Challenges in Family-community Partnerships for Early Childhood Educators

PART A: PRESENTATION

SLIDE 1: OUTLINE OF THE ISSUE

• Lack of satisfaction among Indigenous students has been a critical issue associated with the progress of the Australian education sector.
• 50% of the students belonging to the Indigenous community in Australia observed complexities in understanding technological use in the provision of quality education (Statista, 2024).

In the above slide, I have identified the Indigenous issue faced by the Australian education sector that has curtailed the progress of the industry. The local students have faced issues in understanding the correct use of technologies in the education sector that has reduced the efficacy of the teaching process. Overall, the challenge mentioned above has curtailed the progress of the Australian education sector.

SLIDE 2: CONTEXT OF THE PARTNERSHIP AND STAKEHOLDERS

• The internal stakeholders include community members, counsellors, and school staff and external stakeholders include high education centres, Governmental agencies, and Non-profit organisations.
• The involvement of the stakeholder solves the family partnership issue by analysing cultural barrier challenges and carrying out disengagement among families (Deferne, Bertschi-Michel, and de Groote, 2022).

This slide discusses the requirement of the stakeholder in solving family community partnership challenges. The engagement of the internal and external stakeholders addresses its challenges by enhancing improvement in communication. The efficient access to resources is more eminent which enhances the quality of life by improving relations with partners. Thus, educators create a supportive environment by serving personalised outreach programs to improve family engagement.

SLIDE 3: GOAL OF THE PLAN

• The main goal of the family-community partnership plan is to spread knowledge among the Indigenous Australian families reading the importance of early childhood education by supporting positive engagement of parents (Australian Government, 2022).
• Around 7.6 thousand Torres Strait and Aboriginal Islander children's ages 3-6 years were enrolled in preschool programs in South Wales, Australia (Statista, 2024).

This slide is all about the discussion of the main goal of the family-community partnership plan for the Australian Indigenous families about childhood education. The mentioned program helps the teachers to create a strong relationship between the parents and schools to spread awareness about the significance of early childhood education to ensure the future of the indigenous children. Further, the plan also improves the number of indigenous children in preschool programs.

SLIDE 4: OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS OF THE PLAN

• Strong relationships between families and schools in early childhood education recognize a powerful way that helps in improving health and well-being and education motivation of the children (Murphy et al., 2021)..
• Socio-economic inequalities, communication barriers, and scheduling conflicts hamper the family community partnership, leading to a lack of trust and power imbalance (Yoo, Hong, and Sang Hwa Oh, 2023).

In this slide, I am going to represent the opportunities and barriers of implementing family-community partnership plans for the Australian Indigenous families for providing knowledge regarding early childhood education importance. The respected plan provides opportunities regarding improving children's educational motivation by the end of the families. Communication barriers, scheduling conflicts, and lack of unfamiliar awareness regarding child development improved through overcoming stereotyped behaviour of families.

SLIDE 5: REFERENCES

Australian Government (2022). Family-School Partnerships - Department of Education, Australian Government. [online] Department of Education. Available at: https://www.education.gov.au/supporting-family-school-community-partnerships-learning/family-school-partnerships [Accessed 21 Oct. 2024].

Deferne, M., Bertschi-Michel, A. and de Groote, J. (2022). The role of trust in family business stakeholder relationships: A systematic literature review. Journal of Family Business Strategy, [online] 14(1), p.100501. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2022.100501.

Kambouri, M., Wilson, T., Pieridou, M., Quinn, S.F. and Liu, J. (2021). Making Partnerships Work: Proposing a Model to Support Parent-Practitioner Partnerships in the Early Years. Early Childhood Education Journal, [online] 50(4). doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01181-6.

Murphy, C., Matthews, J., Clayton, O. and Cann, W. (2021). Partnership with Families in Early Childhood education: Exploratory Study. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, [online] 46(1), pp.93–106. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1836939120979067.

Statista (2024). Australia: young people’s satisfaction with education by indigenous status | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1399137/australia-young-people-satisfaction-with-education-by-indigenous-status/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2024].

Statista (2024). Australia - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kindergarten enrolments by state 2018. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/975452/australia-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-kindergarten-enrolments-by-state/ [Accessed 21 Oct. 2024].

Yoo, W., Hong, Y. and Sang Hwa Oh (2023). Communication inequalities in the COVID-19 pandemic: socioeconomic differences and preventive behaviors in the United States and South Korea. BMC Public Health, 23(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16211-8.

Part 2: Report

1. Introduction

Family-community partnership is considered a shared responsibility that positively impacts the development of child well-being in the environment of early childhood education. Parental involvement in childhood education significantly enhances the positive experience of children regarding learning and education (Keung and Cheung, 2023). The aim of the report is to critically discuss the issues with family-community partnership programs along with identifying the key stakeholders of the plan. Further, the opportunities and barriers of the mentioned program are also discussed in this report, and it considered the case of Australian Indigenous families for implementing the partnership by the educators.

2. Discussion on the issues affecting family community partnership in the education sector.

2.1 Rationale behind the occurrence of the issue

 The education sector of Australia has been an important factor behind the enhancement of literacy growth within the country. In the education industry, online techniques have been introduced to enhance the quality of the learning process provided to students in Australia. On the other hand, the sector has faced engagement issues among students due to the occurrence of complexities such as inadequate technical knowledge that has reduced the efficacy of the education provided in the country. For example, students in 50% of the universities in Australia have faced difficulties in understanding the proper use of technologies such as AI and IoT in the education process that has lowered the progress of the stakeholders (Zhou, 2020). Overall, it has been noticed that due to the absence of adequate technical knowledge among the students belonging to Indigenous Australian communities, the provision of adequate education to the local residents has not been effectively carried out in the country.

2.2 Impact of the issue on the Australian education sector

The improper expansion of education in Australia has adversely influenced the number of students pursuing higher studies in the country. For instance, 51% of Australian students have been identified as pursuing higher education in the country.(Statista, 2024). On the other hand, in countries such as Canada and Russia, the number of higher education students has been 62% and 57% (Statista, 2024). The progress of the education sector in Australia has been hampered due to the competition faced by its from other countries. Overall, it has been observed that inadequate knowledge regarding the use of technologies has curtailed the progress of Indigenous Australian communities, in the education sector of Australia.

Figure 1: Students pursuing Higher education in countries

(Source: Statista, 2024b)

3. Involvement of stakeholder and expanding its plan for partnership

3.1 Key stakeholders and its impact

Table 1: Stakeholder analysis

“Family community partnership” is more important to encounter significant challenges by being able to expand its partnership plans through efficient decision making by engaging with the families related to education. The implementation of efficient communication is more important by supporting children with innovative learning in improving health outcomes. Analysing the challenges regarding stakeholder involvement, lack of educator necessary skills and stereotype behaviour of the parents can be improved through providing them with professional development. The Australian Government has undertaken initiatives that help communities and parents in enhancing child learning through parent engagement programs addressing educational transition (Clarke, 2022). Although expanding its partnership by using social media platforms to encounter efficient engagement. The involvement of the student towards community outreach programs by offering valuable resources that improve the quality of education. Thus, Australian communities improve complex challenges by servicing skill development training in terms of improvising its wider reach.

4. Barrier and Opportunities associated with the education plan

4.1 Barriers related to family-community partnership plan

Barriers to implementing family-community partnerships in early childhood education negatively impacted the desired outcome of the entire plan for the educators. As mentioned by Lohmann, Hathcote, and Boothe (2018), poor parental knowledge as well as attitude regarding the parent-school partnership is one of the major problems associated with family-community partnership programs. Further, disparity among schools and families and logistical issues are also considered major barriers to the plan for early childhood education. In Australia, lack of concern about key parental roles and responsibilities towards children's education is recognized as one of the big issues to building partnerships between family, community, and school (Norheim and Moser, 2020). Australian Indigenous families regarding early childhood education, the mentioned barriers also create major issues for the educators. In terms of building relationships among the families and schools and providing understanding about the significance of education for child growth, it might be challenging.

4.2 Opportunities related to the plan

Opportunities related to family-community partnership programs in Australia support the educators, school leaders, and teams to build partnerships between the school and families to worktogether for improving the learning experience of children (Government of Australia, 2022). It also helps in the improvement of understanding of parents regarding the way of providing learning and teaching to the children for better understanding. As demonstrated by Qiao, Chen, and Deng (2024), to empower rural early childhood education, the concept of family-community partnership acts as a key supportive element for the teachers. The mentioned partnership program also provides a supportive learning environment for the children and knowledge to the parents that improves the motivation of gaining new knowledge. In Australia, in 2023, 77% Indigenous students' attendance was noticed in schools (Statista, 2024a). Thus, it is stated that the mentioned opportunities play a positive role during building relationships with Australian Indigenous families by the early childhood educators regarding beneficial effects of early childhood education for children's growth.

Figure 2: School attendance rate by Indigenous in Australia

(Source: (Statista, 2024a)

5. Conclusion

Based on the above, it has been concluded that the family-community partnership programs significantly help the early childhood educators to shape the education programs for Australian indigenous children by partnering with the parents. Stakeholders, such as family members, community leaders, and governmental agencies, also contribute to the development of the early childhood education process for indigenous people. Challenges and buyers regarding this partnership plan have been carried out through efficient communication, undertake proper inclusive practices.

Appendices

Appendix 1: PPT slides