From 2009, the Children and Families Research Centre will have the status of a Macquarie University Centre. It was one of the aims of the CFRC when it began as a Division research centre to reach this status within two years and we are all delighted that this has been achieved. With University recognition we will have administrative support over the next five years to build the CFRC to the point where we can apply, in conjunction with other centres with a similar agenda, to become a national centre devoted to research on children and families.

To achieve university centre research status after only 18 months of formal operation is a great credit to all the members of the centre and our management and advisory boards. Everyone has been involved in setting the strategic direction of the centre for the past two years and in helping to implement new programs of research as well as continuing current research.

Special thanks for their vision and support go to Sir John Carrick for his long-term encouragement, Mr John Pascoe AO (Chair, Management

Committee) and Professor Alan Hayes (Chair, Advisory Board).

Within the centre, many thanks to Associate Professor Julie Fitness (Deputy Director), Cheryl Murray (Administrative Officer), Dr Rebekah Grace (Postdoctoral Fellow), Dr Wayne Warburton (Postdoctoral Fellow) and Colm Halbert (Faculty Research Manager) for their contribution to the application for University status for the CFRC.

We are entering a new phase of consolidation and additional grants from 2009 and look forward to the achievements and challenges ahead.

I wish everyone associated with the CFRC a happy and healthy festive season and New Year.

Professor Jennifer Bowes, CFRC Director

Seasons Greetings from CFRC members and staff

CFRC

Children and Families Research Centre Institute of Early Childhood Macquarie University NSW 2109 Phone: 02 9850 9882 Fax: 02 9850 9887 Website: http://www.iec.mq.edu.au/cfrc_rar.aspx

CFRC Bulletin Board Welcome to new CFRC members: Dr Nick Parr (Department of Business), Dr Peter Whiteman (Institute of Early Childhood) and Dr Shirley Wyver (Institute of Early Childhood). Professor Jennifer Bowes, CFRC’s Director, has been appointed Associate Dean Research for the faculty of Human Sciences.

Ms Michelle Trudgett has started in the Centre as a casual research assistant, working with Prof Jennifer Bowes and Dr Rebekah Grace,

Grants Congratulations to Dr Shirley Wyver for her team’s success in gaining both an ARC Discovery and NHMRC Project grant (childhood obesity and ways to intervene and parents’ ideas about risk) and to Dr Nick Parr for his team’s success in gaining an ARC Discovery Grant on family benefit policies in Australia. Professor Jennifer Bowes , on behalf of the CFRC, was part of a team that was awarded a Macquarie Strategic Infrastructure Scheme grant for Kids’ Science Club: A Children’s Research Register at Macquarie University.

New Advisory Board Member for CFRC The CFRC Advisory Board has a new member — Ms Allyson Essex , Branch Manager, Dept of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA) who was an invited speaker at the CFRC conference in August.

Outreach Programs CFRC has a number of community outreach programs. The first is Parents as Teachers (PAT). PAT is designed to enhance a child’s development and achievement, educating parents via home visits and group meetings. The program equips parents with skills and understanding through parent-child activities, information and support. The program also helps parents understand what to expect during each stage of a child’s development and provides ways to best promote it. The NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS) has commissioned the centre to train their early intervention workers in the Parents as Teachers program. Seven one-week training sessions were conducted through the centre in 2008 for DoCS and for several non-grant agencies as part of the Brighter Futures program, a NSW government initiative. Please contact Professor Jennifer Bowes at Jennifer.Bowes@mq.edu.au for further information about PAT. For recordings and written transcripts of the CFRC Learning about Parenting conference presentations visit: http://www.iec.mq.edu.au/cfrc_rar.aspx Please submit any future contributions for this newsletter to the editor Cheryl Murray at cheryl.murray@mq.edu.au If you are interested in participating in research areas or outreach programs.

Children and

Families

Research

Centre CFRC Newsletter

CFRC Conference Media interest in the highly successful Learning About Parenting Conference organised by the Centre in August continued long after the delegates left.

Dr Wayne Warburton was interviewed by Adele Horin in The Sydney Morning Herald about his research into fathers and domestic violence following his paper entitled Parent gender, aggressive behaviour and the development of maladaptive ways of thinking. The article was syndicated in The Age, Melbourne; The Canberra Times, The Brisbane Times, WA Today and 174 regional papers. The piece was also taken up in more than 30 overseas newspapers and websites.

Dr Warburton, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre, was also extensively interviewed by ABC and commercial radio.

Associate Professor Julie Fitness , the Centre’s Deputy Director, attracted equal media attention for her paper, Family favourites and black sheep. As well as an interview with Adele Horin which appeared in papers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, Professor Fitness was featured on radio including ABC Radio National, 2UE, 2GB, Vega 95.3, 4BC and as far afield as The Morning Show KBLJ in Austin, USA.

CFRC Mission Statement

To conduct high quality interdisciplinary research that contributes to knowledge about the learning and development of children and families with a commitment to applying research to policy recommendations and outreach activities in a variety of communities.

CFRC Research Interests

Early Childhood Education

• Child development and early childhood education

• Gifted children and early childhood education

• Childcare management

• Quality in long day care

Social Inclusion • Indigenous children and their

families

• Children of new arrivals to Australia

• Children with disabilities and their families

• Services for families in areas of social disadvantage

Family Support • Mothers’ understanding of their

babies

• Family functioning and relationships

• Domestic violence

• Services to support families

• Marital functioning and diverse and changing families

• Extended family and grandparents

• Parent-child relationships, adoption and blended families

• Parenting amongst older mothers

CFRC Granted Macquarie University Centre Status for 2009

this issue CFRC Director P.1

New Postdoctoral Fellow P.2

CFRC New Appointment P.3

CFRC Bulletin Board P.4

ISSUE

December 2008

03

Newsletter produced and edited by Cheryl Murray BA, MPASR

CFRC Newsletter Issue Numb er 3

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Meet CFRC’s newest Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Visiting Scholars coming to CFRC in 2009 Professor Iram Siraj Blachford from the Institute of Education, University of London will be visiting Macquarie in late March and will give a CFRC colloquium. She will also give an evening talk students, IEC alumni and practitioners from services associated with the Institute of Early Childhood. Iram Siraj-Blatchford is Professor of Early Childhood Education. Her main interests are: curriculum and pedagogy in Early Childhood Education; early childhood curriculum and policy development; ICT; parental involvement; home learning environment; multiprofessional approaches to early childhood care and education; integration; cross cultural socialisation; social justice in education; qualitative research methods and epistemology; preschool-effectiveness. Professor Judith Carta from the School of Education at the University of Kansas, USA is visiting in April the Children and Families Research Centre and Macquarie University Special Education Centre. Professor Carta specializes in early intervention for children growing up in poverty; progress monitoring of infants and young children; improving outcomes for children and families affected by multiple environmental risks; observational approaches for measuring care-giving environments and interactions; family-centered comprehensive intervention and prevention efforts for children at-risk; classroom interventions that support young children’s early literacy and social development

Tove Inderberg an exchange scholar from the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway completing a Master in Social Anthropology will be visiting the CFRC in 2009. She will be doing field research on Children’s Play in Australian Childcare.

New CFRC Appointment

New Dean attends CFRC Book Launch A launch was held at the Macquarie University Co-op Bookshop in November 2008 for the book Children, Families and Communities: Contexts and Consequences. (3rd Edition), edited by Prof Jennifer Bowes, Director of CFRC and Dr Rebecca Grace, a CFRC postdoctoral fellow with chapters by many CFRC members. The book was launched by Ms Ginie Udy, Chief Executive Officer of SDN Children’s Services and a member of CFRC’s Management Board. The Dean of Human Sciences Professor Janet Greeley officially opened the proceedings. Children, Families and Communities explores the inter-connections between children, their families and the communities in which they live. It argues for a model that always sees children and their development within their cultural, social and physical contexts. This book proposes a multi-directional model of influence, as children are seen as being both influenced by and active in influencing the people and places around them. The book explores a range of issues that impact upon the contexts in which Australian children are growing including disability, ethnicity, family, school and neighbourhoods (including urban, rural and remote communities). State interventions and policies are discussed. This new edition has been revised and updated to incorporate the latest research and information and includes chapters on important contemporary issues such as child health and activity levels, and refugee children in Australia. It is an informative text for anybody interested in children, families and social policy.

From L-R Professor Jennifer Bowes, Professor Janet Greeley and Dr Rebekah Grace .

comorbid anxiety disorder,” was to go home and to start to read all she could on the subjects. “I became very concerned that if my daughter did turn out to have the characteristics described in the books, school would be where she would experience the most difficulty. Sure enough she did develop all the so-called “ADHD” characteristics but she also met diagnostic criteria for many other things as well. None of these diagnoses offered us a clear road map for how to proceed at school.” Dr Graham’s ensuing doctoral research drew on continental philosophy and sociology of education to investigate how the discourses and practices of schooling intersect to produce “behaviourally disordered” children. She used discourse analysis to examine archives from a special school (behaviour) and found that records littered with psychobiological markers like “hyperactive” and “impulsive” functioned to build a case around particular children; paving the way for ADHD diagnosis, medication and alternative placement. For her contribution to philosophy of education, she received the 2006 Philosophy in Education Society of Australasia (PESA) PhD Scholarship. Dr Graham is currently editing a book titled (De)Constructing ADHD: critical guidance for teachers and teacher educators. The book features a distinguished group of international scholars questioning the medicalisation of schooling practice. “Our aim has been to outline more appropriate educational responses for children who might otherwise end up with a diagnosis of and medication for ADHD”. And the outcome for Dr Graham’s daughter? “Now almost 10, she is a delightful young girl who, I am proud to say, is holding her own. Her teachers are our greatest allies.” Dr Graham was presented with the 2008 Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE) Excellence in Doctoral Research Award at a ceremony in Brisbane on December 1.

Professor Jacqueline Hayden was born in Montreal, Canada, and spent her formative years in the midst of what has been called the Quiet Revolution.

“The Francophone majority was fighting for their language and related rights. This taught me about the hidden nature of structural inequalities and social exclusion. I am sure that my interest in unpacking pathways to social justice arose from this experience,” she said.

Professor Hayden will join the Children and Families Research Centre at Macquarie in 2009. As a Professor within the Social Inclusion Core, she will bring an impressive record of international research and experience in early childhood.

It’s a welcome return to the University where she was a lecturer in the Institute of Early Childhood almost 20 years ago before completing her PhD at the University of Sydney and becoming an Associate Professor at the University of Western Sydney.

For the past two and half years, Professor Hayden has been with the Bernard van Leer Foundation based in The Hague. As the Foundation Manager, Social Inclusion and Respect for Diversity, she has been responsible for grants of over 6 million euros a year.

“The role has included generating knowledge for this issue area and supporting the development of policies and programs to address issues of social inclusion for children and families, especially who are marginalised and/or in situations of disadvantage.”

Before joining the Foundation, Professor Hayden was involved in international consultancies in Namibia (assessment of services for children aged 0-8 affected and infected with HIV/AIDS), Mauritius (children’s services plan), Zimbabwe (services for orphans and abandoned children) and the Rwandan refugee camps in DR Congo (coordination of CAREAustralia programs for unaccompanied children).

She has been a Visiting Professor at universities in Namibia, South Africa and Canada and is currently an Adjunct Professor to the University of Victoria, Canada. Currently her collaborative international research includes an international joint learning initiative on children and ethnic diversity coordinated by Queens University, Belfast and a study of the impact of multi-sectoral consortia on early childhood services in regional and national levels in the USA.

Continuing her strong links with Australia, Professor Hayden was also an investigator in a 2005-2006 review of setting national child care standards in Australia. She was also involved in a pilot study of the transition to school needs of Indigenous families with young children in rural NSW, as well as creating a strategy for improved communication, collaboration and networking in regional NSW for Aboriginal parents of young children through preschool services. The latter projects involved Macquarie staff members, Dr Katey de Gioia and Dr Fay Hadley.

And why the decision to return to Australia now?

“As a grant maker, I spent much of my time assessing the capacity of nations to benefit from the support which we are able to provide. Capacity is assessed in various ways. These include how ready and able civil society is to move forward on certain issues, how strong are the supports and how penetrable the barriers for influencing the political landscape, if leadership in particular fields exists or has the potential to develop. Assessment also considers whether program goals resonate in light of underlying values regarding children, citizenship and social justice.

“I have been watching Australia and am convinced that we now have what others have termed a ‘policy window’. Conditions exist which make appropriate knowledge generation, dissemination and advocacy most likely to take hold and to make a difference. That window is now. I am keen to be part of, and contribute to, this particular moment in early childhood development in Australia.”

The Bernard Van Leer Foundation is as a charitable organisation based in The Hague in The Netherlands. It currently supports around 150 major projects in some 21 countries, both in the developing and developed world, with an annual budget of 25 million Euros. The Foundation focuses on the optimum development of disadvantaged children up to the age of 8.

All projects focus on young children growing up

in circumstances of social and economic disadvantage and range from those in ethnic and cultural minorities, migrant or refugee children, children of single or teenage parents, children in war or conflict stricken areas; or children orphaned by AIDS. Some seek to improve the quality of care and education in daycare centres or other programs for young children, or focus on the home environment to enhance parenting skills.

Dr Linda Graham

Dr Linda Graham returns to her alma mater in January next year as a Macquarie University Research Fellow in our Centre. Her project is an international comparative analysis looking at the political economy of special educational needs across four international contexts: New South Wales, England, Finland and Alberta. Dr Graham has been Senior Research Associate in Childhood and Youth Studies at the University of Sydney for the past two years. Prior to her Sydney fellowship, Linda completed her PhD in Education with Queensland University of Technology, for which she received the 2007 Outstanding Thesis Award. “Since I began my research career in 2004, I’ve focused on the nature and quality of responses to students who experience difficulty in schools and with learning,” she explained. Projects have included an international comparison of the relationship between school curriculum and equitable achievement outcomes. Currently she is the chief investigator in a project examining the views of NSW primary school principals on inclusive education. Her doctoral research focused on the role schools play in ADHD diagnosis. Dr Graham’s initial contact with Macquarie was as an undergraduate studying for a BA majoring in English literature and modern history. The birth of her first child, a daughter, changed Dr Graham’s life and academic focus completely. Her motivation to delve into ADHD flows from an encounter with a paediatrician when her daughter was just seven months old. “Her words were: ‘You look like an intelligent woman. Go out and get a job, and put her into daycare. She’s going to have ADD and will suck the life out of you.” Dr Graham’s response to conflicting diagnoses of a child who was variously described as gifted, language disordered, autistic or “ADHD combined type with a

Professor Jacqueline Hayden