Development of a Child Evaluation Framework for Early Childhood Services Using Deliberative Democratic Evaluation and the Mosaic Approach
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| Author | Kylie Kingston |
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X1601600304 |
| Subject Matter | Postgraduate Student Article |
Kingston—Development of a Child Evaluation Framework for early childhood services 25
REFEREED ARTICLE Evaluation Journal of Australasia Vol 16 | No 3 | 2016 | pp. 25–34
POSTGRADUATE STUDENT ARTICLE
KYLIE KINGSTON
Development of a Child Evaluation
Framework for early childhood services
using deliberative democratic evaluation
and the mosaic approach
Kylie Kingston is a Master of Business
(Philanthropy and Nonprot Studies) student
within the Australian Centre for Philanthropy
and Nonprot Studies at the Queensland
University of Technology.
Email: kl.kingston@connect.qut.edu.au
The purpose of this article is to present an evaluation
design for the development of a Child Evaluation
Framework (Framework). If implemented, this Framework
would give four to six year old children attending early
childhood services in an Australian context the capacity
to impact upon the design and delivery of their early
childhood service. As highlighted, the current lack of
ability for children to have a voice and participate in
the evaluation of their early childhood service infringes
upon their rights under Article 12 of the 1989 United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
which calls for the child’s right to freedom of expression
and information, and for participation. It is hoped that
the successful development and implementation of this
design would advance child participation rights and
child empowerment. The design utilises the principles of
deliberative democratic evaluation, and methodologies
advocated within the mosaic approach to researching with
young children.
Evaluation design
In 2009, the Australian Government established a National Quality
Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care (ACECQA
2011a, p. 3). The NQF includes quality standards and a quality rating
and assessment process (ACECQA 2011a, p. 4). Early childhood policy
development by the Australian Government has received much critique in
academic research (see Fenech, Giugni & Brown, 2012; Fleet & Farrell,
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