EDF3038 Professionalism, ethics and interdisciplinary work in

education
Stephanie Lindsay
Interview with an education professional who works in an
interdisciplinary context and report on the everyday challenges of
the role.

When it came to Choosing a professional who specialises in a service

which works in an interdisciplinary context with the education services I
decided to use this opportunity to address an area of early childhood
education where I believed I lacked an in-depth level of knowledge. The
professional service I chose was one that focused on infant care in
particularly the service of midwifery. In previous experience in early
childhood education I had seen that some centres worked very closely
with midwifery services and even had midwives coming into the centres.
But unfortunately I lacked knowledge on the roles of midwives in early
childhood education and what the midwifery service could bring to an
interdisciplinary context in regards to early education.
Now that I had decided on the interdisciplinary service I wanted to focus
on I started to look for an individual who not only worked in the Midwifery
field but would be willing to let me interview them. It is during this time
that I came across Dr East who not only works in Monash womens
maternity services which provides not only pre-natal and child birth care
but also early childhood parenting information, but is also a professor of
midwifery at Monash University. Dr East has been working in the field of
Midwifery for many years and has both practical and clinical experience in
this professional field. In the time that Dr East has been in the midwifery
field she has published many peer reviewed journals and is an editor with
the Pregnancy and Childbirth Group of the Cochrane Collaboration.
After contacting Dr East through email I received a reply that not only did
she give her consent for an interview but she was greatly interested in the
opportunity.
During the process of the interview I asked Dr East if she could in her own
words explain to me what role a midwife plays in the development of a
child. Dr East gave a very informative answer A midwife is a health
professional who specialises in working with women during their
pregnancy, labour, birth and early parenting time. This is protected
professional title, meaning that an individual must have undertaken an
evaluation of their training and expertise and is credentialed to undertake
specific tasks and roles that a non-midwife cannot. Clinical expertise,

education and emotional support are key activities that midwives provide
a woman.
Dr East during the interview informed me that though she has never
worked in an interdisciplinary context with early childhood education due
to the work she does she does believe that other midwives have.
As a result of Dr East answers to my questions I now believe that while I
may not have gain more knowledge about infant care I do have a new
perspective on the difficulties parents face during the early years of
parenting which comes about due to some degree of a lack of confidence
in their own abilities and lack of information.

During the interview with Dr East (See Appendix A) several of the

comments she made had me considering my own professional pedagogy
and the way I handled educational practices, especially I regards to a
parents role in a child education and development. While my pedagogy
and professional practices include consulting and working with parents to
help the development of their child it has not occurred to me that I could
also focus of the development of the knowledge and relationship between
parent and child as an another way of encouraging and aiding the
development of the child. It occurs to me that while it is my profession to
help the development of a child while in an educational institute i.e.
Childcare, School if parents had been given the information on how to
further their childs development and encouraged to use that information
that the child would benefit not just from a few hours of developmental
aid but constant aid.
It further occurred to me that before I had done this interview with Dr East
that I had a preconceived notion of the roles of parents and educators in a
childs development. In fact as identified by Garry Hornby and Rayleen
Lafaele I was not the only one with this notion of preconceived roles
Despite widespread acknowledgement of these potential benefits
however, there are clear gaps between the rhetoric on PI found in the
literature and typical PI practices found in schools.( Hornby, Lafaele,
2011)
With the idea that the development of a parents knowledge and
relationship in regards to their child would aid in the development of the
child I started to look at what services midwives could possibly provide for
the parents.

While a lot of Midwifery services are based around pre-natal and birth
education for parents some Midwifery services offer early childhood
parenting classes. While the information gained in these parenting classes
may not lead to a better understanding of aiding in a childs development
I believe that they will help in raising the confidence a parent has in their
own knowledge of their child and their relationship with their child. Which
in turn is a brilliant starting point to educating parents on aiding in their
childs development now that they have the confidence to do so.
So while the knowledge gained in midwifery parenting classes may be
limited I can defiantly see a great benefit to them and the idea of working
in an interdisciplinary context with midwifery services to get the
knowledge they provide to parents is a worthwhile endeavour.
In regards to working with midwifery services exploring the idea of having
a midwives come out to centres to offer classes may be beneficial. Even
having an open dialog between educators and midwifery services could
aid in the development of interagency understanding.
While the concept of working in an interdisciplinary context with midwifery
services is a start it should not be the end, if just working hand in hand
with one specialised service can benefit not only a childs development
but a parents and educators development as well it stands to reason that
working in a multi interdisciplinary context with other services would
further aid in overall development of all involved.
This concept is further expanded upon by Dorothy Bottrell and Susan
Goodwind in their article Schools, Communities and Social Inclusion where
they state by giving support to teachers 'meeting and partnering with
community members and agencies, to learn about the important
community strengths that can be utilized(Bottrell, Goodwin 2011)
Despite the fact that I can see multiple benefits of working in an
interdisciplinary context with other agencies I can also see where some
barriers may come into place in regards to working with certain agencies.
One such barrier may be purely ethical as an educator we have not only a
responsibility to give a child the best possible aid in their education and
development but to also ensure they receive that aid free of any prejudice
but this may not be true of every agency we may work with and the
question then comes about that is the benefit that may come from
working with this agency able to outweigh the prejudices that may come
with it. Also there is the barrier of all parties involved knowledge, while
the individual agencies may have an in-depth knowledge of their own
services in may not be easy for interagency understanding due to a lack
of knowledge of another agencies services.

Throughout the process of conducting an interview and then analysis said

interview I have found that I have gain a new understanding and
perspective in relation to not only another agency but in my own agency.
Which has in turn given me a greater appreciation for the role that
interdisciplinary in regards to education and development.
Even though there are many challenges to making any interdisciplinary
work I now have come to the conclusion that it is an area I would advocate
the need for, and will be including the use of interdisciplinary in my
educational practises. That being said while doing researching on the
interdisciplinary concept it has occurred to me that a lot of people feel
that interdisciplinary is needed yet there is still a lack of it in not only
childcare centres but also school at this time. So while I may use the
concept of interdisciplinary networking I cannot expect the same of a
school or education system.
The experience and knowledge I have gained from just one interview with
the concept of interdisciplinary in mind is astounding and has open up so
many new avenues for my own further development in regards to child
education.
I have also come to the understanding that it is only by talking with
another service in the instance midwifery that my knowledge and
perspective changed and developed, and my own belief that I could gain
all the experience, knowledge and understanding I would need from the
area of education was naive.
All the same with all the great benefits I received from this experience I do
have to take into consideration that the knowledge I have just gained has
come from an individual point of view. Even though Dr East is highly
respected in her field for her professional and academic knowledge it
would be remiss of me to not get further knowledge from different source
on the same subject. At the same time I have to be aware of any
prejudices I might develop with the knowledge I have gained.

References
Garry Hornby, Rayleen Lafaele. (2011). Barriers to parental involvement in
education: an explanatory model. Educational Review. 63:1. 37-52
Dorothy Bottrell, Susan Goodwind. 2011. Schools communities and social
inclusion. Palgrave Macmillian. 254-265

Appendices A
Questions
1.
In your own words could you explain what a midwife is and what
they do before, during and after the birth of a child?
A midwife is a health professional who specialises in working with women
during their pregnancy, labour, birth and early parenting time. This is
protected professional title, meaning that an individual must have
undertaken an evaluation of their training and expertise and is
credentialed to undertake specific tasks and roles that a non-midwife
cannot.
Clinical expertise, education and emotional support are key activities that
midwives provide a woman.
2.
In your professional opinion what are some of the hardest areas that
parents have to deal with after the birth of their child?
Unrealised or unrealistic expectations. Fear of the unknown. Sleep
deprivation. Feeling out of their depth - no manual comes with their
specific baby!
3.
Is there an area as you as a midwife would want parents or the
people caring for a new child to focus on?

Trusting their ability to provide for their childs needs - not to feel a failure
or less adequate than others.
4.
In your Opinion are there any misconceptions about midwives and
their roles in parents and childrens lives after the child is born?
No. I would need examples provided to me to comment on them, but am
not aware of any off hand.
5.
Are there any services or agencies you would recommend or even
highly suggest that educator use or look at to help support the learning of
the children they look after?
If this means Q services etc. for a parent, then MCH and other
community/online services.
6.
In your professional work do you ever interacted with childcare or
educational services?
No, but thats been because of the actual work - I believe other midwives
would do.