Developing partnerships with families is critical in childcare services. However, families and early childhood educators bring to settings different cultural backgrounds, experiences and expectations of their role and the role of the childcare service. These differences can impact the family-educator partnership. This article examines some issues that arise when there is a disparity in understanding of expectations, which can result when educators are attempting to provide continuity of care-giving practices and families are hesitant about sharing their home practices. This study explores communication processes and expectations of continuity of care between home and early childhood setting. A social constructivism approach using qualitative methods of data gathering explored family and educator perceptions of continuity between home and setting. A cycle of misunderstanding is explained that ascribes characteristics of possible family educators' responses as a result of a poor understanding between roles. The discussion draws together the need to ascertain processes for negotiating with families and exploring practices that support the building of partnerships between families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and educators in childcare settings.

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DEVELOPMEnt in yOunG children is influenced not only by biological factors but also by experiences related to the child's ecological environment, such as the relationship with the primary caregiver as well as social, cultural and socioeconomic influences (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Owen, Ware & Barfoot, 2000). Culture and society are strong determinants in the development of the individual, particularly because they affect child-rearing practices (Harkness, 1980; Vygotsky, 1978). This article focuses on two routine caregiving practices for young children from birth to three years: sleep and feeding. It has been argued that the routine practices of putting young children to sleep and of feeding children contribute to the cultural 'blueprint' that forms a child's identity and sense of self (

This article investigates the perceptions of 12 teachers from New South Wales, Australia, regarding the classroom assignment of twins. Analysis of semi-structured interviews with each of the teachers revealed four key findings: 1) teachers’ perceptions about the classroom assignment of twins vary according to their previous experience and relationship with twins in their personal life; 2) there are no sector-wide policies regarding the classroom assignment of twins; 3) setting size is a major factor influencing teachers’ perceptions of the classroom assignment of twins; and 4) formal training does not refer to twins and their education. Recommendations and implications for teachers are discussed.

INCREASINGLY, EDUCATORS AND PRE-SERVICE teachers studying to become educators are called to present evidence of their teaching practice and the development of their pedagogic skills. Traditionally this evidence was likely to be printed, with pen and paper notes or typed examples. However, technology such as mobile and tablet devices and cloud storage is enabling new forms of evidence. This study was designed to examine how pre-service teachers develop a digital teaching portfolio incorporating multi-modal evidence linked to accreditation standards. This paper examines survey data, focus group responses and work samples to explore how 213 pre-service teachers use technology to document their work and pedagogic engagement. In examining the nature of ‘evidence’ we have adapted Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework (1979, 1993) to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of evidence of learning and explore their concerns with using technology to document learning and facilitate teacher accreditation.