Introduction to working with families experiencing poverty

No matter where they are based, at some point all educators will work with children and families who are experiencing poverty.

Educators who understand what it means to live in poverty are responsive to the needs of children and their families. They respectfully make sure that children have what they need to participate each day, while supporting families to establish and keep their connection with the service, no matter what challenges they are experiencing at home.  

This course provides information on the reality of poverty in Australia and the challenges faced by children and families living through hard financial times. It includes tools educators can use to research poverty in their own communities, ways to identify signs of poverty, and strategies for working with families in high-poverty contexts. 

How many hours of study are suggested? 

This course will take around 3 hours of study.  

You have one year from the date of enrolment to complete this course. 

Course overview 

By completing this course, you will be able to: 

• Appreciate what living in poverty is like in Australia 
• Understand how poverty can impact children and families 
• Recognise the impact negative attitudes about poverty have on families’ engagement with early childhood services 
• Locate information about poverty in your local community 
• Identify strategies for increasing the engagement of families living in poverty with your service 
• Engage in professional conversations with colleagues about the implications of what you have learned for your service 

This course is organised into the following chapters:    

• Overview 

• Introduction 

• Experiences of poverty in Australia 

• Poverty and your service 

• Taking an equity focus 

• Enhancing the engagement of families living in poverty within your service 

• Conclusion and final reflections  

• Useful resources and references  

The course is delivered as self-paced online training for early childhood educators and teachers, offering a rich blend of multimodal learning and activities to consolidate professional learning. 

Meet your presenters

Megan Blaxland Megan Blaxland is a Senior Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW. Her research aims to improve the policies and services that support Australian families experiencing adversity. Her research focuses on the community services sector and how to maintain a robust and responsive system. Megan specialises in early childhood education and care policy and practice, and how to ensure marginalised families can successfully navigate services, systems, and subsidies.

Leonie Arthur Leonie has worked as an early childhood educator in long day care, preschool, and the early years of school, including teaching in Aboriginal communities in Sydney and the Northern Territory. She is one of the authors of Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings and was part of the team that developed the first edition of the Early Years Learning Framework. She was a lecturer in early childhood education at the University of Western Sydney, where her research focused on effective pedagogies for learning and teaching in low socioeconomic communities, and the role of collaborative action research in educators’ professional learning and curriculum design.

Acknowledgment

The Engaging Families research team would like to acknowledge:

• Our research participants, including families, educators and community members
• Our research institutions - UNSW Sydney, Western Sydney University, the University of Sydney, and Griffith University
• Our research partners – KU Children’s Services, Family Day Care Australia, Goodstart Early Learning, Childcare & Kindergarten (C&K), Early Childhood Australia
• Our creative team – the still and moving images used within this course were provided by Jamie James, Nisa East, and Sivani Yaddanapudi
• Our funders – Australian Research Council and NSW Government

APST Aligned | NESA Recognised

3 hour contribution

This course aligns to Standard 7 (Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community) of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.

CELA is a NESA recognised PD provider.