This project captured and learnt from the innovation demonstrated by early childhood education and care (ECEC) services during COVID-19 to support family engagement and educator wellbeing.
Family engagement in ECEC and educator wellbeing are essential factors to ensure the best outcomes for children. The impact of restrictions during COVID-19 presented unique challenges for early learning services. Educators demonstrated creativity and innovation to maintain partnerships with families, providing vital support for children and families during the pandemic.
About the project
This project aimed to capture and learn from the
innovation demonstrated by ECEC services during COVID-19, and to
refine, translate and share some of the practices across
ECEC centres more broadly.
The project had two key phases: i) the research phase, which explored and learnt from the experiences of educators, children and families attending Goodstart ECEC services during the pandemic, and ii) the enable phase, which supported five Goodstart centres to co-design, test and refine innovative family engagement and educator wellbeing practices. This project:
- generated insights about innovative practices to support family engagement and educator wellbeing during COVID-19
- supported selected Goodstart services to co-design, test and refine promising family engagement and educator wellbeing practices
- disseminated resources to support educator wellbeing and family engagement.
Resources
|
|
This toolkit outlines the steps in the co-design process, provides tips for implementing innovations, and shares case study examples of innovative strategies used by ECEC services to support educator wellbeing and family engagement during COVID-19.
|
|
This brief provides a summary of the research underpinning the collaborative project and the family engagement and educator wellbeing strategies implemented by early learning services during COVID-19.
|
|
|
Educators share their experiences and challenges during COVID-19 as well as the helpful strategies they each implemented.
|
Contact
For more information contact Maria Fong, Senior Project Officer, Policy and Equity: maria.fong@mcri.edu.au
This project is a collaboration between the Centre for Community Child Health, Research in Effective Education in Early Childhood Hub (REEaCh) at Melbourne Graduate School of Education and Goodstart Early Learning. We would like to thank and acknowledge the educators and parents who took part in this project and the Ian Potter Foundation who funded this research.