Article
Smoothing children's transition into formal schooling: addressing complexities in an early literacy initiative in remote Aboriginal communities, Northern Territory, Australia
Early childhood education journal
(2015)
Abstract
There is a growing awareness that some children
transition into formal schooling more readily than
others. Compelling evidence indicates that children familiar
with the skills and knowledge associated with the
dominant practices of literacy teaching in schools have an
advantage. While families play a pivotal role in children’s
early literacy development, there is often a disjuncture
between the literacy experiences of children from minority
backgrounds and those they encounter on entry into formal
schooling. Quality teaching in the prior-to-school setting
becomes increasingly important for these children. This
paper first examines what research and the literature reveal
about successful transitioning of children into formal
schooling, successful early literacy practices, and the
importance of a quality early childhood education. This
sets the backdrop for a description of an early literacy
initiative, which took place in six remote Aboriginal
communities in the Northern Territory, Australia, where all
the early childhood educators were under- or un-qualified.
Significant aspects emerging from the initiative were: the
engagement of the Elders in the community for the
implementation of the initiative; the ‘‘two-way’’ learning
between the non-Indigenous University mentor and the
Aboriginal early childhood educator in each community;
the necessity for making Indigenous ways of knowing,
being and doing a key pillar of the children’s literacy
learning; the bilingual nature of the initiative; and the
University mentors gradually stepping further and further
away, moving from teacher, to coach, to mentor, as the
skills and confidence of the early childhood educators
developed.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2015
DOI
10.1007/s10643-013-0630-5
Citation Information
Maher, m., and Bellen, L. (2015). Smoothing children's transition into formal schooling: addressing complexities in an early literacy initiative in remote Aboriginal communities, Northern Territory, Australia. Early childhood education journal, 43(1), 9-17. DOI: 0.1007/s10643-013-0630-5