design an early childhood program

  design an early childhood program   Task You have been given the task of designing a short early childhood program (three learning experiences) that will encourage children to be critical thinkers by disrupting dominant discourses. You need to choose just one area from those addressed this session: e.g. gender, sexuality, linguistic diversity, ethnicity or Aboriginality, then design three learning experiences concerning this topic. You are not required to implement the program for this assessment. It is important to demonstrate how you will encourage children to be critical thinkers around your topic, so pay close attention to issues of pedagogy. This will require you to be thoughtful about the ways you incorporate the notion of socially just/anti-bias teaching in each learning activity that you include in the short program. The short program [and thus, your assessment] needs to include these 5 tasks: 1) A rationale as to why the overall topic you have chosen is important for your centre to address (or one you have visited/had a practical experience with - if you are not currently employed in an EC setting). The rationale should include connections to your readings (300 words). 2) A brief critical discussion of either: •How diversity and difference are evident in your service’s philosophy, with regard to your chosen topic. If you are not currently employed in an EC setting, it can be one you have visited/had a practical experience with. OR •What your own teaching philosophy is at this time, in light of the content in this subject. For either discussion you must not use direct quotes, but discuss these philosophies in your own words, and draw on your readings or early childhood documents or policies (300 words). 3) Create 3 learning experiences where you begin to disrupt dominant discourses by encouraging children to think critically about your topic (250 words per experience). For each activity: •Describe the activity and use annotations to demonstrate how each addresses the outcomes/elements of EYLF and/or NQS in regard to diversity and difference. Please see an example of the format for the learning experiences in the Resources folder on the subject’s Interact2 site. A minimum of 8 annotations in total must be made across the 3 learning activities. You can use quotes when connecting to outcomes/elements, but you also need to explain how your activity connects to these outcomes/elements of the NQS or EYLF. •Write a combined justification explaining how the learning experiences encourage children to be critical thinkers and demonstrate a socially just/anti-bias approach to teaching. The justification should include connections to your readings (250 words). 4) Do an audit in your room for resources that might be encouraging dominant discourses around your chosen topic (e.g. if your topic is sexuality, you might note resources that represent social norms like heterosexual parents, gender roles, etc.). Make a list of these resources. Then explain how they could be utilised differently to challenge the dominant discourses they convey, or what kinds of resources could be included to show diversity around your topic (300 words). 5) Write a personal reflection considering the main ideas that have been presented in the subject materials, your experience in the cultural plunge, and what, if any, influence they will have on your classroom practice. Include a discussion on why it is important that we critically reflect on our knowledge/assumptions/bias/beliefs to become socially just teachers. The reflection should include connections to your readings (500 words). The entire assessment should use no less than 6 references (from your readings and extra readings if possible). For the purposes of confidentiality, please do not use a service′s real name when you discuss the service philosophy. Rationale This assessment is designed to assist you to imagine how issues we are reading about and discussing in this subject impact upon your work as a teacher. To that end, we are asking you to think deeply about one of the topics we have addressed in the session, and to frame a short program for your centre. This should be designed so it creates opportunities for reflection and learning for the children in your service, and to advocate the celebration of diversity and difference. In completing this assessment task, you will work towards meeting the following learning outcomes: •critically analyse scenarios, recognising issues related to social justice and suggest changes in order to address the issues in positive ways •recognise the power and place of early childhood education in the struggle for social justice and act to provoke thought in others •develop strategies, pedagogies and curricula for a more inclusive and just practice in early childhood contexts and the broader community.