Part A: Description of Interviewee and Interdisciplinary Context
Alicia Gomez is an educational professional in the early childhood industry in Singapore. Through an interview, it is evident that she is a kindergarten teacher at Alicia Kindergarten with a Bachelor’s degree. She manages and executes educational curriculums to inspire holistic growth. She is involved in the development and execution of learning and teaching resources and approaches. Moreover, she carries out age-suitable programs and prepares the educational resources. She also ensures the children are safe and provides a positive environment for learning. Additionally, she engages partners and parents in education for them to be involved in the development and learning of their children.
The interdisciplinary context present at Alicia Kindergarten is the collaboration between nurses and early childhood teachers to create positive interactions with families to nurture the health of children. Mrs Gomez chairs the program assisted by two nurses holding the positions of secretary and event organiser. They handle one hundred children with an age range of four to six years. There are ten staff including the principal who is Mrs Gomez, five teachers, two cooks, and the two nurses. They work in two sessions one from 8:00-11:00 am, and the other from 12:00-3:00 pm. They ensure there is a smooth implementation of the program by other colleagues to ensure children are safe.
The professionals have collaborated for five years addressing the significance of conducting a comprehensive health check before children could proceed to their next academic level. Mrs Gomez and the nurses hold conversations concerning issues of children and their families. The program upholds common terminologies for families and their children to enhance their health and wellness. The professional knowledge of the teachers and nurses is put to work effectively through this collaboration (Haines, Godley & Hawe, 2013). Also, she indicated that these collaborations occur in Australia whereby discipline collaborations are conducted to improve and support children and their families (Choo, 2010). The children at Alicia Kindergarten come from different socioeconomic status families. Hence, the facilitators work to enhance equality to eliminate the gap. This is implemented by ensuring the nursing care provided equally administered, the toys purchased are uniform, giving them quality and healthy food, and taking all of them to museums. The reason I opted for a kindergarten professional is that the profession is important in providing children with firm educational foundation. The professionals are charged with the role of helping children in their brain development to affect the functioning of their planning, organising, and maintaining skills. Additionally, the professionals have many disciplines with which they can collaborate (Derry, Schunn & Gernsbacher, 2014). Hence, opting for them was the best choice as children require proper nursing care for their development.
The educational philosophy of kindergarten teachers is embedded in the theoretical foundations of the Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) framework. This is Singapore’s curriculum for kindergartens. It requires that the learning and development of children require them to interact with teachers, peers, and other adults. This is mainly implemented by teachers who influence the social interactions to spread learning. Active participation and first-hand experiences enhance the children’s process of learning. These theoretical underpinnings echo the significance of children’s holistic development and back the conviction that children are active, curious, and competent. Through the daily nature of the interdisciplinary collaboration, it is evident that there is a shift in the philosophy of children interaction. This is because the nurses are on a constant check of children’s health. For instance, they monitor the occurrences of infectious diseases at Alicia Kindergarten and put in measures to prevent the transmission of the disease. Measures like the seclusion of infected children are contrary to the interaction philosophy of learning in kindergartens (Hall & Weaver, 2012). As such, the collaboration shifted Mrs Gomez’s philosophy of enhancing children interactions due to the educational practice of ensuring the health of children.
Part B: The Everyday Nature of the Interdisciplinary Collaboration
The collaboration led to a change in the resources used at Alicia Kindergarten. For example, the songs have changed as the nurses do the health examinations by singing to the children. Consequently, the teachers incorporate the same in class. For instance, singing of the body parts while referring the children back to what the nurses examined. The teachers ask children what the nurse examined, and they respond by singing head, shoulders, knees, and toes. This usually goes on until most of the body parts including ears, eyes, nose, and mouth will have been mentioned. Also, the body parts chart like the eye chart resource is prepared by nurses. Moreover, the children get to listen to their heartbeats using the nurse’s stethoscope. Concerning the teaching of measurements, nurses become instrumental by being involved in measuring the temperature, weight, and height of children (Laverick, 2007). The physical education lessons have also changed significantly as the nurses take the children through the lesson. They explain to them how exercising by jumping and touching the ground keeps their hearts strong and healthy.
The two professionals work by developing collaborative partnerships through personal connections, united commitment, and the shared interest of children and their families. They aim at creating a healthy school environment using school activities and training workshops. Both of them approach parents with kindergarten age children and encourage them to opt for Alicia Kindergarten due to its focus on good health. Also, the nurses bring healthcare professionals to Alicia Kindergarten who guide and train the staff to create a learning environment that upholds children’s health. For example, the nutritionists, and public health officers. Also, training for the parents is done by the teachers and nurses to enable the reinforcement of healthy family conducts (Morphet et al., 2014). They are taught of sleeping habits, childhood obesity, disease prevention, and immunisations. Moreover, the teachers teach the nurses about the tactics required to communicate with families, and the routines that take place in the classrooms.
The collaboration led to significant modifications to the learning environment. The physical environment changed significantly as the bright charts showing body parts are prepared and taught by nurses. Also, the space created in classrooms due to furniture arrangement has changed as the nurses recommend big spaces to reduce the chances of injury to children. The material arrangement, storing, and classroom cleanliness has also changed. The nurses major on ensuring the classes are always clean to reduce the occurrence of infections. The psychological environment has also changed as the nurses are strongly opposed to any scolding to children. They encourage teachers to be patient and calm to enable children to learn socially and intellectually. Any unclearness and unfairness make children be worried about the trouble they might encounter. Finally, the instructional environment at Alicia Kindergarten improved as a better understanding of body parts is attained (Morphet et al., 2014). The nurses are instrumental in providing explanations to students through experience during health examinations. As such, the instructional environment becomes positive due to the excitement, fun, and understanding obtained.
Shifts in the Professional’s Philosophy and the Educational Practice
The professional development requirements include the constant holding of joint professional workshops. The teachers and nurses get a chance to brainstorm concepts for developing a mutual service experience to handle children effectively. As such, they develop theoretical backgrounds from both disciplines to guide their shared tasks. Moreover, the nurses at Alicia Kindergarten go for training regularly to incorporate the idea of community health to family roles pertaining the socialisation of children in the kindergarten. Consequently, they can embrace the health function and socialisation of children by focusing on disease prevention and health promotion. Through the collaboration, the teachers and nurses are expected to address the health requirements of kindergarten children (“Teachers, Nurses, and Families: Countdown to a Healthy Start | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC YC | Young Children Journal”, 2015). Also, parents are invited to Alicia Kindergarten regularly to enjoy the collaborative learning concepts and obtain the take-home teachings and resources.
The collaboration has been beneficial to Alicia Kindergarten as the teachers have advanced their critical thinking skills through increased open-mindedness and self-awareness. They freely include nursing concepts in teaching, which help them give the health of children a priority. Through the collaboration, creative solutions are obtained. For instance, the kindergarten can handle infectious diseases like respiratory infections and diarrhoea. Also, the teaching of the body parts became easy through the assistance of nurses (Potter, 2012). Finally, the collaboration has enhanced the communication skills of both the teachers and nurses. They can converse with parents and convince them that the school environment is all round, and their children are healthy. However, implementing the collaboration is time-consuming as most of the lessons are rescheduled to include the nurses. This is complex and consumes much time. Mrs Gomez also indicated that the integration encountered a lot of confusion due to the introduction of many new concepts in teaching. Moreover, the school did not have sufficient funds to carry out the program smoothly given that the responsibilities of teachers had also increased.
Mrs Gomez mentored the nurses and teachers to embrace the collaboration, partake of training and workshops to advance their skills and expand their performance. Consequently, both professionals gained leadership skills and confidence through the guidance and encouragement. A planning and recording keeping of the concerns of the collaboration was done. The wellness and health needs of the children were identified, and research recommendations of how to meet the need were made. The expectations of the learning outcomes were then determined. After that, the classrooms with interactive materials were set up with a consideration of movement, safety, and play. To ensure that the home environment encouraged learning, resources like charts and hand-made toys were created (“Professional Collaborations | AECES – Association for Early Childhood Educators (Singapore)”, 2017). Finally, the parents were invited to roll out the program whereby they were given the toys and charts.
The collaboration enabled the teachers and nurses at Alicia Kindergarten to embrace collegiality. As such, they have embraced unity and respect for each other (Sivropoulou, Kyridis & Stephanou, 2013). Moreover, the two professionals have incorporated integrity, responsibility, dignity, equality, and care while handling the children and their parents.
Changes in the Accessed Resources Due to the Collaboration
The interdisciplinary collaboration between teachers and nurses has led to effective child care at Alicia Kindergarten. The nurses act as leaders in pioneering healthy lifestyles at school. Inquiries concerning infectious diseases, proper diet, good hygiene, and children immunisations are made to the nurses at the kindergarten. Effective planning and communication have made the collaboration successful (O’Toole & Kirkpatrick, 2014). During workshops, the professionals participate actively by keeping the channels of communication open.
In future, the interdisciplinary collaborations should be embraced by the educational ministry. Hence, there will be no need to change the provided educational frameworks by schools to incorporate the collaborations. This will yield better results as less time will be consumed, and the resources to be employed will be less (Elango, García, Heckman & Hojman, 2013). Moreover, the salaries to be paid during the collaborations will be known reducing the time spent on negotiations.
In Australia, the developmental and academic outcomes of children are fruitless if the teachers’ work alone. As such, nurses have been incorporated to enable a better understanding of the complex lives of young children. Projects on executing preschool health checks by nurses and educators in many kindergartens have been conducted. The health checks help to identify the developmental and health needs that should be handled before children start formal schooling. The nurses conduct screening and referrals on issues concerning the children’s mental health to guarantee better educational outcomes. Parents have accepted the projects by putting into practice the recommendations about their routines and practices at home to ensure consistency as the child transitions from home to school. For the teachers, the feedback and information concerning the health checks projects are significant for the development of their plans and programs (Garvis et al., 2016). They can customise learning experiences for each child according to their health condition. The health checks projects are significant in enabling children to relax in the school environment while their health is being taken care of. This is because the nurses do this in the presence of their teachers with whom they are more comfortable and familiar. By working together, the nurses and teachers enable parents to have a combined relationship with them, rather than be in an isolated relationship with the nurses (“Discourses of professional identity in early childhood: movements in Australia”, 2015). As such, the relationship thrives due to the unity of location, with comprehensive debates from different perspectives, leading to tailored support and advice.
Both Singapore and Australia embrace the collaboration between early childhood teachers and nurses. In Singapore, the NEL Framework issued by the Ministry of Education guides the early childhood teachers in the implementation of excellent kindergarten program for children (“Nurturing Early Learners A Curriculum for Kindergartens in Singapore”, 2012). The framework believes that children are active, curious, and competent. As such, it recommends quality interactions and purposeful play to ensure they develop holistically. These can be boosted through collaborations between the teachers and nurses. In Australia, these interactions are also recommended to ensure the learning of children is successful. For the collaborations to be effective, the professionals must combine their professional philosophies, modify the learning environment and resources, and go for further training to improve their professional skills. The collaboration is important as the professionals gain critical thinking skills, attain creative health solutions like handling infectious diseases, and their communication skills are enhanced (“ECLD 17 | Early Childhood Learning Conference | 30 March – 1 April 2017, Perth, Australia”, 2017). Nonetheless, implementing the project is time consuming due to the need to reschedule the school environment. Also, confusion engulfs the school due to the new concepts introduced whose implementations are difficult. Finally, there are insufficient funds to run the programs.
References:
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