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Early Childhood Educ J (2015) 43:917 DOI 10.1007/s10643-013-0630-5
Smoothing Childrens Transition into Formal Schooling: Addressing Complexities in an Early Literacy Initiative in Remote Aboriginal Communities, Northern Territory, Australia
Marguerite Maher Linda Bellen
Published online: 9 January 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract There is a growing awareness that some children transition into formal schooling more readily than others. Compelling evidence indicates that children familiar with the skills and knowledge associated with the dominant practices of literacy teaching in schools have an advantage. While families play a pivotal role in childrens early literacy development, there is often a disjuncture between the literacy experiences of children from minority backgrounds and those they encounter on entry into formal schooling. Quality teaching in the prior-to-school setting becomes increasingly important for these children. This paper rst examines what research and the literature reveal about successful transitioning of children into formal schooling, successful early literacy practices, and the importance of a quality early childhood education. This sets the backdrop for a description of an early literacy initiative, which took place in six remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Australia, where all the early childhood educators were under- or un-qualied. Signicant aspects emerging from the initiative were: the engagement of the Elders in the community for the implementation of the initiative; the two-way learning between the non-Indigenous University mentor and the Aboriginal early childhood educator in each community; the necessity for making Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing a key pillar of the childrens literacy learning; the bilingual nature of the initiative; and the University mentors gradually stepping further and further away, moving from teacher, to coach, to mentor, as the
skills and condence of the early childhood educators developed.
Keywords Literacy teaching Early childhood
education Indigenous education Cultural capital
Transition to school
Introduction
First we examine what research and the literature reveal about what hinders or helps childrens successful transition into formal schooling. We also consider the added complexity for children who live in remote Aboriginal communities and for whom English is a second, third or, sometimes, a fourth language. Early literacy development in that context takes on added dimensions and merits specic attention, particularly when considered alongside issues relating to attracting and retaining early childhood educators...