Contexts of influence: Australian approaches to early years curriculum

The study reported in this chapter has generated new knowledge promoting positive transitions to school through analysing the impact of the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum on transition to school and interrogating current pedagogies of educational transition, to inform the transition to school intentions of the two curricula. The project’s significance is its potential to impact on the transition to school experiences of Australian children and families and, through this, to promote a positive start to school. Research outcomes address the development and implementation of pedagogies of transition at the time of school entry and the impact of the national curricula on these. The project used a mixed-method approach to interrogating policy intentions and implementation at the federal, state, systems and practitioner levels. It used a large number of face-to-face and telephone interviews, as well as a large-scale national survey of practitioners, concerning transition to school. The chapter provides a description of the structure of the overall project and an analysis of the federal level of data generation.