About me
Well I will just talk about my childcare background for now as that is the key focus of the BLOG and my work at present…
There have, however, been many incarnations as is typical I suppose of Gen Xers like meself.
Snippets of other incarnations at www.barkingowl.com and www.barkingowl.com/here
My application to the Child Care Advisory Committee is available here and tells the story of how a philosophical, searching 30-something-year-old ‘pre-mother’ looking for the best place to devote her work energy can get so passionate about campaigning for excellent child care/early learning models - and about the Reggio project in particular. It’s already out of date (current as of mid 2004), but then.. that’s the learning journey innit.
My undergraduate studies were in media studies, communications and cultural theory - getting hands on, practical skills in communications (writing across genres, photography, strategy) plus critical thinking foundations around the work of Berger, Sartre, Barthe, de Bouviour, Said etc.
This makes a deep interest in the Reggio Project specifically and social constructivism in general, a natural extension.
Early work experiences in the “belly of the corporate beast”, living in the country, becoming a mother, travelling, writing, photography (see ABC radio interview about our sea change here and ABC TV doco here) also shaped my ideas about many things.
More ‘media tart’ links here. We’ve always been pretty keen on documenting the learning journey, which is again why the Reggio project is so appealing. They are into documentation in a big way.
Oh, and I went to a school called the Lance Holt School that was based on the Summerhill school in the UK. That might have something to do with things too… 
Rawwwther an empowering place to learn. Much to be written about that!
Ended up at Presbyterian Ladies College so you could say, educationally speaking, I’ve had some pretty brooooooaaaaddd ranging experiences to draw from.
I’m looking forward to being able to make a contribution to the advancement of high quality child care for ALL from “within the system” - as well as from within the community.
Child care seems like a fundamental thing to get right when you think about it.
Researching, writing and distributing these posts through traditional and online media will hopefully help stimulate debate.
I’m still really struggling with how wanky and opinionated this Blogging thing feels.. still finding my voice and trying to understand the new private/public space I have entered. So leaving comments might help me deal with this. I suppose blogging these ideas and storing information I want to share here might be useful beyond just developing my own thinking. If you let me know if you got something out of visiting here and perhaps even what the context for your interest is, then that will help shape this.
Hmmm… we shall see… is it blowing in the wind…?