Executive Summary

This report describes the Centre of Innovation (COI) research project carried out by the teacher-researchers of Citizens Preschool and Nursery, Dunedin between 2005 to 2007.  This COI was part of the second round of funded centres, where the focus area for research was how collaborative relationships impact on children’s learning and development.

The innovation described in this report is the collaboration of early childhood teachers with a Family Whänau Support Worker within an early childhood centre to support families and whänau.  Over the three years the teachers, with the support of the research associates from the University of Otago, undertook action research to investigate how best to support families who attended their centre.

Citizens Preschool and Nursery is a community based early childhood centre in South Dunedin.  Since 2004 a step toward a ‘one-stop-shop’ model has been established within the early childhood community at Citizens Preschool and Nursery with the appointment of a Family Whänau Support Worker (a Social Worker role) sited within the early childhood complex. Citizens Preschool and Nursery has two centres (a Preschool and a Nursery) on the same site and is managed by Dunedin’s Methodist Mission.  The focus for the Centre of Innovation research was designed to investigate the wider aspects of support for families and children that had been established at Citizens Preschool and Nursery, examining how the Family Whänau Support Worker and the teachers made a difference in the lives of the families attached to the Nursery centre.  The final research question has been: What counts as support for families from a childcare centre that actively works with parents and children?

Three key themes arose from the research data, reflections, and analysis of the role of the Family Whänau Support Worker for supporting families at Citizens.  These themes were called: Being there and being seen; Making time to talk; and Building bridges.   Together these three themes demonstrate both the philosophies and the practices that provided successful practice examples for the work of a Family Whänau Support Worker in the early childhood setting.   From the investigations with both the teachers and the Family Whänau Support Worker, the findings have been grouped under three key themes: It’s the little things that count, To know you better and for you to know me better, and You don’t know if you don’t ask.

Management policies and practices play a significant role in shaping what becomes possible within an early childhood centre. Over the three years the COI project team tracked the changes in philosophies and practices from management that worked to support both the teachers and the Family Whänau Support Worker in their roles, and also worked to support parents directly.

The project revealed the importance of the early childhood R.A.P – relationships, attitudes and provisions.   Just adding another staff member, albeit one in a social work role, is not by itself going to bring about increased support for families and enhanced learning environments for children.   A key has been the combination of relationships and attitudes that the staff brought to their roles, and the provisions for parents and staff.  These three features can work to either enhance family well-being and child outcomes or work as barrier to the same.

While this three-year journey for Citizens as a Centre of Innovation may have come to an end,  the journey of supporting children and families and the constant reflection on and desire for quality teaching practices will continue at Citizens Preschool and Nursery.