Assessment for learning within Australia's Early Years Learning Framework: What is the place of Learning Stories?

Abstract

Early childhood assessment in Australia is guided by Australia's Early Years Learning Framework and a ‘storied’ approach. This article argues that Australia's policy and practice discourses of assessment in early childhood education lack clarity. The article situates early childhood assessment practice within Australia's curriculum, policy and regulatory context. Literature regarding Learning Stories assessment as a dominant discourse is presented to illustrate the ‘borrowed’ and underdeveloped nature of Australia's storied approach. Data is drawn on to provide insight into two educators’ assessment practices. The analysis suggests that storied assessment is being conflated with the Learning Stories approach within a wider practice of assessment eclecticism, whereby educators are taking a ‘grass-roots’ approach to assessment and doing ‘what works’. The article argues for urgent attention to concepts of assessment in the scheduled update of the Early Years Learning Framework.