Montessori Early Childhood Programmes in the Torres Strait,

Australia

Australia’s Indigenous Peoples

Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander

Physical evidence of occupation 2,500 years ago.

40,000-60,000 years of occupation

Settled from Papua New Guinea Settled via land bridge from SE Asia

Village based fishing and cropping economies

Hunter-gatherer economies - seasonal movement through estates

First contacts with Europeans though trading from mid-late 1800s

Spread of European colonies from 1788 decimates aboriginal populations.

Contact with missionaries preceded colonisation – Christianity embraced early and enthusiastically.

Missions often established to protect survivors.

Wellbeing in early childhoodThe Australian Early Development Index measures outcomes for children in the areas of:

• Physical health and wellbeing

• Social competence

• Emotional maturity

• Language and cognitive skills

• Communication skills and general knowledge

2009 outcomes

Vulnerable in one or more areas

Vulnerable in two or more areas

National average

Torres Strait average

National average

Torres Strait average

59.9%

39.2%

23.6%

11.8

Health outcomes

• Low birthweight twice as common for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies as for other Australian babies.

• Ear and hearing problems more than 3 times as common among Indigenous children.

• Oral health - higher levels of tooth decay and lower levels of access to dental care.

• Life expectancy estimated to be 11.5 years lower for males and 9.7 years lower for females.

Aims:• All children in Australia will have the

possibility of attending a Montessori program regardless of their location or socio-economic circumstances.

• Bring hope to those who have been unable to break a cycle of dependence and who live in poverty in Australia.

Challenge and response

• How can we break the cycle of welfare dependency when so many have failed?– Family life and the socialisation of children are the

foundation of any society, and fundamentally affect the future of both individuals and the community itself.

– Early childhood provides the maximum point of leverage for growth and development, including the development of pre-literacy and numeracy skills and dispositions.

– The child, and the value accorded children by almost all adults, is the key point of leverage for maximum family and community engagement.

– Generational change starting with the child– Commitment in perpetuity

MCF partners with Torres Strait organisations

• Tagai State College to provide Montessori programs for children aged 3-6 & 6-9

• Torres Strait Islanders’ Regional Education Council to provide birth to age 3 programs

The Strait Start programs – birth to age 3A Montessori approach to the early years

The first years of life• … the early years … have the most important influence of any time in the life

cycle on brain development and subsequent learning, behaviour and health. The effects of early experience, particularly during the first three years, on the wiring and sculpting of the brain's billions of neurons, last a lifetime.

• The evidence is clear that good early child development programs that involve parents or other primary caregivers of young children can influence how they relate to and care for children in the home, and can vastly improve outcomes for children's behaviour, learning and health in later life.

• The earlier in a child's life these programs begin, the better.

Mustard, J. Fraser; McCain, Margaret N. 1999. Reversing the real brain drain: Early years final study report.

Ontario. Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

The family is fundamental

Sharing knowledge and skills with parents and caregivers

Prepared environments foster development through sensorial experiences

Movement

emotional development – identityABOUT STRAIT START

Practical life activities

Independence

Concentration

Social competence

Connected to culture, community and environment

Establishing, maintaining, supporting and growing our work

• What makes a difference?– Community engagement, which is particularly

complex in Indigenous settings– Slow delicate complex work of building trust,

relationships and shared understanding and commitment

– Working towards sustainability through training and government engagement

Guiding Principles• Help me to do it by myself• Trust, observation, reflection, respect• Long-term commitment• Sustainable and scalable infrastructure and resources• Community engagement around the child • We must become less as the children, families and

communities become more• Independence

Mentoring• Non judgemental, supportive, friendly and open,

observant, effective communication, sensitivity to personality needs of coordinator

• Cultural awareness and knowledge; being prepared to seek this knowledge and awareness

• Non interfering but able to sensitively raise awareness of coordinator to issues they may not see

• Knowledgeable and experienced in Montessori 0-3• Ability to be in the background, to act with humility

and a sense of humour• Ability to work out ways to empower the

coordinator

Government engagement

Research

• We want to know what impact the Strait Start program has over time on:– the perceptions, attitudes and practices of parents

and carers to fostering the development of children though family interactions and environments.

– the development of children across key developmental domains (emotional, social, language, physical, cognitive)

– the level of children’s engagement with and performance in formal schooling.

The research process• Collating baseline data

– Existing and future school data on:• Attendance• Literacy• Numeracy

– AEDI– Human Development Index– LSIC

• Documentation of programs– Background– Rollout– Challenges and responses– Reflections

• Qualitative data– Background material

• Ethnographies • Community profiles• Family profiles

– Ongoing collection• Classroom observations• Regular family and community interviews

• Quantitative data– Background material

• AEDI • School performance data

– Ongoing collection• Annual testing using some AEDI tools• Range of tests (children)• Long-term tracking using school performance data• Health and well-being measures