McCuaig – communication

Well, research, policy, and practice is linked, but without communication, there is no constant overdrive, there is no, there is no turnaround, that knowledge translation, knowledge transfer does not take, take place.  And we as academics, and practitioners should always have it in our arsenal of requirements that we always engage in knowledge transfer.  But, what we tend to do is talk to one another, talk amongst ourselves, and really going back to the fact that if there is going to be real differences, in terms of what families can expect when they have young children, it is going to take public policy to change.  And, Early Childhood Education for all is not a small ask, it’s a very big, big ask, so that means we need to get to policy makers, to influencers, to parents, to educators, and to the public as, as a whole, and we’re not going to do it in the, you know, in the professional speak that we use amongst ourselves. 

We need to be able to distill what is sometimes complex information into a form that is accessible to all, and you know, Dr. Fraser Mustard was such a master at this, so when you think of the phrase you know, “The years before five last a, last a lifetime,” you know, that just distilled the epigenetics into story, into social story, to the economic story, reaching out to the, talking about the long reach of childhood.  You know, another Fraser euphemism that he put into the Early Childhood arsenal was, “Pay me now or pay me later.” Again, one of those endearing concepts that have now permeated the public speak, and that’s the role that communication plays, we can have the best ideas, we can have examples of excellent practice, and we do, but they tend to stay contained, and they will stay contained, unless we have a strong communication arm that gets those best practices, that gets the best research really into the hands of practitioners, and translate it, so that policy makers know what to do with it.  So when you have an excellent program, how is it that you scale that up?  So it’s not only for a few fortunate children, it becomes to be the norm for all children.