Social Media Policy: Essential and Effective Guidelines and Template for Early Childhood Services

We provide a policy template as well as highlighting the main issues for your team to discuss and ensure your policy is practical, protective and aligned with the realities of social media use in New Zealand early childhood settings.

Make time to think through the key considerations, risks and decisions involved.

At the end of this article, you will find a Social Media Policy template that you can adapt and use to create a policy that suits your service’s needs, values and social media practices.

When used well, social media can strengthen communication, build community and serve as a powerful marketing tool. When used poorly, it can compromise privacy, blur professional boundaries and damage trust.

Social media refers to Internet based tools that allow users to publish information, opinions, images and other content. In New Zealand early childhood settings, the most commonly used platforms include

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1. Marketing

It is prestigious to belong to the OECE. Membership is usually by invitation. Online applications can be made if you think your service meets the criteria. To be a member a service must have as its first priority a focus on being high-quality for children and families. It must also agree to follow the standards in the Code of Conduct for ECE Services.

Running a parent survey when you want to do one is simple – we handle it for you and provide you with a confidential copy of the results. We will also cover the cost of the survey.

Promoting your service online to parents is taken care of. The OECE has partnered with the My ECE website and the ECE Parents’ Council Aotearoa to give members free advertising for their service. For details directly contact My ECE

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3. Management

Management and ECE employment resources and advice will be at your finger-tips 24/7. We have so much available in the service provider area of our website – ranging from templates for policies, guidance on managing cashflow and debtors, staff drug use, negotiating pay with staff, and through to topics such as best sandpit design.

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Getting a Job with your ECE Qualification

Getting a job. How can my ECE qualification help me to get a job? With an early childhood teaching qualification you may find yourself attractive

NZIRECE Journal early childhood education research

Parent Engagement and its Influence on Early Childhood Education Teachers

FULL REFERENCE: Veldsman, A., Dzamesi, F.E., Tadi, P. & Sadeghi, A. (2022). Parent engagement and its influence on early childhood education teachers and their teaching practices – South African teachers’ perception. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 24, 59 – 70.

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ABSTRACT: Parents play an important role in their children’s learning and their involvement is encouraged. Various studies report that parents are not always engaged in their children’s learning for various reasons. This paper explores South African early childhood teachers’ perceptions of low parent engagement and whether this phenomenon influences teachers and their teaching practices. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory provides the theoretical framework for this study and highlights the role the environment can play in parents’ involvement. Three case studies involving 13 teachers from three early childhood education (ECE) centres in South Africa were conducted using reflective narratives and focus group interviews. Two themes emerged from thematic analysis focusing on the influence of low parent engagement on teacher well-being and their teaching practices. The study found that ECE teachers and their teaching practices are influenced by low parent engagement. The main reason for low parent engagement is a result of parents’ financial hardship. This study suggests that building resilient parent-teacher relationships and ultimately stronger parent engagement in ECE, an open-door policy, various communication opportunities, and building trust with families are necessary. Through collaboration between parents and teachers, gaps in children’s education can be filled, and parent-teacher relationships and family engagement will be enhanced. Teacher well-being and teaching practices may be improved as a result.

Key words: Parent engagement, low parent engagement, financial hardship, teacher well-being, teaching practices.

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Index for the NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2011, Vol 14

The titles, authors and abstracts for papers published in the NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 14, 2011 are shown below. To view

the importance of touch as part of caregiving and teaching children

Teaching Literacy – An Early Childhood Educator’s Guide

Guide to Teaching Literacy. By Dr Sarah Alexander.

From their earliest speech experiences through to contact with written language and technologies, what happens in children’s homes and communities shapes their early literacy learning. How, and whether this early learning is taken up and extended through early childhood educational practic

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Ministry of Education and ERO Fail to Stop Services Breaking Regulations

Opinion article. Dr Sarah Alexander. March 15, 2019. Many of us are surprised when an early childhood service we thought to be good because it

taking notes about early childhood education matters

Using the Internet to Benefit Your Service

Ways to use the Internet for parent and staff communication, and promoting your service.

With billions of pages and more being added every day, the internet can be a great source of inspiration and ideas for activities to do with children or for improving your service.

The internet can also be a great way to communicate with staff and within

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NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education journal

Should We Consider Rhizomatic Thinking When Educating Young Minds?

FULL REFERENCE: Cliffe, J. and Solvason C. (2019). Should we consider rhizomatic thinking when educating young minds? NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 22(1), pp. 86 – 100.

Log-in to read the full research paper below. Or order a pdf copy of the article from the main NZIRECE Journal page.

ABSTRACT: There is a tacit understanding within early years education that children’s thinking should be understood and nurtured in order to produce adaptive and innovative learners. This article argues that traditional epistemological approaches do not go far enough in understanding, responding to and planning for children’s complexity of thought. We propose and justify that an awareness of rhizoanalysis could enable practitioners to engage with children’s knowledge differently, through asking questions such as: how does this work? And what new thought does this make it possible to think? Through exploring literature and previous research by one of the authors, this article proposes that not only does rhizomatic thinking occur naturally within children’s playful encounters but having an awareness of rhizoanalysis, provides educators with opportunities to understand and re-conceptualise children’s thinking and cognitive development.

Key words: Rhizoanalysis; thinking; cognitive development; early childhood education; Deleuze.

Introduction

“…the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in-between…” Juster (2012, no page)

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Social Media Policy: Essential and Effective Guidelines and Template for Early Childhood Services

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