcomes, and come up with new ideas that can be tried and tested. In turn, this will support educators to think about why they work in particular ways, engaging in deep thinking about pedagogy, equity and children's wellbeing.
To reflect critically and maximise professional learning, educators should:
Continually seek ways for build their professional knowledge/skills, and develop learning communities as co-learners with children, families and communities.
Value the continuity and richness of local knowledge - including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders.
Collaboratively explore, identify and evaluate diverse perspectives with respect to their settings and contexts.
Establish a robust culture of critical reflection, by including team members, families and children in the ongoing cycle of review
Work with colleagues to identify and negotiate learning priorities, reflect on how they learn best, and look for evidence-informed learning experiences that support deep learning, critical reflection and practice change.
As lifelong learners, educators who are looking to improve knowledge/skills can take part in learning opportunities and experiences, such as:
In the service: professional conversations with teams, coaching and mentoring, professional reading, practitioner inquiry, and participating in collaborative research projects.
Outside of the service: further study, professional conferences, and completing professional learning programs.
Collaborative leadership and teamwork
Collaborative leadership and teamwork are built on a sense of shared responsibility and accountability for children's learning, development and wellbeing. This view empowers educators to use their professional knowledge and skills to help team members to do the best they can for children, families and colleagues.
A professional philosophy of collaboration and cooperation enables positive relationships grow - not just between educators, but children and families who are attuned to the work culture.
To promote collaborative leadership and teamwork, educators should:
Lead their own ethical practice, and take professional and personal responsibilities for their actions and decisions
Engage with different ways of thinking and working
Critically reflect on their practice as an individual and a team, and contribute to curriculum decisions and quality improvement plans
When educators work in this way, children's learning, development and wellbeing is optimised, and a culture of peer mentoring and shared learning encourages professional learning and growth.
What next? Going beyond the EYLF Principles
The EYLF Principles are used to inform practice. From here, educators should look to use these principles to embed them in their practice to help children achieve the learning outcomes.
Get Your FREE Guide to the EYLF Principles
Want a handy guide to the EYLF Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes?
Download this FREE EYLF Poster.
Comments