Experiences in the early years of life are increasingly recognised as significant predictors of long-term cognitive and psychosocial behaviour. This thesis focuses on one aspect of early development: the cultural identity of the young child and investigates the influence of continuity of practice between home and the child care centre in this development. The use of child care services for very young children has increased dramatically in the past two decades. For the first time in history there may be more babies aged 0-3 years in care situations than babies who are cared for at home - this impacts upon the child’s micro-culture (individual, unconscious practices guided by beliefs, norms and values) and macro-culture (ritualistic, symbolic behaviour, often conscious which is tied to belonging to an ethnic group). This study investigates the way in which child care centres contribute to the development of micro and macro-cultural identity in very young children. This study was originally designed to increase the knowledge base about the ways in which interactions with children (particularly in relation to sleep and feeding micro-cultural practices) differ between home and child care service and the implications of these differing practices. As the study progressed a new focus was developed and evolved into an analysis of communication processes between parents and staff and the effects of those communication processes. Qualitative methods on non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and semi-structured questionnaires were used to address the research questions. Recommendations from the study focus on setting level and policy issues. The early childhood sector is called on to redress notions around communication and partnership building with parents / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis addresses the issue of environmental influences on the manifestation of unwanted child behaviours (UCBs) in early childhood services. Specifically it examines the evidence for UCBs that result from the interface of physical, social, structural, and cultural components of the environment of a child care centre with the psychological habitats of individual children over the full day of their attendances. The identified unwanted behaviours are used as starting points to analyse children’s behaviour streams for indication of environmental influences in the production of UCBs and to establish common patterns of influence across different children. To facilitate a systematic investigation of the complex child:environment relationships in a child care centre, a conceptual framework was developed to describe time-space locations of settings and situations, the basic components of environmental influence, the child’s psychological habitat, UCBs, and the contextualisation of child behaviours in situ. The framework was utilised to review literature associated with components of both the child’s psychological habitat and the environment of a child care centre, implement an appropriate data collection strategy, as well as guiding data analysis and interpretation of findings. The qualitative approach to data collection involved full-day observations of individual children and recording on audio-tape a continuous concurrent narrative of their actions within a variety of settings and situations. Observations of 30 different children over 54 days yielded almost 400 hours of recordings, which were transcribed onto more than 1000 typed pages. Examination of the transcripts provided evidence of 1384 manifestations of UCBs embedded in 1028 distinct sequences of unwanted behaviours within behaviour streams. Analysis of the behaviour streams and interpretation of antecedent events implicated a variety of interrelated physical, social, structural, and cultural factors in the production of UCBs, which are considered in light of findings from previous studies. Overall, no single factor was found to influence the behaviours of all children, or the same child across different settings and situations. The findings serve to reinforce the known complexity of person:environment relationships, which is further intensified in children between the ages of 3-5 years by their developing socio-emotional and cognitive systems, innate and learned within-child characteristics, and different experiences of centre-based child care. The findings also reinforce the need for practitioners and researchers to consider more fully the individuality of each child when planning programs and investigations into the impact of child care on children. Implications of the findings for practitioners are stated and recommendations are made for future research. / PhD Doctorate

There has been minimal Australian research focussed on the management and leadership aspects of directors' work in centre-based child care to date. In Australia, practices in early education have been largely drawn from studies in other cultural contexts, particularly research undertaken in the United States. It is timely that Australian research should inform its social policy about quality child care programs. The focus of this research was on the nature and characteristics of effective management and leadership practices in centre-based child care. Research (Jorde Bloom, 1992b; Morgan, 2000; Poster & Neugebauer, 2000; Rodd, 1994) indicates that quality of child care programs is influenced mostly by the leadership that the centre director can provide to staff within the centre. The conceptual framework adopted in this study views leadership from a Social Systems framework. Central to a Social Systems framework is the notion that organisations do not exist in isolation rather, leadership and management in these settings are embedded in a broader social context. A Social Systems Model has received little attention in contemporary research on child care in Australia, and this study aims to build a framework for future studies in this area. The aim was to investigate leadership and management in child care in social, legislative and economic context. The findings seek to inform researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Eight directors were purposively selected from community-based and privately based centres in urban and rural areas, and from accredited centres in South East Queensland. The selection of varying locations allowed the researcher to gain a broader perspective of the directors' daily lives, as different contextual and environmental conditions were anticipated to influence management and leadership within the child care centres. Within this study, case studies of directors of child care centres were developed through interviews with the directors. The interview methodology focussed on exploratory semi-structured, open-ended questions in relation to management and leadership in centre-based child care. Directors were interviewed on two occasions within a three month period. In the current context of the delivery of child care services in a market driven climate, the language of business and organisational theory has entered the lexicon of the early childhood field (Press, 1999). The findings indicate that the director of a child care centre needs to have training and experience in business management and leadership to enhance their competencies for management of centres in today's competitive environment. Growth in child care franchises is significantly changing and truly developing a "child care industry" (Murdoch, 2004). Also, consideration needs to be given to increasing accountability in child care service delivery, and how to better support directors in their role as advocates in the broader early childhood field. Further, families in specific communities have varying needs and early childhood programs should reflect the needs of the local community. Leadership models within child care centres should encompass the micro and macro influences on the operation of centres. Literature suggests that early childhood centres provide an opportune place to support families in a variety of ways through integrating support services to address the underlying social and policy factors that affect young children and their families (Commonwealth of Australia, 2003; Corter, 2001).

Dans la vie sociale, les besoins sont regardés comme un préalable nécessaire à la définition d’un projet ou à la création d’un service. Pourtant s’ils apparaissent évidents, naturels, ils sont l’objet d’une construction sociale. Cette recherche se propose d’étudier le processus de fabrication des besoins sociaux dans la politique d’accueil des jeunes enfants en France en partant des questions suivantes : comment les besoins adviennent-ils sur la scène publique, dans quelle mesure sont-ils pris en considération, comment sont-ils exprimés ? Trois déterminants des besoins ont été au cœur de l’analyse : le politique, l’individu et le marché. Nous avons montré que les besoins sociaux reçoivent plusieurs formes de « mise en visibilité » pour exister publiquement mais que cette politisation aboutit partiellement à les faire reconnaître comme un vrai problème. Par ailleurs, la reconnaissance des besoins sociaux passe par leur transformation en une « demande sociale ». Dans le secteur de la petite enfance, cette expression est rendue difficile parce que la photographie des besoins qui ressort des enquêtes est très hétérogène, mais aussi en raison de l’existence d’une non-demande (le non-recours au service), et à cause des situations « d’imprévisibilité » dans lesquelles se trouvent les parents par rapport à leur mode d’accueil. Enfin, les besoins sont étroitement liés à ceux qui les couvrent. Dans le cadre du nouveau marché des crèches d’entreprise, un déplacement s’opère : les besoins des familles sont mis en arrière-plan au profit de ceux des entreprises et des collectivités financeurs et potentiels clients des services. Ceci étant, les entreprises de crèches continuent à faire exister les besoins des familles, autrement, de manière plus quantitative, notamment par les plates-formes de réservation de places et par la promotion de deux figures du parent, celle du « salarié-parent » et celle du « parent-prospect ». / In social life, needs are considered as a necessary prerequisite to the definition of a project or the creation of a service. Though they seem obvious and natural, they result from a social construction. This research sets out to study the making process of social needs regarding child care policy in France from the following questions : how do needs arise on public scene, to what extent are they taken into consideration, how are they expressed ? Three determinative were at the heart of our analysis : politics, market and the individual. We have shown that social needs acknowledge several forms of “visibiliting” so as to exist on public scene but that actually this politicization partially succeeds in making them recognize as a real problem. On the other hand, the recognition of social needs goes through their transformation into one social request. In child care field, this expression turns out to be difficult, because the picture of the needs which emerge from surveys is very heterogeneous, owing to the existence of no-requesting (no-resorting to services), because of some situations of “unpredictability” in which parents cope with child minding. Finally, needs are closely linked to those who cover them. Within the context of the firm child care centres’ new market, a transfer has occurred : families’ needs have been relegated to the background to the profit of the firms and local communities’ ones :services’ financing and potential customers. Yet, market continues making families ‘ needs exist but differently, in a more quantitative way, in particular through child care centres’ websites and also by the promotion of both new faces of the parent : “salaried-parent” and “prospect-parent”.