Associate Professor Megan Gibson, centre leader in the priority area of Professionals, was invited to speak at Parliament House, Canberra at the Parliamentary Friends of Early Childhood breakfast, held on Thursday 27 October 2022. The event was sponsored by Minister for Early Childhood Education and Care, Hon Dr Anne Aly, and focused on critical shortages of educators and teachers – ” Halting the exodus, building the profession: the early learning and care workforce”.
Megan was one of three panellists, speaking alongside Gabrielle Sinclair, CEO, Australian Children’s Education and Care Council of Australia (ACECQA) and Elizabeth Death, CEO, Early Learning and Care Council of Australia (ELACCA).
The event was attended by over 50 people, including parliamentarians, senior Government officials, early childhood sector representatives (with 20 CEOs) and academics.
Megan has worked alongside ELACCA for the last 18 months to support and grow leaders via the professional development and learning program From the Ground Up. The program has been designed for participants to enrol in pairs with one participant an experienced leader and one being an emerging leader. The participants attend fortnightly workshops and coaching and mentoring sessions, whilst working on an action research project within their services. Over 40 participants graduated from the program in February 2022 and another 40 will complete the second iteration of the program at the end of November 2022. There have been many key outcomes of this program including building knowledge and confidence in leaders, forming connections through collaboration and engagement, and developing critical reflection skills.
Key feedback from participants includes:
“A strengthened leadership team has been the outcome for our service…”
“For me the most important and positive thing is seeing so many people willing to make impactful and positive and impactful change in our sector…”
“I have been shown the importance and benefits of Action Research and will be implementing this as a leadership strategy to empower our service leaders to expand their professional growth and improve outcomes for stakeholders'”
“For two years we have just been surviving, and this [From the Ground Up] provided us with the opportunity to really thrive.”
The outcomes demonstrate that combining leadership approaches, theories and principles with action research as a vehicle to explore centre evolution, leads to improved professional growth for educators and their teams of staff. This approach impacts centre quality and ultimately enhances experiences for children and families.
