This document summarizes a concurrent session from a conference about belonging. It discusses how belonging is integral to human existence and children's rights. It describes a project done at a preschool where educators opened a dialogue with children about homelessness after a child asked questions about people sleeping in the train station. The project involved asking children questions to understand their perspectives on belonging, homes, and how to help people without homes. Children demonstrated sophisticated, empathetic thinking in their responses. The session discusses the image of the child and how that influences what topics are broached with children. It provides examples of children's insightful comments about homelessness and how people could help.

1. Concurrent Session Three 1.40 – 2.40
Belonging – IT Depends
presented by Jennifer Ribarovski & Molly Rhodin

2. Belonging – it depends

3. In this session…
• Belonging
• The birth of a project
• an uncomfortable issue
• Image of children and curriculum
implications
• the project unfolds
• Children’s views on a better
future
• Children as change agents

4. Belonging
“knowing where and with whom you belong – is integral
to human existence. Children belong first to a family, a
cultural group, a neighbourhood and a wider
community.”
Early Years Learning Framework p.7
Article 8 of the UNCRC – the right to identity, is closely
linked to a sense of belonging.
“Belonging is a two-way process. It is about a child’s
needs and rights being recognised and met, about being
protected and provided for, about feeling cared for,
respected and included. It is also about having
opportunities to express personal agency and creativity,
about feeling able to contribute, to love and to care for
others and to take on responsibilities and fulfil roles.”
Woodhead & Brooker (2008)

5. Why is belonging our business?
Its part of the Early
Years Learning
Framework
Its one of the six key
underpinning principle
of the National Quality
Framework
United Nation on the
Convention of the
Rights of the Child
Children as social
citizens - capacity for
empathy – social justice
Post structuralist theory
- questioning the taken
for granted – who gets
to decide who belongs
and who doesn’t?

6. Lachlan’s question
Lachlan and his Mum travel by train every day from
Parramatta to Circular Quay station. Every day they walk
past people who are often asleep in the tunnels of
Circular Quay station, surrounded by blankets and some
of their possessions. Lachlan often asks his Mum why
the people are there. Mum says that she tries to distract
him. It’s not a question she thinks he’s ready to hear the
answer to. She tells Felicity, the preschool teacher,
about Lachlan’s persistent questions. She wishes that he
would stop asking!

7. An invisible
social justice
issue
An awareness
campaign
Opening up
the
conversation
Questions
from children
The Birth of a project

8. Joey (7yrs ACT)
Even before you are born you belong and have a
home. In ya mum’s tummy (laughing). When I
was born I belonged to my mum and dad. And
then when Lawson was born, he belonged to me
as well as mum and dad. We all belong to
someone and people, but not everyone has a
home or a home that’s the same.

9. When the image of the child influences permission, or does
permission influence the image of the child?
• Image of the child – innocent and in
need of protection or capable and
competent citizens
• Children’s capacity to understand
complex issues
• Children's capacity for empathy and
understanding

10. Banfield and Davidio (2013) argue that there
is substantial empirical evidence that people
are fundamentally empathic and emotionally
responsive to the needs of others.
This reaction appears even among very
young children and occurs across cultures.

11. An uncomfortable issue – Reflection from
an Educator
Children are too
young to think
about social
justice issues
Children aren’t capable
of understanding social
justice issues
It’s not your job
to teach children
that. They can
learn it when
they're older

12. An uncomfortable issue - Reflection
from an educational leader
• When we demonstrated to families
children’s capacity for empathy and
their sense of place in community,
families viewed their children from a
strengths based perspective.
• When we sought permission from
families for children’s involvement in
the project, families viewed their
children from a deficit perspective.
• How as eductors do we frame what
we do? Why? For who?

13. • Where do you live?
• What do you like about where you live?
• What do you feel like when you're at home?
• What are the three most important things in your
home?
• If people didn’t live in a home, where would they
live?
• Some people are homeless, which means they
don’t live in a home. How could we help them?
• If you didn’t leave in a home and have a
connection with people, would you belong?
The project unfolds…provoking children’s thinking

14. Where do you live?
In my home with
my three sisters
Keira – 3 years 5
months

15. Where do you live?
In my house with
my TV and my
brother
Esha - 4

16. Where do you live?
In an apartment
with a big door
where you put
the rubbish in
Paxton - 4

17. Valentina Zara Alice Brody
Esha Paxton Travie

18. What do you like about where you live?
Putting the
rubbish in the
door. It makes a
big noise
Paxton - 4
My Mum &
my sister
Valentina - 5
My TV & my
iPad
Esha - 4
My Lego and
my trains
Brody - 3
My baby and
my dollies
Alice - 3
The park
Zara - 4
Dad’s
computer
Travie - 5

19. What do you feel like when you're at home?
Good cos I can
put the rubbish
in the door.
Paxton - 4
Happy – I play
with my Mum
and my sister
Valentina - 5
Like warm
soup in my
tummy
Esha - 4
Like me
Brody - 3
Happy. My
baby laughs
and loves me
Alice - 3
Like pyjamas
Zara - 4
Tired and
sleeping
Travie - 5

20. If people didn’t live in a home, where would they live?

21. If people didn’t live in a home, where would they live?

22. If people didn’t live in a home, where would they live?
A conversation
about
castles…..and
belonging

23. Children’s sophisticated, empathetic thinking
9th October 2017
Sebastian was on a mission this morning, we hadn’t even
got the sandpit cover off completely and he had already
jumped in ready to get to work. “Do you have a project in
mind?” an educator asked “Well yes I’m building a house”
he told the educator before getting to work. The educator
asked what were Sebastian’s ideas for the house he was
constructing “I’m building a big house with lots and lots and
lots of bedrooms with lots and lots of beds everywhere and
in the kitchen!” he giggled to himself. “Beds in the kitchen?”
the educator question Sebastian’s intention “Why are there
beds in the kitchen?” “cause I want to fit lots of people who
don’t have homes in there” he continued to dig a large hole
in the ground. “That’s very commendable of you, Sebastian”
the educator smiled at him “Well no one else is doing it” he
shrugged.

24. 13th October 2017
“Does everyone have a hat?” Asher asked an educator “Outside
here, yes?” the educator assumed Asher was talking about the
outdoor environment but they were very wrong. “No, I mean
when you go to the shops I see boys with long hair sitting on the
floor” “What did you see Asher?” the educator asked “Well I was
shopping with my Mummy and we saw men sitting and she said
that they lived there… I didn’t know that some people do that”
“How did that make you feel?” asked the educator “Well I
wouldn’t want to sleep on the floor but I can’t take the men
home because they are strangers” “it would be a difficult thing to
do, I imagine” the educator said. “Do they have hats?” asked
Asher “that’s an interesting question, did you see something that
made you think about sun safety?” the educator asked “Well it
was sunny and they didn’t have anything on their heads, I have to
wear a hat outside” Asher tugged on his hat. “How do you think
they could get a hat?” asked the educator “Well.. they can’t
‘cause they got no money… maybe I will get big and buy some for
them” Asher smiled “That would be a lovely thing for you do to
for others” the educator smiled back.
Children’s sophisticated, empathetic thinking

25. Some people are homeless, which means they
don’t live in a home. How could we help them?

26. Some people are homeless, which means they
don’t live in a home. How could we help them?

27. Some people are homeless, which means they don’t
live in a home. How could we help them?
Hamish (4)
“We could build a house
with big beds in it. At
night time you belong in
your bed”.
Deidre (4)
“I know, we could share our house
and give them our spare room and
play with the kids too”. “At the shops
you would have to get more food,
toilet paper and toys”.
Nicholas (4)
“They could find a new home
with some food and stuff and nice
people to talk to”.
“They could make a home at the
beach or even in a cubby and we
could help”.
Finnley (4)
E: How can we help people that
do not live in a home?
(Places hands to head and says),
“I dunno, I just don’t know yet”.

28. Some people are homeless, which means they don’t
live in a home. How could we help them?
Hope (4)
“Homeless people don’t work. They don’t have a lot of food. I think when you move into your new
house, you could give your old house to the homeless people, but you have to leave them some food”.
“Our rabbits live in a hutch which is a rabbit house. This house is outside and so are human houses. But
rabbit hutches don’t have carpet and comfy beds. We could build a bed and then build a house and ask
where to put it”.
Allie (4)
“Maybe the police could
help the homeless find
their home”
Isobel (4)
“I think homeless people
can just live with me”
“I think homeless people
look like me, but with no
house and car”.

29. Some people are homeless, which means they don’t
live in a home. How could we help them?
“My dad can build the
homeless people a house,
he would even buy toys
and stuff to help them. My
dad could do that, or they
can stay at my nannas
house. They would like my
nanna, cause I do”.
Hayley (4)
“Well, someone could build a
house or buy one from the
shops. The house can’t have
any dangerous things inside it
cause they wouldn’t feel safe.
The house would have to be
big and have big beds and lots
of food and things. Yeah, but
they need to pick a number
from the shops for their house
to know where they belong”.
George (4)
“I think I could make a blue
cubby house for them and it
would even have a kitchen
with knives and spoons. Blue is
nice, it would help them feel
better”.
Claudia (4)

30. If you didn’t leave in a home and have a connection
with people, would you belong?
Dylan(5):
“People belong in our community cause they do. They hang
around here. We all belong. I don’t know which ones have
homes, they all just come here…um, they can take some
OzHarvest food after the man delivers it, but not all the time.
And they can get some food from our giving garden too. So it’s
sorta like they do have a home, here”.
Joey (7)
Um, people who don’t have a home could buy one or make one. Lots
of people build different houses in all sorts of countries. Um, I think
we should do like “The Block’ for homeless people, but you would
have to put in like really huge vegetable gardens and solar to help
save money”.

31. If you didn’t leave in a home and have a connection
with people, would you belong?
Valentina (5)
People belong because they people. But animals belong too, not
just people. They all need stuff to live. Water, dog food, go for
walks. Sometimes the lady comes to give Coco a bath in the truck.
He bited her once so now he has to wear a mask. But he still
belongs to us. Even if you’re bad, you still belong.
Max (5)
My teachers say ‘belonging’ heaps. You are
meant to be somewhere and feel good for a
long time I think. Be and long.

32. “I think homeless people
look like me, but with no
house and car”.
Isobel (4)

33. A
spontaneous
provocation…
…………

34. Children as
change agents
• The EYLF encourages educators to draw on critical pedagogies
that ‘offer insights into issues of power, equity and social
justice’, and has as one of its principles that educators ‘take
action to redress unfairness’ (Department of Education,
Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009, pp. 11, 13).
• One of the outcomes for children in the framework is ‘to
become aware of fairness’
• Socially just ECEC also enacts children’s rights.
• “socially just education is about creating educational contexts
that challenge inequitable institutional, systemic and social
relationships which have disadvantaged and continue to
disadvantage some groups and advantage others (Hytten &
Bettez, 2011).

35. Molly & Jen would like to acknowledge
the children, families, educators and
providers from………..

36. References
Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (2017). Guide to the National Quality
framework. Retrieved March 18, 2018, from
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-03/Guide-to-the-NQF_0.pdf
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (2009).
Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia
https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_year
s_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Banfield J. C., Dovidio J. F. (2013). Whites’ perceptions of discrimination against Blacks: the influence of
common identity. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 49 833–841. 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.04.008
Brooker, L. & Woodhead, M. (2008) (Eds.) Developing Positive Identities. Early Childhood Focus 3.
Diversity and Young Children. UK: The Open University
Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics (2016). Retrieved 18.03.18, from
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ECA-COE-Brochure-2016.pdf
Hytten, K. & Bettez, S. (2011) Understanding Social Justice, Educational Foundations, 25, 7-24.

37. www.jreducation.com.auwww.dteps.com.au