Friday 1 March 2013

Pedagogical Support for ECT's in Long Day Care

The topic of this post I have been concerned about recently as I now am required to be a mentor for a teacher going through the provisional registration to full registration process at another centre. This will be difficult as most teachers whether they end up in centres do this process in schools so it is relatively easy.They also at least do it at the same school as their mentor but because there is only one ECT per centre this can be difficult.  Talking to other ECT's in other centres, it can be quite difficult in the position they are in. They feel isolated as they are the only person in their centre doing their role when if they are in a school they are one of many and can ask their colleagues for support. They can ask the educators for support and they are fantastic at the specific childcare/early learning related issues but in relation to curriculum development for their program it is difficult. ECT's on the whole also don't want to isolate themselves from other staff so it can be difficult.  In Queensland, Most ECT's teach the kindergarten program as there is government funding attached and even though it is based on the EYLF it is slightly different as more detailed and specific. I truly believe that educational leader's in centres don't need to be the ECT actually I don't think they should be as ECT's have enough work implementing the Kindergarten guidelines. But I do believe that educational leader's need to have the support of pedagogical leader at a higher level whether it be a director/owner with experience in Kindergarten or the Large long day care centres where they have consultants that they be ECT's with kindergarten experience in order to help support teachers. This has important implications for 2014 as in Australia if you have over 25 children in your care you need to have a qualified ECT for 60% of the time. I believe to help with the employment process both hiring and retention it is important. As the likelihood that alot of these teachers will be first year or on provisional registration will be high and therefore having a first year teacher program - including induction, mentoring and support for these first year teachers will be important.

Please comment and tell me what you think educators?

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