Margaret River Community Centre for Children joins international research project

Freya Lucas

Aug 09, 2021

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The Margaret River Community Centre for Children (MRCCC) is one of ten early childhood education and care (ECEC) services across Australia participating in a national and international research project exploring educators' work in exemplary ECEC settings.

Suzanna Richardson, a member of the research team from Macquarie University, visited the service recently for the final phase of the project, working with MRCCC coordinator Amber Fairbrass and her team to understand more deeply the centre's approach to ensuring quality programs for children.

MRCCC describes the service as one which is family-orientated and child-centred, and which focuses on inclusivity and interculturalism. During the most recent visit Ms Richardson worked with three educators to learn more about how these beliefs and perspectives translate into daily practice.

"We are very proud of our involvement in this research and being selected as a case study for researchers to examine what it takes to provide exemplary early childhood education and care," Ms Fairbrass shared with local media outlet Augusta - Margaret River Mail.

On completion, the research project hopes to share more information with the ECEC sector and broader community about how educators support continuous quality improvement, plus develop a deeper understanding of the nature and complexity of exemplary early childhood educators' work, in order to directly address the misconception underlying the causes of educator shortages.

The exceeding-rated MRCCC is one of two West Australian services involved in the research, which is being undertaken by a team from Macquarie University, Charles Sturt University and the Queensland University of Technology, who are working alongside researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK and Rutgers University in the US.

The project is funded by the Australian Research Council and eight partner organisations that include providers of ECEC, unions and advocacy groups.

To access the original coverage of this story, please see here.

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