Dear colleagues,
We would like to welcome you to the monthly research seminar of the Learning, Culture and Interventions (LECI) expert group.
Senior Lecturer, Dr. Gloria Quinones from Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia, will give a presentation on Thursday 12th of September from 10-12 AM, at Siltavuorenpenger 5.A, room K108 (Minerva building).
Title: A cultural-historical approach to affective and specialised infant-toddler practices in Australia
Discussant: Professor Lasse Lipponen, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki
Abstract: Australia is a multiculturally diverse nation. The 2016 census shows nearly half Australians were born overseas or one or both parents had been born overseas (Australian Bureau of Statics, 2016). Increasing numbers (more than 1.2 million) of young children in Australia attend long day care centres as working parents return to the workforce. This current context provides opportunities to explore the multicultural essence of infant-toddler learning and educator’s repertoire of practices. The focus of this presentation is to discuss a wholeness approach to infant-toddler education in Australia. A complexity found in recent research is the professional status of infant-toddler educators is currently undervalued and under researched (Davis & Dunn, 2019; Sumsion, 2017). There is very limited research into what makes a qualified infant-toddler educator or the reasons why this profession is specialised. In this presentation, I will focus on providing cultural-historical theoretical discussions, aimed to expand and enrich infant-toddler pedagogies that I have found to be of an affective and subjective in nature. Multicultural long day care centres (LDC) were selected for generation of specialised practices in Melbourne, Australia. Visual case examples provide evidence of everyday practices such as mealtimes, nappy change and play. The findings aim to increase the visibility of infant-toddlers and educators every day and specialised practices. Future directions for infant-toddler education in contemporary multi-cultural Australia will be discussed.
Bio: Gloria Quinones was born in Monterrey, N.L., Mexico where she was an early childhood teacher. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Early Years at Monash University, Faculty of Education. Her recent research focused on conceptualising specialised pedagogies for infant-toddler education and care. Gloria is now leading a book with co-authors Liang Li and Avis Ridgway, “Affective Early Childhood Pedagogy for Infant-Toddlers” for Policy and Pedagogy with Under-three Year Olds: Cross-disciplinary Insights and Innovations. More information behind this link.
Everyone interested is very welcome to join the seminar!