In this Week's Update

1. Early Reading Together
2. Forum on Early Childhood Management
3. Early Childhood Research Professional Conference - Call for Presenters
4. Paper on Discovering Meanings with Young Children

1. Early Reading Together

It has been announced by Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples that Budget 2011 will provide $6.5 million in funding to expand family-based literacy programmes to all decile one two and three schools, building on the current Reading Together programme. The Reading Together programme for school aged children was developed alongside the Early Reading Together programme for babies to 6 year olds.  Today ChildForum has announced it is getting behind the Early Reading Together programme and will be promoting this to families with young children and within the early childhood sector. 

*  READ MORE:  Early Reading Together

2. ECE Professionals, Managers & Owners 

At the National Forum on Thursday 1st September in Wellington early childhood centre and home-based service representatives will meet and hear first hand from key speakers:

• Professional Development Q&A with Janet Moles from Teaching Central Ltd
• ERO Review Processes and Self-Review Requirements – find out more from ECE leader Sandra Collins of the Education Review Office
• NZ Economy Update – prepare not to be bored by BNZ Chief Economist Tony Alexander
• Financial Management, Accounting and Audit Q& A with Bevin Fitzsimons from Breakthrough Strategies Ltd and author of the ECE Audit-Ready Kits for Community and Privately-owned Services
• Early Childhood Education Policy Update - learn what's happened recently and what's happening now directly from the Ministry of Education's head office Group Managers for Early Childhood and Regional Education Karl Le Quesne/ Karin Dalgleish
• Roundtable discussions of common problems for different groups of ECE services
• Troubleshooting – Sharing ideas and strategies for getting on top of problems, staying positive and keeping ahead

* HAVE YOU REGISTERED YET?   Click here for information

4.  Discovering Meanings with Young Children

Published in ChildForum's  NZRECE Journal, Vol, 13, 2010, 101-112, this paper by Karen Liang Guo,  explores the aspect of ascribing meanings in research. It presents an example of research with young children which illustrates a 'meaning-seeking' experience. Ascribing meaning is an external realisation of an inner thought, with the emphasis on the uniqueness of children's own voices and the researcher's commitment to seeking information from children's sociocultural contexts. A strong rationale for the importance of meaning in human experiences can be located in phenomenology. The idea of meaning as having its basis in social interactions has been manifested in the sociocultural paradigm. It is argued here that the phenomenological and sociocultural emphasis on 'meaning' as the core of life experiences constitutes a useful conceptual perspective which can guide research with children. This emphasis encourages researchers to explore research issues from research participants' perspectives, grasp their interpretive frame, and understand the meanings that participants bring to them. This in turn provides a means for reaching a profound understanding of human actions, experiences and existence.