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Virginia Artinian
Early Childhood Teacher (NSW)
To work with children is a privilege that should never be taken for granted. The last five years have taken me on a journey of learning the details of this relationship in the context of education and have shaped my vision for the future. I finished studying my Bachelor of Education: Early Childhood Education (birth to 12 years) degree last year, became a ‘targeted graduate’ and have invested my first year working with a class of Year 5 students at a Department of Education school in northern Sydney.
Looking back
My experiences during university life grew me holistically and shaped what I believe about education today. I quickly found myself seeking to support people who were new or on the ‘outskirts’. I volunteered in the ‘Mentors@Macquarie’ program and worked with a team to facilitate the transition of many first-year students. My involvement and leadership in a Christian student society, ‘Student Life,’ taught me about developing and enlarging my vision, goal setting, strategic planning and the importance of continuous personal and professional development. I received many opportunities to engage in public speaking and developed a priority of being intentional in relationships with the view of supporting others. I worked at Macquarie University across four faculties in total while completing my degree. In these various roles, I sought to equip students studying education, mostly through individual tutoring. This taught me about working with others on a whole new scale as I was impacting the future teachers of society. During professional experience placements, I decided to get out of my ‘comfort zone’ and requested schools from varying demographics to ensure I got out of the ‘middle class suburbia’ bubble.
This year—2016
My current season of work as a Year 5 teacher has been a joy-filled and challenging experience. During Term 1, I felt as if there was a wall between the theories taught at university and the overwhelming amount of learning I had to do to become acculturated in this new setting. As time went by, I began to draw upon EC philosophy and pedagogy. Family-centred practice, the importance of aesthetics and aiming for students’ holistic growth are probably the biggest three. I have kept a journal of my experiences in order to document what the roller coaster of beginning teaching is like and to give me clarity of thought when making decisions. I cannot reiterate how helpful underpinning reflective practice in my work and life has been.
The addition of mentoring time to support beginning teachers has been a leadership decision that has had a direct impact on my ability to succeed this year. My mentor has been a cornerstone in supporting and empowering me as I have sought to ‘find my feet’ in this new setting. I have had someone to ask how I am really going, provide ideas and resources for lessons, clarify the expectations of my role and share wisdom and advice. The executive leaders of my school have enabled me to work with my first year colleagues to create a teacher induction and transition program. It is only with their support that I am being empowered to use my ideas and vision in this capacity. This has been supported because of the broader landscape of leadership and the government’s initiative of the Great Teaching, Inspired Learning (GTIL) reforms in New South Wales.
Looking ahead
My vision is to connect, support and empower children who experience marginalisation to live vibrant and fruitful lives with respect, equity, justice and hope. My passions stem from my Christian faith and worldview, where I am constantly challenged to think of what it truly means to ‘love my neighbour as myself’. Professionally, this is working with my colleagues to support, connect and empower our students, with over 90 per cent learning English as a second language and many who are new to Australia. Outside of work, it means building relationships with children and families who have just arrived after fleeing the war in Syria. With people from my Armenian cultural community, we are taking initiatives to build relationships with people individually and connect them to society in ways that will empower them, restore their voices and bring out their best. It is a joy and privilege to gain new friends and share life together.
To be successful, I cannot do it alone. I need to work alongside others who share this vision and will be advocates, community builders and who will be present with these children. Teaching is an incredible career that gives us opportunities to use our leadership for the good of society and I am excited to be on this adventure.
Published 2017
Dr Karen Martin
Associate Professor of Early Childhood, Griffith University (QLD)
I’m the youngest of seven children who grew up in a working class suburb of Brisbane (the capital city of Queensland). By the time I was 10, I cared for my three nephews and one niece. When I became a mother at the age of 15, I wanted more for my son and so, I completed a teacher assistant course in 1981. I’d found my niche. Over the following 12 years I obtained a Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood) and a Bachelor of Education. I taught in Aboriginal EC services; developed policy and curriculum, and provided professional development to EC educators. In the late 1990s I worked in Indigenous education so my PhD is in Aboriginal knowledge and research.
In 2003 I returned to ECE and in 2008 became Associate Professor of Early Childhood. Currently I teach post-graduate students and undertake research in the areas of ECE and Aboriginal ECE, particularly curriculum and workforce. I am often invited to present at major conferences on these topics. This aligns with my roles as Deputy Chair of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children Steering Committee and of the Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee.
What are some of the key challenges you encounter in your job as an academic?
A key challenge I face constantly is the marginalisation of my work and knowledge as only being relevant to Aboriginal education, or Aboriginal people. Too often, people see my colour and not my credentials, my culture and not my scholarship, even though my PhD earnt a university medal.
When thinking about EC leadership, what qualities matter most?
Insight and foresight. Insight is the ability to understand and work within micro levels and their contexts. Foresight is the ability to work at a macro level and make connections to the micro contexts. Both enable you to see the little picture and the bigger picture at the same time.
How did you acquire your knowledge, skills and understandings about leadership?
I learnt mostly by calibrating my own ideas of leadership in observing others and by engaging in leadership roles. You soon learn about your own nature and that of others this way. I learnt that leadership is not uniform and to develop my own style over time.
Looking back at your career achievements, what are you most proud of as an EC educator?
I’m proud of being a leading educator in my own right and not simply because I’m an Aboriginal person. I’m proud of the recognition given to my work through awards and that it is often cited by others. I’m proud of now being at the level of my career that I can give back to the Aboriginal ECE sector. I call that my ‘heart business’.
What advice would you offer those aspiring to become university leaders in EC?
Be clear about your reasons for taking the journey and be prepared for the challenges of working in higher education. Develop an expertise in more than one area within EC so you don’t get marginalised. Have a network of respectful alliances as it can get lonely at times. Don’t forget your EC values and push others out of your way. Your network is just as important as your scholarship, but, what’s your ‘heart business’?
How can we build the knowledge, skills and capacities of future leaders in the EC sector?
It’s a lifelong journey that must include post-graduate studies—even better if this entails research. That’s how you build your scholarship. Look for opportunities, big or small, to flex your leadership muscles and develop your own style of leadership. It’s about transformations, not transactions. Transactions are encounters with ideas or people or places that do have some value, but it’s not likely to be sustainable and or benefit a lot of people. Transformations are more powerful because they bring particular challenges to be considered, not merely addressed. The impact is not instant because change evolves, but it is sustainable. Leadership isn’t always evident in leaders. Leaders are not always in the top roles.
Leo Prendergast
Director, Rainbow Children’s Centre, Ballina (NSW)
I completed a degree in Early Childhood Education at Sydney University in 1980. I then worked as a teacher and director in a range of children’s services for six years before being invited to establish an extended hours service at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in 1987. I worked there for 16 years during which time UTS developed five different childcare centres and two out of school hours care (OOSHC) services. I coordinated all of these services. While at UTS, I completed a Masters in Public Sector Management specialising in community management. As well, I taught part time at TAFE Colleges and the University of Western Sydney (UWS) in early childhood education on programming, planning and management. I moved to the North Coast of New South Wales in 2003 and I am now the Director of Rainbow Children’s Centre providing long day care, OOSHC and early intervention for children with disabilities and additional needs.
Having worked in the sector for almost three decades, how do you maintain your passion and commitment to the early childhood sector?
I think children have done it for me. I still wonder at young children and how they learn. I still love every day to talk and play with children and see the joy and satisfaction as they learn and master their world. I can’t imagine a more satisfying job.
I think engagement in the sector more broadly has also been really important. I got involved in Community Child Care and NACBCS very early in my career. First I got to meet and be involved with colleagues and other teachers and became aware of issues and the broader perspective of how children’s services fit within the community. I have found that essential and I think it has helped my decision-making to have that broader perspective. I also have found it personally satisfying to make some contribution to the sector as a whole and so have continued. Where I live now Early Childhood Australia (ECA) is quite strong and so I make my contribution mainly through that organisation. I think as an experienced ‘professional’ making that type of contribution, beyond my actual job, should be an expectation.
I have also found teaching in universities and TAFE colleges is motivating, although it has never been the focus of my career. I think when you have to teach another adult you first have to really reflect on your own practice and that is never a bad thing.
I don’t feel OK giving advice. I can only say this is the way it has been for me. If there is any value for others to hear those things, then it’s OK. I also have not spoken at all about being a male. I have never really seen that as either an advantage or a drawback. I don’t know if it has influenced my leadership—again maybe that is for others to judge. I just get on with doing my job and being who I am and I find my gender seems irrelevant.
How do you execute your vision and strategic plans as a centre leader?
I tend to think that as a leader I have to have families, management and staff with me. While occasionally as a leader I have to strike out on my own, so to speak, that has to be rare. Mostly, I take the view that if the vision and plans I want to implement have value, then it is my responsibility to persuade others by the force of my arguments—not the force of my position. Of course once you achieve some success it becomes easier to persuade others, as people begin to trust your judgment.
Please describe briefly an example of a big leadership moment in your career and explain what you learnt about leadership from this experience?
I remember a staff person in her appraisal discussion telling me she waited for the first year or so with me as Director for me to explode and blame her for problems. She said all her life that had been her experience of what leaders do and she almost could not believe I would not do so. This really reinforced for me my ideas of rights/responsibilities. If I expect a staff member to take responsibilities I want her to be able and empowered to make decisions. But I also have to give her the right to make those decisions. I must be prepared to back her even when she makes a different decision to what I may have done. Rather than blaming a team member if something goes wrong, that is the time they most need my support. If they continue to get that support they will develop the skills to be good decision-makers. If, instead I blame and berate staff for a poor decision, I could encourage a team that procrastinates, passes all decisions back to me and makes my job as leader so much harder.
Doranna Wong
Lecturer, Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, Sydney (NSW)
I began my career in early childhood as an assistant teacher of 3–4 year olds in a kindergarten in Singapore after completing secondary school. This led to a full-time position and also a decade of working with children in a kindergarten as well as with children with cerebral palsy in a special needs school. During that period, I completed two Certificates and a Diploma in Early Childhood and began initiating changes in the kindergarten program and environment. It was very challenging as I was the youngest, newest and most inexperienced staff member. Completing my Diploma led to my decision to further my studies at Macquarie University leading to Bachelor and Masters degrees as I was hungry for knowledge about working with young children in diverse settings. I have now also completed postgraduate studies on research methods as I am interested in pursuing PhD studies.
In Sydney, I worked part-time while completing my degree. Upon graduation, I was employed as the temporary authorised supervisor and room leader of the 2–3 year old room in a community-based childcare centre. In these roles, I was responsible for the curriculum and program for the centre, mentoring staff and overall management of the daily operations together with my director and administrator. I do not usually shy away from responding to challenges as a beginning leader but have realised over time that I tend to question issues as a way of understanding their relevance to my current practice and then develop goals, strategies and timelines in response to challenges encountered in day-to-day work.
Who or what has influenced your work in early childhood to date?
My journey as an educator has been influenced primarily by my parents/family and our Catholic values and beliefs. From my choice of becoming an early childhood professional to engaging in further studies in this sector, I have always felt grounded in my decisions and comforted by the challenges as I have considered them as answering God’s call for me. Obtaining university qualifications and having the opportunity to apply what I have learnt into the programs with children and families that I have worked with have also shaped the way I think and behave as a leader. An important part of this is the constant reflection of where all the knowledge fits in my philosophy as an educator. My approach is also influenced greatly by the two countries where I have lived and worked.
As a beginning leader, numerous factors can also either support or hinder one’s progress. In my case, the university qualifications I had completed and my experience in the sector can be viewed as being important in terms of the roles I was expected to perform. Age and culture are also particularly challenging as these are not factors that I could change! This was the case when I first graduated from Macquarie University and my colleagues at the centre in Sydney were all older and were mainly Anglo-Saxon. It was not uncommon for those colleagues to say ‘it is not the Australian way of doing things’ or ‘you have not lived in Australia long enough’.
Having immigrated to Australia from Singapore, what has assisted you in making the transition to work as an early childhood educator in this country?
I still call Singapore my home although I have been living in Sydney for almost a decade. This is primarily because I consider home being where my family is. My parents, sister and extended family including my grandparents live in Singapore and I miss not having them around with me in Sydney. However, living in two cultures, understanding two ways of doing things and two ways of being have been a constant for me whether I’m working in Sydney or in Singapore. I feel it is the recognition that Iam both, not either or, that has helped me with each transition between countries and cultures. I do feel I am continually transitioning as I progress in my professional journey. Whichever country I am in, I feel myself shifting and balancing who I am as a professional is reflective of the expectations and values of the role I perform in each setting.
What advice would you have for other educators interested in working in different countries?
Be open to what you can learn from different countries. One of the goals that I set myself when I first came to Sydney as an international student was to always be aware of the different practices, values and beliefs, how they sit in that particular setting and context and how they are reflective (or not) of my own cultural background. A consistent challenge for me is how diverse approaches in different countries have impacted on my early childhood philosophy and how these can be incorporated in my work with children and their families. This is also the way in which I have incorporated values and beliefs of my home culture to the way I work in Sydney and vice versa.