Relating this research to the theory of  “emergent complexity” (Darley, 1994) may provide a context for the development of a simple model that remains in existence in a manner that effectively contributes to the changing needs of Australian families.  The concept of a temporal “system” that assimilates and  accommodates in much the same way that a human brain operates – lends itself to the development of a fluid model of partnership.

Similar research, in South Australia, undertaken by Chris Goldspink begins to identify “what worked” within the school-based education reform that began in that state in 1999.  Goldspink’s work begins to identify the nature of the educational reform as relating to the pedagogical socio-constructivist approach.  Where change was managed, not from the top-down as would be the traditional methodology, but from the inside-out – through spreading a diffusion of system-wide change (Goldspink, 2007). Another similar examination of the nature of schooling was undertaken by Deborah Osberg, Gert Biesta and Paul Cilliers, in 2008, in which the authors examine how ideas from emergent complexity have challenged the more traditional representational philosophies of education.  Osberg and her colleagues argue that “it is only through experimenting with our environment – interacting with our world – that  knowledge emerges”. That, in contrast to a more representational view, knowledge is “temporal” in its nature is constructed through the “relationship between our actions and their consequences”. 

The implications of these more philosophical understandings of the motivations and principles behind the long-term educational reform may provide the elucidation of how the complexities of the community/government preschool partnership in Canberra survived and thrived for so long. It is my thesis that through understanding the temporal nature of those reciprocal ACT preschool partnership relationships will result in identifying and describing an Australian early childhood partnership framework.  That that framework may lend itself to being employed to support the development of a successful early childhood care and education program – one that can assimilate and accommodate and manage the complex nature of our 21st century socio-economic and socio-cultural ecology and finally that that framework may lend itself to the development of a model that will encourage the processes must emerge to encourage the long-term flexibility and continuity of that program.

References:

Darley, V. (1994). Emergent Phenomena and Complexity. In Artificial Life IV, Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. MIT Press. pp411--416.

Goldspink, C. (2007). Transforming education: evidential support for a complex systems approach. In Emergence: Complexity and Organisation. Jan-April. Pp77-93. Retrieved 9th of September, 2008 from Academic One File database.

Osberg, D., Biesta, G., & Cilliers, P. (2008), From representation to emergence: Complexity’s challenge to the epistemology of schooling. In Educational Philosophy and Theory, v40, n1. Pp213-227.