Aistear Blogs

The updated Aistear (Government of Ireland, 2024) is set to be implemented into early childhood settings from September 2025. What does this mean for educators working with babies, toddlers and young children? Throughout the consultation and development processes, a key message constantly emerged: everything you know and understand about Aistear remains relevant and important as we move forward. The updated Framework stands solidly on the foundation of the original Aistear (2009).

Where can educators begin? One of the crucial starting points is revisiting your image of the baby, toddler and young child and knowing that your respectful, kind and supportive interactions with them, and their families, is bringing the Vision, Principles and Themes of Aistear to life. The focus on the agentic educator draws attention to your intentions to empower babies, toddlers and young children to realise their rights and to support their learning and development.

Embedding a slow relational pedagogy into your daily routine creates space to notice what matters - and to recognise that nurturing babies, toddlers and young children’s wonders, listening to their voices and being fully present with them is, in itself, enacting Aistear. Having the confidence to recognise moments of learning - and to see how they align with the broad and flexible Aims and Learning Goals - brings the image of the agentic educator to life.

• Spending time singing to baby Josie is time well spent - supporting her transitions, nurturing her wellbeing and promoting her language development.
• Being out in the rain so the toddlers can jump in muddy puddles nurtures their collective group identity and fosters a sense of joy, wonderment and connection with nature.
• Inviting Daniel and Andrew to help build a new wagon builds their confidence, develops receptive language skills through following instructions and teaches them how to use tools safely. 

When reflecting on your daily routine, an important starting point is recognising the flow between free play, guided play and educator-led playful experiences. These are not intended to be sequential; rather they offer babies, toddlers and young children opportunities to make choices about their play. Your planning should intentionally support their individual learning and development.

Guided play and educator-led playful experiences focus on individual and small group learning experiences that reflect the interests of babies, toddlers and young children in your setting, while remaining responsive to their needs. This involves reflecting on how the learning environment is inviting, welcoming and appropriately challenging for all babies, toddlers and young children. Preparing the space, setting out and setting up provocations for exploration, and making it look lovely for them communicates to them that they are valued - making space for them to marvel, wonder and learn about the world around them. Consequently, you can spend time guiding their learning through supportive interactions and conversations, or facilitating educator-led playful experiences that are intentionally planned around their interests, needs or curiosities. When the learning environment is responsive to the babies, toddlers and young children, Aistear comes to life through their engagement with that environment.

As you become more familiar with the updated Aistear, you may find yourself increasingly attuned to the intentions behind your pedagogical practice. You might always have spent time outdoors, but now you may intentionally link these experiences to education for sustainability - learning about life on land and life in the water. You may have always been supportive of transitions in your practice, but now you can name your intention to embrace a slow pedagogy that fosters relationships with babies, toddlers and young children, and their families. Perhaps you have always gone for walks to the park, but now you are developing a sense of ómós áite (value of place) and building meaningful connections with the community. Questioning and naming your intentions for different learning experiences supports you in being an agentic and reflective educator as you think about planning for the term ahead.

As you continue your journey with Aistear, recognise the value of your role - as a change-maker, a duty-bearer and someone who can make an incredible difference in the lives of babies, toddlers and young children. Aistear is the scaffold that supports you to do this. Enjoy the journey!

Read the previous blog in our series here.