This paper reports on the outcomes of the first stage of an innovative partnership project that saw Allied Health professionals and EC Educators crossing traditional practice boundaries to work with young children in an identified vulnerable community in outer Melbourne, Australia. Those working in the early childhood field are increasingly being asked to implement programs that aim to mitigate the impact of disadvantage (European Commission, 2013; Frawley, 2014; Leseman & Slot, 2014); this requires a highly skilled workforce and a more cohesive approach to multiagency work (Payler & Georgeson, 2014).
In Australia, while the rate of vulnerability across one or more readiness domains has decreased from 2009- 2012 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2014), the recent 2015 report ‘Educational opportunity in Australia 2015: Who succeeds and who misses out’ noted that approximately one in five children still are vulnerable in terms of developmental milestones at school entry (Lamb, Jackson,Walstab & Huo, 2015). Children who are behind in two or more developmental milestones face considerable challenges to succeed in the formal school setting, with potentially long term effects on life outcomes. Significantly, most of these children are in low socio-economic communities.
Boundary crossing is a response to the impetus for multi-agency work to address disadvantage and provokes “new understandings, identity development, change of practices and institutional development” (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011, p. 142). This project brings together speech pathologists, occupational therapists and EC teachers, professionals who have previously had limited interaction, to address the potential impact of disadvantage evident in the participating kindergartens through identifying opportunities for program enhancement for a vulnerable community. Findings from interview and focus group data collected will be discussed with regard to dimensions of teachers’ professional practice and identity. Further, the potential for further boundary crossing work and curriculum planning implications will be presented..
