Search
Close this search box.

Listening to children as citizens of the present: possibilities and practicalities

Presenter: Jane Merewether

Date: Monday 13 August, 2018

Time: 6.00pm - 7.30pm (arrival from 5.30pm)

Venue:

Category: Network Meeting

Location: The meeting will take place in Building 18 Room 228 – download a campus map.

Registrations have now closed

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

Program Description

Listening to children is an expression of ethical and democratic practice. By bringing listening into our practice, we are making ethics and democracy central in our communities, and we are supported in this through the EYLF and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of The Child.

Jane’s presentation seeks to contribute to professional discourse about the possibilities, practicalities and everyday reality of listening to young children. It aims to add to current understandings of what listening to children might look like in pedagogical, research and community contexts. The presentation will draw on research which deployed pedagogical approaches of Reggio Emilia to listen to children’s perspectives about the outdoor environment in their early childhood settings.

Jane will discuss the practical implications of listening to children, for example, when making decisions on how to spend scarce resources in an early learning setting, or when carrying out curriculum or community planning. Ethical considerations will also be raised, from the perspectives of both children and adults. Participants will be invited to add their perspectives to this ongoing conversation.

About the presenter

Jane Merewether is a lecturer in early childhood education at Curtin University. She previously worked as an early childhood teacher for 18 years. Her PhD research investigates children’s perspectives about outdoor environments in educational settings. This research draws on Jane’s early childhood teaching practice which was informed by the educational project of Reggio Emilia. Jane’s work is internationally published in a number of scholarly journals and books.