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The recognition of the importance of children's first three years of life and the need for authentic and meaningful partnerships with families has led to an increasing awareness of the specialist nature of infant-toddler education and care services. The privileged role of the early childhood educator is grounded in secure, responsive, emotionally available, cognitively stimulating and respectful relationships between child, adult and family. Advances in theories and research provide compelling confirmation of the fundamental importance of early childhood educators having knowledge of the ways in which infants and toddlers, as inquisitive, active and competent learners influence – and are influenced by – the environments in which they live.

Course participants will critically inquire about the complex and changing nature of learning with, caring for and educating infants and toddlers. Culturally relevant theoretical approaches and methodological innovations to the study of infants and toddlers are explored. Particular attention will be paid to the impact of government and economic policies and directions on services for infants and toddlers and their families. Course participants will examine their own positionality in working with and relating to families, with a focus on questioning and reframing their existing thinking and practices. Through course work, reflexivity and research, participants will have the opportunity to develop critical pedagogies for working with infants and toddlers, and critical approaches to planning for relationships, attachment, care and play as the curriculum of everyday life in infant and toddler settings. Interconnections between infants and toddlers and their educators are uncovered along with implications for working ethically and respectfully with their families and communities.

Course participants will undertake a 10 day professional experience in an early childhood setting which caters for children birth to two years and their families. It is a requirement during this professional experience to design and implement an Action Research project in collaboration with stakeholders in the placement setting.

On successful completion of this course preservice teachers should be able to:

1. research and synthesise contemporary knowledge and understanding of the physical, social and cognitive development of infants and toddlers and its impact on how they learn and critically review the implications for teaching (Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 1.1, 1.2);
2. justify relationships, play, caregiving and attachment as foci for setting appropriate learning goals, and as strategies for determining a range of teaching strategies that will cater to varying abilities and characteristics (APST 3.1, 3.3);
3. critically reflect about the role and interconnectedness of infants and toddlers, their families, their educators and their communities in the provision of effective educative and care processes and experiences, and the importance of sensitivity and confidentiality in these interactions (APST 3.7, 7.3);
4. design, justify and implement a collaborative action research project to evaluate the teaching program and improve learning experiences for infants and toddlers (APST 3.6);
5. seek and apply constructive feedback from supervising teacher and mentors to improve programming and planning practices (APST 6.3);
6. demonstrate competence in and appropriate use of language and literacy, including spelling, grammar, punctuation and bibliographic referencing;
7. demonstrate professionalism during preservice teacher placements through observation, practice and assessment of preservice teacher professional practice (APST 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1, 5.4, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4).