Research Around the World

For this blog assignment I reviewed the Early Childhood Australia website.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au

I found that as I reviewed the site there were two main areas to access research. 

The first was a link to information about Australia Journal of Early Childhood which focuses on

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/australian_journal_of_early_childhood.html

Early childhood research, innovation and development

The Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) is Australasia's foremost scholarly journal and the world's longest-running major journal within the early childhood field.

As I reviewed the abstracts of research article that have been published in this journal I ran across an approach I was not familiar with, the Mosaic Approach.  I found the abstract very interesting and am looking forward learning more about this intriguing topic related to research and young children.  The abstract is as follows:

Personal reflection on research process and tools: Effectiveness, highlights and challenges in using the Mosaic Approach

Personal reflection on research process and tools:
Effectiveness, highlights and challenges in using the Mosaic Approach

Cheryl Greenfield
Manukau Institute of Technology

THIS REFLECTION ON USING the Mosaic Approach as a framework for undertaking research with young children contributes to the dialogue around qualitative research methodology. The provocation of social constructivist theory challenges researchers to consider and explore innovative ways to position themselves so the multiple voices of children can be heard, valued, respected and listened to. Three underpinning principles are identified and each of the methodological tools used by Greenfield (2007a) is discussed. Trustworthiness or situated validity in research is vital. It is argued that the Mosaic Approach provides an effective, flexible and authentic methodology when undertaking research with young children.

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood – Volume 36 No 3 September 2011

The other link related to research was called Research in Practice.  This area of the website contained an index of a series books on research based early childhood practices.

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/research_in_practice_series.html

Research in Practice Series

For practical, effective approaches from early childhood experts and practitioners ...

The Research in Practice Series provides practical, easy-to-read resources for those involved in the early childhood field.

The books are designed to assist with those challenging issues which arise in the care and education of young children, by offering effective, new approaches.

Both the Journal articles and books reflected many of the same topics you might find on a similar website in the US however this website was incredibly user friendly and it was difficult for me to break away.  I found research on... 

• Play
• Strength Based Teaching
• Reflection
• Leadership
• Diversity
• Individualization
• Policy Reform

To name just a few...

There were also many articles discussing the Australian National Quality Framework which seems to be a national early childhood system.  As someone who believes the US would benefit from such a system I look forward to reading more about the successes and challenges Australia has had with their system as I advocate for a comprehensive early childhood system in the US.  This chance to investigate a new resource was very worth my time.