ABSTRACT

Internationally, there has been a concerted policy focus on the integration of early years services to support children and families by bridging the divide between early childhood care and education services and formal schooling. The move toward service integration in Australia has been widely adopted into policy at all levels as ‘best practice’ for supporting children and families. However, to date, service integration research has focused on the experiences of adults rather than the experiences of young children within these services. This study offers the first empirical analysis of four-to-five-year-old children’s experiences of transitioning to school in South Australia from a range of service integration models using a qualitative longitudinal study design. Findings suggest that service integration had little impact on children’s experiences of transition. Findings additionally suggest that further research on the impact of service integration on the experiences of both young children and their parent/caregiver(s) during the transition to school is warranted.

摘要

在国际上，通过弥合幼儿保育和教育服务与正规学校教育之间的鸿沟，整合早期服务以支持儿童和家庭的政策一致。澳大利亚向服务整合的转变已被广泛纳入各级政策，作为支持儿童和家庭的“最佳实践”。然而，迄今为止，服务整合研究的重点是成年人的经历，而不是这些服务中幼儿的经历。本研究使用定性纵向研究设计，从一系列服务整合模型中首次对南澳大利亚 4 至 5 岁儿童过渡到学校的经历进行实证分析。研究结果表明，服务整合对儿童的过渡经历影响不大。调查结果还表明，有必要进一步研究服务整合对幼儿及其父母/照顾者在过渡到学校期间的经历的影响。