Portfolio 1.3

For this portfolio I am looking specifically at Outcome 1.3 (Specifies the teaching approaches you’ll use & the learning environs you’ll create to support the social dimensions of early literacy/numeracy)

To me, this connects with EYLF Outcome 1: Children develop knowledgeable and confident self-identities. Further, we can also use the educator guidance information where I would ‘promote in all children a strong sense of who they are and their connectedness to others’ (National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care, 2013 p.21). 

This activity would be focused on age 3-4 in kindergarten. The activity would be primarily focused on gender. Based on research I have sourced in another topic, I have come across a range of activities that are typically encouraged more for one gender than the other by educators. For example, girls and domestic play, boys and messy play, boys and climbing.

As an initial introduction into the ideas of gender roles and critical thinking, I would make three columns on a whiteboard (male, female, both), cards with female & male symbols, and a number of activity cards.

With a group of children, ideally 3-10 with both genders & also different backgrounds represented, I would then go through the activities and ask, ‘Who can do this activity’. As we went through, I would ask them to justify their decisions, and see if they could come to a general consensus. At this point, I wouldn’t provide my own input other than questioning.

Once all of the activities were assigned on the board, we can then look at it overall. We can count how many activities are in the boys only, girls only, and both columns. We can look at less and more also. Finally, I would move them all in to the centre, and explain my rationale, in that all children are equally able to undertake these tasks, regardless of their gender.

Reasoning:

This idea was based on the reading I did for another topic, as well as an observation of one 4 year old who insisted that in one activity, only boys could be dinosaurs. It was also to do with my perceived lack of representation for gender issues in the EYLF when compared to cultural issues. Whilst discussing this in the seminar today, it was suggested to me that I check how many times gender was mentioned in the document, versus cultural terms. Gender appeared 3 times (and 1 was in the index), whilst cultur* (wildcard used to capture all variants) appeared 57 times. This further emphasised my need for activities such as the above in ECE settings.

Reference:

National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care (2013). Early Years Learning Framework. [online] Retrieved from: http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf [Accessed: 7 Nov 2013].