Overview

In this unit pre-service teachers focus on traditional and contemporary approaches and perspectives in early childhood education, professional understandings about children and key cultural-historical issues affecting children and their families. This provides them with the opportunity to acquire knowledge of diverse traditional and contemporary philosophical and pedagogical perspectives relevant to the early childhood profession (birth to eight years of age) and the capacity to use this knowledge to inform their professional judgments

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Teaching Period 1
Location
Online
Start and end dates
11-March-2024
09-June-2024
Last self-enrolment date
24-March-2024
Census date
05-April-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
26-April-2024
Results released date
02-July-2024
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
29-July-2024
27-October-2024
Last self-enrolment date
11-August-2024
Census date
31-August-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
13-September-2024
Results released date
03-December-2024

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Identify and compare key perspectives that have contributed to current approaches to early childhood education.(birth to eight years of age)
  • Describe and compare the constructions of childhood across different cultural and historical contexts and explain how this impacts upon early childhood education (birth to eight years of age)
  • Reflect upon how the contemporary construct of the child as competent and capable has impacted upon current practice, policy and curriculum
  • Consider teaching practice in light of past and present perspectives about children, childhood and education

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Live Online
Lecture
1.00 12 weeks 12
On-campus
Class
2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Activities
Various
6.00 8 weeks 48
Unspecified Activities
Various
6.50 12 weeks 78
TOTAL162

Swinburne Online

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning
12.50 12 weeks 150
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Case StudiesIndividual 20% 
EssayIndividual 40% 1,2 
ReflectionIndividual 40% 3,4 

Content

  • Introduction to early childhood development and learning
  • Historical and philosophical underpinnings of early childhood education
  • Traditional and contemporary influential philosophies and approaches (including Reggio Emilia, Steiner, Montessori, Te Whariki, Forest Schools)
  • Neurological perspectives
  • Past and present images of children and childhood
  • Contemporary research perspectives of child and childhood
  • The sociology of childhood
  • The effects on children and families of attitudes to social class, gender, ethnicity, race and the dominant culture
  • Cross-cultural perspectives on children, childhood and early childhood education
  • The image of the child

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.