Fresh from launching Pintya Kuu, a safe space at Flinders for pre-service early childhood educators, Rachael Hedger spoke with us about the importance of learning from mistakes.
What is your role and what does your work focus on?
I’m a senior lecturer in Early Childhood Education and Care (Teaching Specialist), and Course Coordinator for the Initial Teacher Education (Early Childhood) degrees in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work. I coordinate the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education degree and the Master of Teaching (Early Childhood) degree. I teach topics in both degrees, including Approaches to Play and Researching Play and Pedagogies. I also support our first-year pre-service teachers with their initial Professional Experience topics.
What journey brought you to this point in your career?
I trained as an Early Childhood worker and then as a Primary School teacher in the UK, and emigrated to Australia in 2005. I started at Flinders nine years ago as a University Liaison, visiting pre-service teachers at schools and Early Childhood sites while they carried out their Professional Experience placements. This was great work to do around my young family. After that, I took up some casual teaching and Teaching Assistant work before becoming Professional Experience Coordinator (Early Childhood) full-time in 2018. In 2021 I moved into the Course Coordination role and gained promotion to Senior Lecturer last year.
What do you love most about your work?
Every day is different in my role and that’s what I’ve always loved about teaching. Every time I step into teaching, we work together to discover something new. The students learn and I learn alongside them. I work with a great group of Early Childhood academics. They go above and beyond to support our students and ensure that they have a positive learning experience at Flinders. I really value the time and commitment they put into their role and into the students we work with every day.
What would you like people to know about your role?
Over the past 12-months, we’ve been working on a new Early Childhood teaching space in the Education building. We were awarded a CIP bid to fund the renovations and, with the support of the College, have been able to develop an amazing new space for our pre-service teachers to work in. We were lucky enough to be blessed with an Indigenous name for the space by the Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi Language Group. Pintya Kuu (Creative Room) is designed to be a creative and supportive space for Flinders Early Childhood pre-service teachers to engage their pedagogical development.
In Pintya Kuu, our Early Childhood pre-service teachers have the freedom to plan, design and implement engaging play and learning experiences for children aged from birth to 8 years. This safe space allows for errors, reflection and adjustment as we grow and develop our ideas. Contemplating Early Childhood literature and philosophy, Pintya Kuu is a space where theory and practice combine to create rich learning opportunities for children and educators alike. To see more, you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram: search for Flinders Early Childhood Education.
What are you are most proud of?
At home, I’m super proud of my children and the fun, caring people they are becoming. They work hard to achieve their goals, often in the face of adversity, and that’s a great thing to see.
At work, I’m super proud of the academic team I work with – the Early Childhood academics and the broader group of Education lecturers and academics. I value my professional relationships with them very much. They always offer their time, support, advice and ideas as we work towards the common goal of student success.
What does a normal day look like for you?
I have three children and my partner, Jonathan, has two children, so life can get quite busy in our household! Early mornings are spent getting everyone ready for school, although the children do this quite independently now – they only need help getting their hair tied up. Then it’s off to work and school.
Some days I’ll be teaching, and others are spent supporting students via email or through meetings, as well as managing Course Coordination work. Every Monday, I set up the Pintya Kuu room for the week, setting out teaching resources, ideas and displays for the pre-service teachers to see when they visit the room during the week. I create a weekly video of the space for our social media pages. We have two drop-in sessions each week where students can use the room for academic support or quiet study. I’m usually in there during this time, to offer support as needed.
After work, it’s back to focussing on the children, with their violin, guitar, karate, swimming and basketball commitments on various days of the week.
How do you like to relax or spend your spare time?
Spare time? What’s that? On weekends, I’m writing up my PhD, but as a family we like to go out and about in Adelaide. We often go to the zoo, explore a new playground or take a walk around the Botanic Garden. Our children range from 6 to 14 years, so it’s a challenge to find something they will all enjoy, but we try our best.