Good afternoon, everybody. Hello and my name is Catharine Hydon and it's a pleasure to welcome you to the webinar series, Purpose and Professionalism: Supporting career longevity in Early Childhood Education and Care brought to you by the Department of Education and Training in collaboration with Early Childhood Australia. It's fantastic to see you all online. I can see lots of you are getting in the chat already and sharing where you're from. Some of you are acknowledging country, which is fantastic. And speaking of which lets pause for a moment and take a breath and ground ourselves in the country that we're on. I particularly want to acknowledge the traditional owners on whose country we're collectively on today. The lands of the cooler nation and pay our respects to our brothers and sisters in Early Childhood Education and beyond who have helped us understand what it means to walk and learn and think and play on country. We particularly want to recognise all of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have shared culture with us and helped us to respectfully incorporate Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander, first nations perspectives in our Early Childhood Education and Care settings. Much work to do, but big shout out to all of you who make it a really important part of your purpose. And of course, we acknowledged that Aboriginal land is what we're on, and always will be. And of course, can I take also a moment to have a big shout out to you? We're working in really complex times at the moment, and I know that each one of you has been working very hard to continue your engagement with children and families. In fact, we have two guests today who have just been doing that moments ago and are going to turn their attention to our conversation today. Opportunities like this sustain me, and I'm sure they sustain you. So we're looking forward to hearing some more about what it means to be a professional in our space, what it means to be purposeful in our space. And we're going to build on, the really interesting ideas we heard from Sue and Faye last time. They talked about the idea of professionalism and professionalization, they talked about the ways in which we can connect with each other and build a collegial response to our identity in the professional space. And it's also an opportunity for you to reflect irrespective of where you are in your career at the beginning, or right in a very experienced practitioner about what you understand about purpose and professionalism and how you see yourself being sustained in this amazing career in Early Childhood Education. This is the second of two webinars, and hopefully you were able to join us last time, but if you weren't there, they will be available on video. So you'll be able to get access to them later on and potentially share them with your colleagues. You might want to take some notes about today, say that there might be things that you want to raise in your teams, and of course we welcome questions and comments in the chat. We have the amazing Kate and Shae who are in the chat, they've already introduced themselves. So please feel free to chat to them and share your thoughts and ideas. We're going to have a conversation with two practitioners today, so we got a right to the heart of practice, and we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions. We'll hopefully weave some of those in, some of those we've might've thought of already. And of course, those of you who get a bit distracted by the chat feel free to turn that off and just concentrate on our conversations today. And as we go, we might put some references into the Department of Education and Training Resources but of course, you know where to go. You can go into the website and navigate some of the spaces there that focus on your wellbeing. They talk about resources generally for early childhood teachers, important links for professional practice and also to support people in their workforce strategies. So check out that school Readiness Funding menu as well. So lots of different resources there. But I would like to now invite our panelists to come and talk to us because they are the really important people here. And as I said, they've just come from working with children and families with educators. So they've got lots of things to share about their own practice. And the two amazing people that we have joining us today is Michelle Gujer. Michelle is at Gowrie Broadmeadows. Michelle has had over 30 years experience managing early childhood services. She's worked in training and health and her career for her signifies a commitment to fostering and developing educators particularly through supportive leadership and mentoring and shared decision-making. And some of you may know that she most recently was a finalist in the HESTA Individual Leadership award. Hello, Michelle. And the second panelist we have joining us today, some of you will remember Leanne because she joined us in a previous one of these webinars, Leanne Mits is from Pope Road Kindergarten in Blackburn. And Leanne is a very experienced early childhood teacher, 30 plus years of experience. So combined, we've got lots of experience together here and over the course of her career she's taught in many settings her rural Victoria and Melbourne, and she's worked in supportive play groups and kindergartens and TAFE and she's currently working full time at Pope Road Kindergarten, the community standalone kindergarten in Blackburn, and in 2019 she was named Early Childhood Teacher of the Year in recognition of her unwavering commitment to Early Childhood Education and Care. So welcome Leanne and welcome Michelle. I want to get straight to the point here. I want to go straight to the subject matter we're talking about and maybe Leanne I'll start with you. Can you talk a little bit about your career at early childhood and particularly what's made you stay? What's given you the sense of longevity in your career?
So thank you Catharine and ECA for inviting me today. I am a tad tired, I have just walked off out of the classroom like you've talked about but I know this is an important conversation for us to have with our colleagues I'm really grateful to Michelle for the collaboration that we'll share today. So a little bit of context. I graduated from university as a teacher in 1984 at the ripe old age of 20. I was in charge of a kindergarten in a rural setting. We had 75 families and many children, many more than that coming to the centre. It wasn't a matter of, will I get my child in? Everyone just had to come. There was no other kindergarten. So you just changed your model every year. You became adaptable. I planned on staying for two years. I was from Melbourne originally, but I stayed for 15. I stayed for 15 because I felt an incredible unexpected, but beautiful surprised sense of belonging and place. And I really believed to answer that question Catharine. It was that first teaching experience that when I stepped out of my comfort zone and went out of Melbourne, which is where I was born and raised and educated and went to live in a rural setting and work with families in that space, nothing has taught me more about community than that experience. And so even at the time I did know I was learning lots about it but it's often when you look back on something that you really understand the depth of what you've learned. So I think that that sense of community has helped me in good stead. And so when I moved to Melbourne in the year 2000, because our family moved to Melbourne, I wondered if I could experience and feel and maybe create that same sense of community in a suburban Melbourne space. And I didn't know if that was possible 'cause I was raised as a child here, but I'd never worked as a teacher in the Melbourne city. And the answer is indeed yes. Once you know what that is, you don't want to let go of that. And so if there's one thing that jumps out, which is really hard, 'cause I think we're doing really important things in our work but if there's one thing that jumps out at me, it's relationships and it's community. So I think in brief to answer your question, I've stayed as long as I have, because I know I belonged, I felt a sense of identity and belonging. I knew what community was and I needed other people to feel that and I knew I could help to do that.
Well, and it's consistent with some of the messages we heard last week too, from Faye and from Sue about the fact that there's a lot more to this idea of connection to your profession than just you as an individual, it's about all those connections and relationships that you form. So great, great way to kick us off. I think there Leanne in terms of those early experiences and maybe I'm going to ask the same of you, Michelle. You've worked for over 30 years range of different roles, what's made you stay?
Well, while listening to Leanne talking on like exactly the same thing. It's really about the relationships for me. I think there's just so much that could be achieved together. This job is not a job in isolation. And I think that when we work together, we could just achieve so much more. When I think about my career, starting off as a mothercraft nurse in the Mercy maternity hospital. I look back at that and I think that is what really grounded me about working with families. So back 30 years ago, it was really about the child or children in their special care unit. They were really, the hospital owned by the hospital. So families come in and I'll get the baby out of the car and give the baby. And next visit I'd be dragged up to the charge units saying I was touring babies out. So as this young person straight out in my career, I was like, this seem right. And it sort of really didn't really align with me and what I believed in and so for I actually said after my qualifications complained my qualification I'd never work in long daycare and yeah and surprisingly 30 years later on and I love it. And I didn't have really great experiences in my placements. And I thought, is this really what it is? You know? And so that's how I landed working in a special care unit with prem babies, which I absolutely loved. And I was just too young I think I didn't have that life experience behind me. And so I moved into the early years and that job then took me overseas to Switzerland, where I worked in before and after care with school like children and then back to Melbourne again, which I've had yeah, a long career. I really love what I do. It is really finding that sense of purpose. And I think that in the jobs that I've had, I've just worked with some brilliant people and really that's what's sustained me in doing more and getting out there and trying new challenges because I had really great mentors that encouraged me to do that. So my career has been mostly in the long day-care space managing since I was 23. So I must say, I didn't do it too good back then at 23. But I've learned a lot along the way.
Well, and I want to come back to both of you around the idea of purpose, because I think you've both articulated that really nicely. But before we do that, I just want to talk about this relationship business, because I think it sounds I don't know easy, you just form relationships, but Leanne you've talked about how important the relationships were in your that first setting. And then you went out looking for it. So can you describe a little bit more, I don't know, this is like putting you on the spot a bit, but what's the nature of those relationships? What are they like and how do they sustain you?
Very big question, isn't it? Maybe through a couple of stories. Could I tell a couple of...
Yeah, absolutely tell a story.
A couple of little anecdotes is that, I think it is something you have to work on. I think it is nothing you have to be prepared that it could be anything that you're not sure what it's going to be. I think it's about being vulnerable and saying, I'm prepared to go the extra mile whatever this curve is going to take me. I think it's about communicating really clearly to your self and with others. And it's actually believing in something at the end, even though you don't know quite what that something might be, but I'm going for something and I'm going for community. I'm going for relationships. I believe in them. I know a few things to do along the way that might get me there but I don't exactly what it's going to look like in the end. So just that story that I was talking about, is during obviously we've got this pandemic going on, right? During 2019 and 2020, our children left our Kinder and they went to school and they started school as preps and now grade one, some of them grade one students in a way that we could never have imagined children were going to start school. And in a way I wish they didn't have to start at school, but it is how school has started for them. And so those families and children have officially left kindergarten, but during this year we've been writing to them. So all of our teaching team have been writing letters in the last few months to those children to say, "Hey, we're still here. You matter, you're important to us. We want you to know we're thinking of you. That school has been tricky, possibly that you maybe your missing your friends, but hey, we still care about you." And we put that out there and didn't quite know what would happen. And if nothing happened at the very least children got letters, okay? But something quite magical happened. They wrote back. And so we have had some beautiful responses. Children have written drawings, they've written me poems. They've sent photos. They've written letters. They've asked about us. They've asked about the turtle at our kindergarten, at the vegetable garden. So then we wrote back again. The next time we sent them jokes, they've even written back. Not everybody's written back and that's okay. But people have phoned. They've texted. They've seen us in the street and it might not sound like a lot, but gosh their hearts have been filled. And so have the return. So when I say that, you don't always know what's at the end, we didn't know what the letters would do, but we knew it felt right. And we knew it felt like an opportunity. And something else that's really special I think at our kindergarten, in every February we have a really special night called the Night of Stories. And our playground is dotted with little marquees and little teepee tents and lanterns and pot plants and ice cream and popcorn. And inside each tent is a storyteller. And it's a way of welcoming the new children to the kindergarten. So the letter writing with people who have been with us before, but this is a new way. There's a new relationships and people that are coming into our community, that's already existing. How can they develop a sense of belonging to something that they're entering and starting? And so when those children come with their families and they open up the tent and they go inside, inside of the storytellers and the most beautiful part of this is that the storytellers inside are children who used to come to our kindergarten aged between five and 25. And when we ask people to come back and be a storyteller, they are thrilled to be asked. We've got university students coming back, we've got prep children coming back. We've got children that read really well and children that are not reading well yet, but we make it work.
Yeah.
So I'm not sure that answers your question but...
Well, I know I think it does, because I think you are telling us that relationships help to sustain you. It's relationships with children. It's the relationships with educator colleagues. It's a relationship with whole communities. It's the relationship with families. It's the ones that are there and it sounds like Leanne, you've sought those out. You've defined your spaces and the belonging that you talked about by relationships, is that the case for you Michelle, if for you is it about those relationships that are sustained you in your professional career?
Absolutely. And I think, when we look at about the ways that we work with children it translates to the way that we should be working with adults. When you think about the early years when you think about the frameworks and what were your driving in terms of always reflecting with children is what we really should be doing with each other, but it doesn't always happen. So, it's about bringing that to the front of mind and like Leanne was saying that sense of relationship and community. When I think about purpose, I always view that I am just one person on that quality journey on that ship. We're all rowing to equality island, but everyone might be doing a bit of a different strike, some a bit faster, some a bit slower, some this to the left and some to the right, but we all have this vision and this purpose of building a community and building a better world. Sounds so, grand, but everybody's contribution to that brings us to there. And I think that when I think about my purpose, I always think my purpose is growing the next generation. So early in my career where I was busy doing everything for everybody and that was when I was managing a 30, 35 place centre and that was quite doable. And you knew everybody and everybody's neighbor and the cat and dogs name and as the services got bigger, it looked different. It was still the same. I remember when I was fortunate to get the role as manager at Dockland site. It was when the frameworks were being introduced. And it was like, yeah I don't know. I don't know how you're going to build community. And I was like, we're going to build community. We will build community. And we did build community and bought that service, an excellent rated service. It is about the way that you view that, right? It is about moving with the times, thinking differently and not thinking that it's just a one size fits all. It must be contextual to the community that you're working in and I think it will be ever changing. I've worked long, long periods of time in different services and they never looked the same at the beginning to they do at the end and that needs to happen. Change needs to happen. And that inspires people. But really, I feel that my purpose is really about growing the next generation of leaders. But not even every educator in my service, I wouldn't possibly have the time to be able to grow every individual person. But if I grow my leaders, my leaders will grow their teams. We as managers of services and service leaders, we have to be really heavily investing in the leadership in the team, because if they're right, as the other things come. It'll come and everyone will be right. So that's what I feel is my purpose.
Yeah. And you speak to if that sort of continuity between leaders who share those ideas with others and always were building relationship by relationship. What we are trying to do in Early Childhood Education and Care is of course, to give children the best possible start in life. And some of the ideas we talk about are increased familiar as you say for children. And they're all the way through the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. They are part of philosophies, I guess in lots of ways, we start to apply those ideas to ourselves. Both of you have spoken quite a lot about the idea of purpose, but I want to bring it back to this idea of professional. And last time we heard Sue talk about the difference between professionalization happening to the whole sector and this idea of professionalism, which is this idea of our own, our sense of professionalism. Can you both talk a little bit about your thoughts about being a professional and does being a professional or thinking of yourself as a professional help you in your work as an early childhood educator manager leader? Leanne, can you kick us off with that, ideas around professionalism?
I really resonated last week, when Sue and Faye we're talking about professionalism in terms of your individual professionalism, and then your collective shared professionalism with your colleagues. And that might be the colleagues at the centre or the service that you work at that might be within an organization that you're part of or the big state, national, international Early childhood community. So I think professionalism for me is that, that big going that big, big picture it's growing out of, but I do think it's that individual side of it, but also the shared collaborative side. And I think it's something that they touched on too. Was it something for me that's not stagnant, it's actually like a moving target all the time and it's ever revolving and redeveloping and I'm redefining it and I'm thinking about it again. So it's not like, "Okay, I got that, that's how I do that, so I only ever will do that." But that language alone that I just said then when I do that, I don't think it's something you do. I think it's something you are. I think it's how you be. I don't even know if that's grammatically correct, but I think it comes out in how you behave, how you enact your work and how you practice looks. But I actually believe really strongly it's in here and here and it's how these two things connect and the great man Malaguzzi from Reggio Emilia talks about these. I'm talking to my heart here, and my head shouldn't be separated. And so often I think in many spaces and places of our lives, we separate these things and so for me professionalism is actually not about separating them, but keeping them together because so much about working in Early Childhood Education with children and families, it comes from here. But then we know so much, so it's got to be all put together to make.
We need a white water in a diagram. I think you want it to be able to contextualize that, but I think there's quite a number of people who are agreeing with you in the chat about the connection between what we feel, our emotional intelligence to put a sort of an intellectual frame around it, but also what we know. Michelle defining professionalism for you and how it sustained you in your career.
Yeah, well when I was thinking about purpose and professionalism, the professionalism took me back to the nineties where we had lanyards and they wanted the Department of Child Health Kindergarten and Childcare. And I was like, "No we're going to have early childhood education." And I was like I never looked back on that and I think, "Oh gosh, we were really advocates and ahead of our time." Wanting to really advocate the professional, like the professionalism of the sector. And that was not just about, it was a range of things. So it was like the language that you use. It is about the way that you engage with people. It's about viewing and taking on multiple perspectives, like listening to people. It's about also confronting injustice and being a strong advocate, respectfully being able to speak up. So for me, it was like, it was just a range of things and that viewing yourself that this is a profession, that this is a really, really important profession, early childhood is. I think, oh, if we had the research but we're so fortunate now that we have the research backed up what we had always known that children know so much, and that it is really about us supporting children to not feel them up with learning, but to really unpack what they already know and build on that. So, yeah, I suppose I've always viewed this as a profession and I've really advocated for that. So and really we are supposed to help people to account for that along the way and be clear in that. And that's the way that we will all collectively view that and come together and progress that.
That's really...
Yeah go Leanne.
I just had another thought. I think it is all the things that we've talked about. And Michelle spoken about it's about the relationships, the community, and all that we've touched on. But I think equally importantly, if we wish to be seen as professionals, treated as professionals, respected as professionals, then we have to step up. We have to use the right language. We have to be clear and be able to articulate what it is that we do and why we do it. We have to be able to explain that to a new parent, an experienced parent, a colleague, a student, a politician, the person at the shops when you're trying to get bread for a sausage sizzle. We have to behave like that. So I think for me professionalism is about all those things we spoke about. The relationships community, heart-head all that certainly. But it's actually, you have to have a very significant capacity and competence too and a confidence to grow that to be able to advocate for what it is that you do and explain it to others. And I think a really good place to start developing that is in your own place where you work with the people, hopefully that you have close relationships with, that's a trusting place for you to take a couple of risks, to try a few things out, to learn a few things along the way, to get it wrong. They're not going to take you to the slaughter. It's going to be helpful.
It's called reflective practice I think.
Yeah, that's the place to do it. And it's being able to, I think I would add to this it's actually, for me professionalism is seeing myself as a theorist. Seeing myself not just as somebody who reads about great theories written by other people, certainly I do that and we would all do that. But it's actually going, well on that, I'm a researcher. I research every day with children and families and colleagues. So I'm theorizing all day. I'm making assumptions, I'm testing them. I'm prophesizing about things. I'm changing my point of view. And I'm never quite sure if it's the tail wagging the dog or the dog wagging the tail, whatever that saying is about theory and practice, but there's certainly informing each other all the time and I can't help, but throw that into the mix too...
And I think yeah. And I think you're talking about the delicious spice of Praxis where we meet theory and theory helps us decide what informed actions we take. And I think both of you are really reminding us here too. And I'm sort of doing the actions around these two, is we sort of step into ourselves in a way that is about pride and I don't mean false pride. I mean, a real respect for the role that we're in and that we do need people around us to help us figure out that, but we do take a lead. And I think you're both calling us to account in lots of ways just to say, we can be masters of our own destiny, a little bit about this, and we can start to make decisions about where it is that we want to be, where we can find our people and where we can find our purpose and to go out actively seeking it. I want to put us in the driver's seat a little bit about that. And I know I've had many conversations with educators over the years who sometimes say to me, I'm waiting for something to happen. I think, well, let's be a little bit more proactive. Let's get out there. And I'm recalling here. Let me just indulge for a second. Is that when I went to an Early Childhood Australia National Conference back a long time ago in Darwin. And when I went there and I met some people there, some people who are really substantive in my career. I found my purpose through those people and it was an incredible moment, but I let doubt into a place that I didn't know and I was a bit so bravery. Is bravery got to something to do with being a professional leader?
I think bravery has, but I also think it's about being vulnerable too. Now, so if a colleague comes up and says to you, "Why is that play space the way that that is?" I'm not sure that certainly be, but you know what I mean? Can you tell me about that? That we're not going to be so offended that we think judging, but we go, "Actually I do know, I do know why I put that there like that." Or "Actually did I think about that long and hard enough maybe you're right, maybe I need to reflect." So I think professionalism too is about learning with the people that's surround you, but being open to differences and you don't agree with everybody.
Indeed. There's quite a few people who are mentioning the way in which we relate to each other as professionals. And I'm going to get to that in a minute. Michelle, do you want to comment about the idea of sort of stepping bravely into something?
Yeah, I think, do you think Leanne it's like I feel in my own journey that the more confident I became in my role, the more confident I become to try new things make mistakes. I think it's really important to be working in a place where that is supported like that mistakes are viewed as learning and that it's okay. You're allowed room to make. I could rattle off a million mistakes I've made and what I've learnt along the way and that's shaped me to who I am today. And even with the 30 year career, I still make mistakes. And it's really important as a leader that I show that vulnerability and I say, I've made a mistake.
And Michelle, does it add to your professional identity? Those, those...
I think, yeah, I do believe it does because, what I believe that it does is that people then trust to make their own mistakes. I think, oh, this person is offended by that mistake and openly about what she's learned that maybe it's okay. I can talk openly about my mistake and what I've learned, and that we can reflect together about the multiple ways. And maybe too, what you view as a mistake, is actually not a mistake. It's just a different way of doing.
Yeah absolutely.
I think I've seen this. Often times in my career about, oh, this is how we do it. This is what we do. This is what we do in this organization. But it's not about that. When you think about the assessment and writing process, it's being able to articulate what you do. I love that process. When I think about how that that process has changed, and I think it's really growing educators because it actually has to articulate what they're doing.
And feel that pride of their achievements. And indeed for many of you being able to speak eloquently about the strengths of your service. We've got a few people who are asking questions about the tricky parts of professional identity and when things don't go really quite according to plan. So I just want to see, we can go into that space. Both of you had talked very eloquently about your purpose, and it sounds maybe like you've never doubted, you've never doubted your purpose, but maybe I suspect you might have done that at some point. So Leanne, maybe I'll start with you. Have you ever lost sight of your purpose and how did you get it back?
I'm going to be really truthful. I don't think I have lost sight of it Catharine. Sorry if that doesn't fit what you were needing.
No, no well, how did you keep it? How did you sustain it?
I don't think I've lost sight of it. I don't think it's been compromised or stretched where I felt it to be uncomfortable, but I think what I have experienced as I've grown in Early Childhood Education and moved into spaces of leadership management or pedagogical or both is for me the greatest challenge is actually doing that job properly as a leader, which for me is not related to my purpose, but actually challenging others to think about theirs. And I'm not saying I'm perfect. I have ups and downs. I don't mean that. What I'm saying is I don't think it's okay just to work in early childhood because you're like children. I don't think it's okay to go to work in early childhood because you maybe didn't get into something else that you wanted. I don't know if that offends and I apologize if it does, that's not my intent. Children deserve the best teachers every day they go to their centre, their kindergarten, their wherever they're going. And we must be those best teachers and educators for them every single day. But if people are in roles of leadership, I think they have a very big and very critically important responsibility to the sector, to their colleagues, to themselves and most importantly, to families and children. To actually say, Catharine, can we have a chat about what you're thinking about lately? Or if it's your program planning, if it's your reflective practice, if it's your learning spaces, your relationship with other colleagues. They're not easy conversations to have with people. And often being a leader, doesn't make it very popular. And you put yourself in a very vulnerable position 'cause you don't know how it's often going to go, but I don't think we're doing our job properly and not fulfilling all it is is required of us. If we don't do the hard yard and...
And Leanne those sorts of conversations potentially lead to a much stronger sense of professionalism and purpose and longevity if people have them. I certainly can recall situations where people later on have thank to me and said, thank you for saying those things, 'cause if you didn't say it then I would have been going on, not knowing. And thank you for saying some of those things. So maybe a little bit of courage and vulnerability, like you said before, and being prepared to step up actually sustains our colleagues in their professional identity.
Maybe.
Maybe and Michelle for you, it lost sight of your purpose at any point?
Not lost sight, but probably just got
Cloudy.
Clouded where I, I think and if anyone that knows me, they know that I heavily invest in relationships. So when that might break down, that's really like will cut me to the core. Where I can, I'll be really thinking about that deeply about where did that go wrong? Why did that happen? But also, I think I've just learned across my career too, that we need to really reflect on our part in it as well, but also we're not in control of everybody, their own journey. And so it is really seeking places, organizations, places, people that you aligned to, there is a shared purpose there. So when I think about the organization that I work for, we all have this shared purpose. We all have this shared thinking. It doesn't matter whether you're the finance, whether you work in people and culture, whether you're working in early childhood adult learning, we all recruited to this same sort of vision. And, so it's really easy then to have conversations. It's really easy because you've got this open-mindedness about and open to learning. So, I think we're not that I've ever I've felt like I've lost my purpose, I've always been a strong advocate for quality and just keep pushing forward. It doesn't matter how hard it gets, keep moving forward. But I suppose you've got to find your people the people that will not, you can't do, like I said earlier, you can't do this job alone. So you come to work, you work like over 40 hours, you want people that have the same sort of openness and not controlling their projects too. You want to empower people to be. You might have a project that you're working with around say sustainability, you don't want to be controlling what projects they do within that. You want to empower people to be thinkers and what they're going to do to move forward with this as a group. So...
And we've got lots of different people on all sorts of different roles online too. So some of those people are supporting a whole range of people, but some people are in those roles right at the beginning of their career. And again you know talk up, talk to your managers and say, this is what I need, but I think your point there and a couple of people put it into chat to say, yes that's true. You've got to find your people. And I do think that you are whoever you are, wherever you are in your career, finding your people, reaching out to them and can I say from my own personal experience, is that when I found my people, my longevity in the career, in my career and to be a part of early childhood was locked in. There were times I've had times when I think I've lost my purpose. There was a little time there where I think I went to Papua New Guinea to re-find it again. And again, really interesting for us to think about what roads people might take a little bit of a go and work in supported playgroup and come back. Come back to early childhood with a re with was sort of a reenergized purpose. But I think it is fundamentally about finding your people. So, one thing that I would say to everybody online, be brave, reach out, start talking to people. One of the ways that social media can actually help us connect not always a great thing, but sometimes it can be a really great way, but I think personally and in real time go and talk to people, find your people. And that's why of course, joining organizations and different interest groups have really powerful way for people to continue to connect.
Can I just add to that Catharine? I mean, what an amazing profession that you get to work in so many different areas, like there's so many different opportunities. And I think it is also about just supporting people, not just pushing them onto the next thing up, up and up. Make sure they're well supported, but we have a sector that you can work in so many different. Like you said...
Family daycare, long day programs. I know it's amazing.
The jobs are endless, and the opportunities these days with all the investment that the government put in in all these different projects. And particularly where I work I just see so many different opportunities, that even an early childhood, someone who is trained in early childhood can go and work in say protection if you want to. Branch out and do social working and working supportive playgroups...
Michelle, I should stop you there and say, and remind all of the people who are online, who are considering doing an early childhood degree, we need more teachers. So, step up into those qualifications because that might be an opportunity for you to really find your energized purpose. We absolutely want you to have a broad career, but hang out in early childhood for a little bit as we go. Leanne, do you want to add to that in terms of sort of supporting people finding their people?
I do think that's really important Catharine. I think it's about finding your people where you work, but it's actually finding it in the wider early childhood community. And I guess, can I talk a little bit about mentors maybe? Is this place to...
Yeah, it's a great place. I think it's a fantastic segue. Lots of people online will be knowing a little bit about mentors. Have you had good mentors?
Yeah and I think finding a mentor I was reflecting on my mentors and who they have been and who they are. And I think I've come to understand that a mentor I thought was someone I was inspired by and was aspired to be like, maybe in some ways. And I don't mean just copy who they are. I just mean to aspire as some of the attributes that attracted me to their practice and how they are in early childhood. But I actually think it has to be more than that. I think it has to be more than just someone who you admire, you are inspired by and who you're to be aspirational about. I think it's a two way deal. I think really good mentor mentee relationship is where you can have conversations that are reciprocal, where you learn from each other and you're given you get both ways. There's a lot of listening. There's a lot of belief in each other, and it's about checking in on each other when the other one doesn't expect to be checked in. And I liken it to if you're washing the dishes at home and you're doing that very mundane job of washing dishes and someone in your family sneaks up behind you and gives you a cuddle that you didn't expect. That cuddle is worth so much more, or feel so much more than the cuddle you thought you were going to get. And I think when I'm not suggesting we will go and cuddling mentors and stuff. But what I mainly is when we reached out to people, they reach out to us at times when maybe...
Unexpected
Unexpected, in the holidays or on a weekend or in an evening when we don't have an official meeting set up.
Send them a text.
Remember their birthday all that sort of stuff. I actually think they're the things that are really critically important as well, because they are the things that build the relationship that build the trust that enables the mentor mentee relationship to be safe and vulnerable. I think it's a really critical relationship. And I think you have different types of mentors and mentees in your life. Like so for me, I have people that I feel are my mentors, because I like the way they actually work with children. Then I have other ones that feed my brain and I have other ones that my soul and I have other ones that I go to with my problems. And I'm like, Hmm.
A collection Leanne. A collection of different people, I would agree. There's so many people in the early childhood space and indeed our academics who joined us last time we sometimes feel like, oh well, we could never reach out to them but I know that they are very willing to talk to people. The people who work in our universities and TAFEs and a whole range of training institutions as well as organizations. People are very generous in Early Childhood Education and Care in terms of looking out for each other. So, rely on that lean into that. Michelle, what about you in terms of mentors, you got some mentors who've helped you?
Oh, absolutely many. And I think you were saying, I think that the academic people who work in that space, they really love to connect with people, like the practitioners, like the ones that and I remember when I pretty much in my I suppose in my career particularly at now at Gary, I've had the opportunity privilege to speak a lot of academics and they constantly say, "Oh, we really want to connect you. We really want to know what that's like on the ground. We're researching this, but what is it really, really like on the ground?" And I remember in the beginning, I used to think, oh wow really? What we're talking about here? And they have fed my brain like that, like those conversations are something that I will last forever for me and continue those relationships. They are very generous. You could call them up at any time and say, "Hey, what do you think about this?" And they'll be, they'll be there. They'll be there for you. But a really great mentor is also someone who will give you the really hard feedback. So that the people that will actually be brave enough to also say to you, "Yeah okay, but have you thought about it from this perspective or." And those that also allow you time to be you. So sometimes it takes, sometimes you can come to decision making really quickly, and sometimes others can see that decision a lot quicker than what you can, but the ones that allow you the time and unpack it and sit down and just listen to you day after day until you have your own aha moment, they are priceless. And some of them might be online today they know who they are. That is who has shaped me, who I am today. And...
And I think Michelle to being, I've been brave enough to seek them out and to seek out those people and feel that you're worthy of them. You're worthy of those sorts of really rich connections. I think sometimes in our sector people have said to me, "Oh, but I'm just in an early childhood service in the suburbs, why would someone be interested in my story?" And this is about sharing what we know. And I actually want to say, we are deeply indebted to educators who undertake the work on a daily basis in all sorts of different early childhood settings, across Victoria. We need you in order to sustain what it needs to be understand about our profession. Practitioners shape who the profession is. So I feel very proud of that contribution and we can all make a significant contribution to the way we see our profession.
And staying connected with those people and stay as even as service leaders, always staying connected with people, because even though people may have stepped outside of the profession, this is a great opportunity now to draw people back into the profession. Like come back and we can support that. And there's so many opportunities for scholarships and training and that like no other, I haven't seen this in my...
It's pretty exciting.
Yeah, it's really exciting stuff and it's really like when I think of all of the Readiness Funding for example, that has been offered into services and how services are growing through that program. It's incredible. And so I think we're building the capability and it doesn't look like what it looked like even five years ago. So we've got to get people excited to be a unit. So reach out, like that's what I say, reach out to your friends because there's lots of opportunities.
And I guess it takes us to a question, one sort of one more question in this space and I'm conscious of time. It sounds like we're a learning in a quite a dynamic profession. So, Leanne just in terms of professional identity and learning, you've recently done a qualification, another qualification. So how would you sort of attach the idea of being a lifelong learner to longevity in the profession? Are they linked?
I think so. And when you invited me to speak on this panel tonight and to join Michelle, I actually went back to one of the very first job applications that I wrote and I thought...
You still got it?
I did and I thought I wonder what I wrote that I believed in. And I brought my purpose. I don't know that I was probably not at the time that I was doing it. And I've written it down. It says to make a positive difference in children's lives by being part of their Early Childhood Education at a time in their lives when the early years are critical to their learning and development for the rest of their lives.
Wow.
And so that was a young 20 year old who wrote that. And when you say the purpose and we talk about professionalism and longevity, I thought is that my still my purpose? Like, has it changed? Has it evolved? And the bottom line is it probably really is still very much the same, but I think when you talk about longevity, it's had different landscapes and it's been seen through a different lens that experience so I talked to you about in rural Victoria, I learnt about community, about families, about children, about the wider community. I encountered the principles of Reggio Emilia in the nineties. That was an incredibly big shift for me in my thinking and my practice. I was more confused than ever. I had more questions. I still do have many questions, but that was another moment, another aha where I went actually this interests me. This feeds my purpose, but for another reason. So that took me down the road of looking at the image of the child, making children's learning visible, made me question documentation, had I really thought and practiced around children being protagonists of their own learning. And I considered myself a researcher. Then we had the Early Years Learning Framework. And that helped me to think more about identity and wellbeing community and what it means to belong for any person in the centre. I reengaged, I haven't not stopped reengaging in the region but went deeper into looking at the principles of Reggio and went deeper into the notion of Progettazione which is program design and professional learning from within our own practice. I went to the ECA first and all the others, reconciliation symposiums that took me to another place around reconciliation and looking at my purpose through the lens of our nations first peoples. And so I think then the Masters, which I've just done a couple of years ago, took me into that academic space. So I think that 20 year olds purpose is actually still there. But I think the lens through which I've looked at that purpose and I've lived that purpose through the input of all these other amazing things have flavored it and colored it and confused it, and strengthened it. But I want to add to that, it is the people along the way and it's the networking and I think we need to do more than pay money to belong to ECA or for me it's the regional exchange or whatever you need for your purpose to be fulfilled, to learn about. It's actually being actively involved,
And participating.
Yeah. It's been dissipated. It's actually going to things. It's networking with people and saying, "Oh, hi, I saw you at the last event. Do you want to come and sit at my table?" Or, "Wait, we chatted about that last time, how's that going for you?" Or, "Well, this hasn't worked for me. What do you think?" The networking is really critical and I feel like we're in this really interesting space where zooming has become, which we're doing today. Part of our everydayness because during the pandemic it had to, but I would really hope that we take the zooming, forward a good way, when we need it, but we don't substitute it for all occasions of coming together. And I really want to say to people, go to conferences, go to meetings, go to the AGMs, find out all these people to do all these things, because all those things that have fed my purpose along the way, nourished my heart and my mind and because I hung out with all those people .
And we've got a question in the chat from Rebecca about who's a service leader, and I think she's asking a question that I'd like to put to you Michelle. How do you motivate people to feel purposeful? And I think you've picked up a little bit about this. You've see them as professionals, you treat them. So there's a real image of the educated are as professionals and capable. But if you go to that particular idea of how a service leader might motivate people to feel more connected and find their passion and find their purpose?
Involve them. Information is power, getting people together, developing your philosophy, reviewing your philosophy. That doesn't stay the same from year to year either. Like really thinking about that together, come together, think about what's in their mind, what is it that motivates them? Understanding what motivates them. I had a CEO once who said to me, I was advertising for a assistant And he's like, "What are your gaps?" And I was like, oh okay, look okay, So like I told him and he's like, "Yeah, okay recruit to that." And I was like, okay. It really made me think about we're not good at everything. And when we're driving people to be good at everything, it just deflates people sometimes. Some people will be absolutely super with...
Purposely in different ways Michelle.
Yeah, and together we come together as one as a whole and that we went together and move and providing lots of opportunities to talk. I think I remember someone saying once that educators make over 800 decisions a day and I think where do you think? It's usually in the shower or as you're going to sleep at night, keep the body down. Like what Leanne said, the ideas that have come in my career are not just from my own reflection as self. It is about connecting with others, getting out there, networking and having those conversations. And it might be little things that you think, oh, I could do that or that sparks my thinking there. So it is always a challenge to keep people motivated, but it is really about caring. It's going back to what we answered to the heart and the head and caring people ,that motivates people. I think.
Well, we could still talk for hours, because we've been now right at the end of our opportunity. And there's a whole lot of people who'd like to hang out with us and have a cup of tea and to talk more about purpose. And you can see here that there's a rich dialogue waiting to happen. I think we'll take that really great idea, Michelle, about connecting. So I think that's a really powerful one, but Leanne do you want to finish this off by giving us one more suggestion about how we sustain our longevity in our profession and how we find our purpose. So you've got one suggestion for us?
I think to feel safe and to feel comfortable with not being certain with not always knowing where you're going, but knowing you're going in a good direction to talk with people to network. I think it's really critical. Eat well, rest well, drink lots of water, chocolate and wine is always important, but I actually really think we need to nourish our heart and our brain. I would really encourage people to study. I would really encourage people to read articles, to read published academic papers, to unpack what that all means. And if you go to conferences, if you go to professional learning, whatever it is, that's wonderful. But I think the richest professional learning actually happens when we unpack our own practice with our colleagues. And I would really encourage people to do that together. But if you go to other events and I go to events I love an event. If you go to an event, don't just write those notes and put them in the book that you close in you never go back to. Actually go back to the next staff meeting and say, let's talk about some parts of this conference or this symposium or whatever we went to. And let's all pick a bit, let's all share something. And what part of our practice can this influence or might be want to change? And that's getting those people involved like Michelle said too.
We come back full circle, don't we too? An invitation for all of us to find the people who give us purpose and to join together I think as a fun profession, who are an amazing group of people who transform the lives of children and their families. And I want us all to really celebrate that. We know there's a really strong theoretical platform that underpins that, but the stories and ideas we've heard from Michelle and Leanne today, give us a real sense of the dynamic nature of this profession and the ways in which we can find out purpose and longevity. Thank you so much, Michelle and Leanne, we are running out of time unfortunately. We could talk for another three days on this matter. And many of our colleagues who are joining us online would love to sit with us and have a cup of tea and continue this conversation. But here's the invitation to you everybody. What I invite you to do is to go back into your early childhood services and begin a conversation around what it means to be a professional. What it means to connect with the longevity of this amazing profession, connecting with children and families any day to have a conversation with your colleagues about who are your people and how you can find your purpose. And as we heard from Leanne, great invitation to feel like people are finding individually different purposes and combining together to feel like we can fulfill these broad ideas emerging from the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. And longer than that over the profession over many, many years there are a numbers of people who've shaped us to where we are today. And each one of us plays a part as we move forward. So share those exciting ideas with your colleagues, invite people to join us in the early childhood profession. Lots of really fantastic opportunities. Make sure you check out the Department of Education and Trainings Workforce spaces on their website because lots of opportunities there. Thank you so much, everybody for joining us today. I wish you all the best in the rest of this year, as you support children and families to come back to Early Childhood Education and Care Services, look out for each other, talk to each other and share the amazing profession that we're part of. Thanks everybody for joining us.
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