In this chapter and those that follow, you will meet the children, families and teachers who are part of four different communities that form the case studies for this book. The case studies are:
• The Resourceful Community case study. The first case study is of two families with a similar profile who live in a resourceful, but poor community. They are the Peninsula family and the Westernport family. The community has been labelled the Resourceful Community because the families are able to reuse, recycle and invent in resourceful ways.
• The Collective Inquiry School case study. The second case study is of a primary school in a community that has creative families, professional families, poor families and newly arrived immigrant families.
• The Building Bridges case study. The third case study is of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families from different parts of Australia who came together to talk about what mattered for their children's learning and development and what non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers needed to know about growing up in Australia as an Aboriginal child (Fleer & Williams-Kennedy, 2002). Some core ideas, rather than definitive views, are presented in Chapter 3.
• The Culturally Diverse Preschool case study. The final case study is of a group of preschool children who come from culturally diverse families. You will be introduced to this case study in Chapter 3.
To protect the anonymity of the families, pseudonyms and non-identifying material have been used. Only images and work samples of children from families who have given permission have been included in this book.
You are now introduced to the first two of the four case studies. Each case study finishes with a problem situation that you will work towards solving as you read the child development and learning theories presented throughout this book. Enter your reflections on each case scenario and problem situation into your journal. Your responses over time will contribute to building a collective and holistic picture of the development of the children discussed throughout this book.
Through engaging with the content of this chapter, it is anticipated that you will:
Review the options below to login to check your access.
Log in with your Cambridge Higher Education account to check access.
If you believe you should have access to this content, please contact your institutional librarian or consult our FAQ page for further information about accessing our content.