Educators
About the pathway
Welcome to the Educators pathway. This pathway is for early childhood, primary and secondary school educators, pre-service teachers and out of school hours care (OOSHC) educators who are interested in learning more about how they can support children’s mental health, development and overall wellbeing.
Outside of their home, children spend the most amount of time in education settings: either in early childhood education and care, or at school. This means that as an educator, you’re in a unique position to shape children's mental health and development by creating safe, supportive and nurturing environments and relationships. You can also monitor changes in children's behaviour and wellbeing due to the amount of time you spend with them. This puts you in a great position to observe, communicate and provide support to families as part of your ongoing care of a child or young person.
Research shows that a partnership approach between families and educators – characterised by reciprocal communication and an open and positive relationship – can help to improve children’s wellbeing (including their mental health, learning and development).1,2 But having conversations with families about children’s mental health is a key challenge for many educators. This pathway will help to build your skills, knowledge and confidence in this area, by guiding you in how to build authentic partnerships with families.
Family partnerships involve creating a shared understanding of the different areas of a child’s life, to better understand all the different factors that might be affecting their wellbeing, and to provide more targeted and timely support when needed. When parents are more engaged with a school or early learning service, it leads to better outcomes in their child’s behaviour, social and emotional wellbeing and student achievement.3,4 Effective family partnerships can also help you to better meet the needs of the children in your care – ultimately making your job of supporting both learning and wellbeing easier.
Learning outcomes
As you progress through this learning pathway you will:
- enhance your understanding of your role in supporting children and young people’s development, mental health and overall wellbeing
- expand your knowledge of what family partnerships are and how they support children and young people’s wellbeing
- gain a new perspective on establishing and nurturing relationships with families to support children and young people’s mental health, development and wellbeing
- strengthen your confidence in leading partnerships with families
- build an awareness of the four practice shifts for implementing authentic partnerships with families; and
- build awareness of how the practice of family partnerships aligns with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and the National Quality Standard for early childhood educators.
References
- Barton, A., Ershadi, M., & Winthrop, R. (2021). Understanding the connection between family-school engagement and education system transformation: A review of concepts and evidence. Washington, D.C.: Centre for Universal Education at Brookings, The Brookings Institute.
- Garbacz, S. A. & Weist, M. D. (2019). Family-school collaboration in positive behavioural interventions and supports: Creating a school atmosphere to promote collaboration. (PBIS Forum 8: Practice brief). PBIS Leadership Forum – Roundtable Dialogue.
- ARACY – Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth. (2016). Parent engagement: A review linking policy and programs, p.6. Canberra, ACT: ARACY.
- Garbacz, A. S., Minch, D. R., Jordan, P., Young, K., & Weist, M. D. (2020). Moving towards meaningful and significant family partnerships in education. Adolescent Psychiatry, 10(2). doi: 10.2174/2210676610666200324113209.