Doing state policy at preschool: An autoethnographic tale of universal access to ECEC in Australia

Abstract

In 2009, the Australian states and territories signed an agreement to provide 15 hours per week of universal access to quality early education to all children in Australia in the year before they enter school. Taking on board the international evidence about the importance of early education, the Commonwealth government made a considerable investment to make universal access possible by 2013. We explore the ongoing processes that seek to make universal access a reality in New South Wales by attending to the complex agential relationships between multiple actors. While we describe the state government and policy makers' actions in devising funding models to drive changes, we prioritise our gaze on the engagement of a preschool and its director with the state government's initiatives that saw them develop various funding and provision models in response. To offer accounts of their participation in policy making and doing at the preschool, we use the director's autobiographical notes. We argue that the state's commitment to ECEC remained a form of political manoeuvring where responsibility for policy making was pushed onto early childhood actors. This manoeuvring helped to silence and further fragment the sector, but these new processes also created spaces where the sector can further struggle for recognition through the very accountability measures that the government has introduced.

From South to North in the globalised world of early childhood education and care: varied national and local responses in selected countries

“…While we cannot fi nd any such examples of resistance at the level of national education policy, we can see islands of positive deviation, even in countries of the Global North that have to some extent accepted certain elements of economisation. Moss's slogan holds true at the point where policy and practice meet, and at the point where teachers become actors within the institutions of ECEC (Millei, Gobby, & Gallagher, 2017). It is here that the opportunity for engagement may emerge.…”

The paradox of universal access: alleviating or perpetuating inequity for children in New South Wales, Australia

“…The state's responsibility mostly involves regulation and licensing, and the provision of some subsidies. With the Partnership (universal access policy), NSW has received extra funding, which the state has spent but withheld the usual 35 million budget supposed to subsidize centers' budgets7 (see more in Millei, Gobby & Gallagher, 2017). Funding to centers is vital to ensure their viability, as all services, ranging between single center units and large providers composed of large number of centers are responsible for all expenses, including salaries, professional development, maintenance costs and supplies8.…”

“…We have discussed in another article the kinds of calculations preschools have made to reach a strong financial position, offer low cost services to families, and also enable universal access with the new subsidies after 2014 (see Millei, Gobby & Gallagher, 2017). Here, we provide only a short summary of the issues and concerns preschools had to negotiate during the implementation.…”