Social Policy and Australian Responses

The social context around early childhood education refers to the circumstances and environment which are contingent upon the structure of families, ties with the community, and social networks. Circumstances subject to such a context are issues of social or geographical isolation, family separations or divorces, and out-of-home-care arrangements. All these things affect a child's feeling of belonging, their social capital, and even the resources available for their development.

In Australia, family separation is a norm; according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2022), approximately 43% of marriages end in divorce, and many children consequently undergo changes in living arrangements. Foster, kinship, and residential care fall under the umbrella of out-of-home care that currently supports over 46,000 children nationally (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2023). Geographical isolation is another factor of importance, mainly for families residing in rural or remote areas with limited access to early childhood programs, healthcare, and other extracurricular activities.

From a sociological standpoint, Bronfenbrenner illustrated disturbances in the child's microsystem—as with parental separation—in terms of affecting relationships, stability, and access to supportive adults (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Social capital theory, too, describes how social networks and relationships surrounding the child make their educational achievement dependent on social variables—with the loss of social capital leading to isolation and lost opportunities for the child to develop skills (Coleman, 1988).