From ‘mountains of impossibility’ to ‘islands of possibility’:
children as citizens inspiring us to make early intervention matter
now
There has been a strong move recently to build culturally safe
practices in early childhood services that are inclusive of all
children’s voices. This move is linked to rights-based approaches to
work with young children derived from the principles within the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, to anti-bias approaches to
early childhood curriculum and to new images of the young child as a
competent and capable citizen. I will draw on these ideas and on
research with 4 and 5 year old Australian children from diverse
backgrounds to explore what we could gain through transforming early
intervention services in ways that give the youngest of our children a
stake in those services and in building democracy. Central to such a
transformation are strategies that embed young children’s voices into
all aspects of our policy planning, implementation and evaluation of
early intervention services so that all children are supported to gain
the skills and knowledge needed to be active and fair citizens. As
adults we are often caught up with the impossible and struggle to find
hope and possibility in the mountains of bureaucracy that is early
intervention. I will use children’s voices to draw pictures of
‘islands of possibility’ that have been constructed by children and
those who work with them to create a more socially just world in the
here and now through early childhood education. I will argue that the
principles and practices that have shaped these islands of possibility
offer much to help us transform the rhetoric of early intervention
into practices that can make a difference in the lives of children
here and now.
