A short reflective essay examining practice in relation to the UNCRC(1200 – 1400) (30%)

While working on your assessments at university, much of your time will be spent thinking; thinking about what your tutor has written in Modules and posted in forums, what you have read, what you think about the key ideas and how your thinking may have changed. Critical and reflective thinking are part of this process (see http://student.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/830360/Reflective-Writing.pdf).

This part of Assignment 1 requires you to think more deeply about children’s right to play.

What is the”right to play”? Why is it an important right to protect and enact in early childhood education and car e?Draw on your readings to reflect upon the practices and / or policies of your early childhood service in relation to the right to play. In your discussion, give examples of how you think children’s right to play is respected in your service and ways that you think this could be improved. Explain why you think these are good or poor examples. Please refer to the Right to Play booklet; ACECQA’s Guide to the Quality Standards and the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), and any other material as appropriate, to guide your thinking.

In your essay you must:

• Link the right to play to the UNCRC
• Explain why the right to play is important.
• Look for examples of practices/ policies in your setting where you can see these rights enacted or where you think practices could be improved. Make sure you consider these examples in the light of identified readings.
• Discuss these examples in your essay. In your discussion explain why you think these are examples of good or poor practice.
• Make sure your essay starts with an introduction and ends with a conclusion.
• When you have all the parts of your essay in place, proofread your essay by reaidng it aloud. This can help as you can then hear any grammatical errors and see if the discussion flows logically as a whole. Include interlinking sentences (see the essay template on the Interact2 menu and/or use the PEAL paragraph structure (see http://student.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/2743045/Introduction-to-Essay-Writing-workshop-presentation.pdf) to ensure the discussion flows logically from beginning to end.

Submit your assessment via EASTS.

Rationale

Assessment 1b supports your learning around the rights of the child as well as development of your critical thinking and academic writing skills. It provides you with anopportunity tobecome familiar with the UNCRC and considerthe nature of children’s rights andhow these might be experienced in different context and age groups as well as how recognition of children’s rights can be enacted and defended withinearly childhood programmes.

This assessment helps you work towards these subject outcomes:

• understand the content and scope of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and implications for and of public policy related to early childhood;
• critically reflect upon the content and scope of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the implications for the experiences of children in early childhood settings;
• gain a critical awareness of the various factors that contribute to the violation of children’s rights, including political, cultural and economic discrimination and / or marginalisation.