Cultural diversity in the Australian early childhood education workforce: What do we know, what don’t we know and why is it important?

Abstract

This paper reviews current literature and research relevant to the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Early Childhood Education (ECE) workforce in Australia, including data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Australia is a highly multicultural society, with one out of every three people born overseas. Anecdotally, the Australian early childhood sector is reported to have a highly multicultural workforce. Yet there is a noticeable lack of data and research concerning cultural diversity in the Australian ECE workforce. This paper reports on the data from the ABS-Census of Population and Housing (ABS-Census), the small body of literature on the CALD ECE workforce and literature pertaining to CALD in other Australian workforces to argue that more data and research is needed. Developing a richer understanding of the status, experience and contributions of CALD educators would enable the sector to recognise and support the potential benefits of such a workforce for children and families and social cohesion in Australia.

Supporting educators’ professional learning for equity pedagogy: the promise of open educational practices

“…Questions that pose ongoing concerns about OEP in teacher education include: How can diverse perspectives of early years educators be promoted if the social structures that perpetuate inequity mean that most pre-service teachers come from non-marginalised backgrounds (Gide et al , 2021; Blum et al , 2021)? Relatedly, how can we ensure that marginalised groups (e.g.…”

Encouraging diversity in the early childhood education and care workforce

“…Hadley therefore argues that early childhood teachers need to engage more with CALD parents to increase their participation as we know the impact that quality early childhood education can have on the wellbeing and future achievement of children with CALD backgrounds, including migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (Bove & Sharmahd, 2020; Park & Katsiaficas, 2019). As Gide et al (2021) suggests, ‘having a multicultural ECE workforce may also be advantageous in establishing a culturally safe place for families to bring their children with confidence’ (p. 8).…”

“…The ABS reports that there are 27.3% of early childhood care workers who are born overseas (2016). These figures, however, do not separate workers from CALD backgrounds, with most of these workers being born in England and New Zealand, as the ABS does not categorise people from CALD backgrounds (Gide et al, 2021). These figures also include childcare workers, family day care workers, nannies and out-of-school hours care workers.…”

“…This sentiment has been growing in the past decade in Australia. As Gide et al (2021) has expressed ‘every single peak-organisation representative we contacted stated that having a culturally diverse workforce is very important for the provision of high-quality ECE, despite the noticeable silence on the numbers, experiences, enablers, and barriers of the CALD ECE workforce’ (p. 4).…”

“…Many researchers have suggested that it would be beneficial to have a culturally diverse workforce in early childhood settings (Cheruvu et al, 2014) as children could identify with educators with some similar backgrounds to themselves to develop their own identity. Children from the dominant culture can also benefit in observing carers from all cultures working together to develop cultural awareness and tolerance (Gide et al, 2021).…”