Assessment Brief,
TCHR2002 CHILDREN, FAMILIES & COMMUNITIES
ASSESSMENT 2: Portfolio
Summary
Title Assessment 2: Portfolio of short responses
Due Date Friday 8th December (WEEK 6) at 11:59pm AEDT
Length 1500 words including references
Weighting 50%
Submission 1 word document submitted to Turnitin
Unit Learning
Outcomes
You will demonstrate the following Unit Learning Outcomes on the successful
completion of this task:
• ULO1: compare and critique historical and contemporary
constructions of childhood and families, including those pertaining to
Indigenous childhoods.
• ULO2: identify the ways to ensure children feel that they are
belonging, being, and becoming.
• ULO3: explain the diverse range of issues affecting children, families
and communities including social, economic and educational policies
and their impact upon service provision for children and families.
• ULO4: Critically analyse texts, images, and songs in terms of the
construction of childhood, and families across diverse contexts.
Rationale
This section describes the purpose of the assessment task (the ‘why’)
Working with and supporting children and families within the context of their community can
present challenges. Early childhood professionals should reflect on the diversity of issues that face
children and families. The aim of this assessment task is for students to demonstrate their
knowledge and understanding regarding contemporary and diverse issues facing children, families,
and communities.
Thank you for providing the details of the assessment task. Here is my analysis of the ULOs and rationale:
ULO1 asks students to compare and critique historical and contemporary constructions of childhood and families. This includes considering how Indigenous childhoods have been understood. Students should research the evolving social understanding of what it means to be a child and how the family unit has changed over time in different cultural contexts. A critical analysis involves identifying biases and limitations in past perspectives.
ULO2 focuses on ensuring all children feel a sense of belonging, being and becoming. This relates to meeting the emotional, developmental and identity needs of children. Research suggests the importance of stable caregiver relationships, cultural inclusion and opportunities for self-expression and skill-building. Early childhood professionals play a role in advocating for environments where all children can thrive.
ULO3 involves explaining diverse issues impacting children, families and communities. This is a broad topic covering social influences like poverty, family structures and cultural traditions, as well as economic factors such as employment and cost of living, and educational policies around care, schooling and support services. Students would benefit from considering both challenges and strengths within different communities.
ULO4 asks students to critically analyze representations of childhood and families in various texts, images and songs. A critical lens involves questioning whose perspectives are represented or omitted. Analysis could cover topics like gender roles, cultural stereotypes, family diversity, and how media shapes social understanding over time.
The rationale provided outlines that early childhood professionals need reflective awareness of diverse challenges facing children and families within community contexts in order to provide appropriate support. This assessment aims to demonstrate students’ knowledge and understanding of contemporary issues through research and analysis of the topics outlined in the ULOs.
Some additional research sources that could help students address these ULOs include:
“Indigenous childhoods: culture, language and identity” by Jenny Chesters in Australian Review of Public Affairs (2020).
“Belonging as a core concept for early childhood pedagogy” by Vivian Maria Vasquez in Pacific-Asian Education Journal (2017).
“Social and economic impacts of divorce” by the American Academy of Family Physicians (2021).
“Critical analysis of media representations of childhood” by Sonia Livingstone et al in Journal of Children and Media (2018).
“Critically analyzing representations of the family in children’s literature” by Rebecca J. Lester in Journal of Family Theory & Review (2021).
Task Description
This section provides a brief description of the assessment task (the ‘what’).
This task requires students to reflect upon key issues presented in the unit content and complete
three (3) x 500-word responses to the questions under the Task Instructions.
Task Instructions
This section provides step-by-step task instructions (the ‘how’).
Drawing on a range of relevant literature, answer each of the following three questions in
approximately 500-words.
Question 1
The internet provides new opportunities for social connection for people who are isolated. With
reference to the Unit materials provide responses to the following statements.
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Assessment Brief
Part A:
Find an example of a website that enables isolated families from different socio-cultural
backgrounds to make social connections that will assist them with their parenting. Write a short
statement about the website.
Part B:
Do you believe the social connectedness achieved through the internet bring the same benefits to
families as face-to-face social connections? Why or why not?
Question 2
With reference to the Unit materials provide responses to the following statements.
Part A: Why is it difficult to provide a clear definition of abuse and neglect?
Part B: To what extent do you think that child protection is a community responsibility?
Part C: What do you think are the barriers to community responsibility in this area?
Question 3
With reference to the Unit materials provide responses to the following statements.
Part A: Investigate an Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) service or organisation of your
choice and review the extent to which parents have a role in governance and opportunities to
influence design and implementation of the setting.
You are encouraged to use a range of strategies to gather information about your chosen setting
such as; reviewing the ECEC website and social media pages, searching ACECQA service ratings
https://www.acecqa.gov.au/resources/national-registers/services. You might also like to telephone
your chosen setting to ask questions relevant to the assessment task.
Part B: In what ways could your chosen service improve their partnerships with families?
Formatting and style
APA 7 formatting is required for this task.
• Include a cover page that contains:
• The title of the task in bold
o Your name (as author) and Student ID
o Your faculty (Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University)
o The unit code and name (TCHR2002 Children, Families, and Communities)
o Your unit assessor’s name (Kelly Simpson)
o The due date
• Include the question/question part you are responding to at the start of each response.
• Indent the first line of each new paragraph
• Use 12-point Arial font.
• Double line space your writing and your reference list
Referencing
• APA Referencing style is required to be used for this task
• Include one reference list for all responses on a new page at the end of task. Place the title
References in bold in the centre at the top of this page.
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Assessment Brief
• At a minimum, your sources for this task will include a range of unit materials and broader
literature.
• Broader literature may include textbooks, peer reviewed articles, and other authoritative
sources.
• While there is no set number of references required for this task, a good guide to keep in
mind is to include one reference every 100 words.
Resources
• Academic Integrity – https://www.scu.edu.au/about/leadership/executive/academic-
portfolio-office-apo/academic-integrity-framework/
• SCU Student Learning Zone – https://www.scu.edu.au/current-students/learning-zone/
Referencing Style Resource
Please refer to the APA 7th Referencing Guide for this task – https://libguides.scu.edu.au/apa
Task Submission
• Your task should be submitted using the submission point in the Turnitin folder titled FINAL
SUBMISSION POINT: Assessment 2: Portfolio in the Assessments Tasks and Submission
section on the Blackboard TCHR2002 site. Only Microsoft Word documents submitted via
the Turnitin portal on Blackboard will be accepted. You must label your final submission with
your surname and initials and the assessment tasks name, e.g. SmithJ_PortfolioTask2.doc
• You are strongly advised to undertake your own SIMILARITY CHECK via Turnitin, PRIOR to
the due date, to identify and resolve any academic integrity issues prior to submitting – see
SCU Academic Integrity and Turnitin. You can submit up to three times and receive the
similarity match report immediately – after three attempts, you will need to wait 24 hours.
• It is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file and the FINAL
version of your assessment for marking BEFORE the due date/time.
• Turnitin does not generate an automatic email receipt. If you have successfully uploaded
your assessment, a green bar will appear at the top of the screen that says: Submission
uploaded successfully: Download digital receipt. Use the hyperlink to download your digital
receipt and store this with your assignment file.
• If you have any difficulty submitting your assignment, please contact Technology Services
and make sure that you log a job with them, so you have evidence of your attempted
submission. To avoid any last-minute problems, make sure you submit well before 11:59pm
on the due date.
Academic Integrity
At Southern Cross University academic integrity means behaving with the values of honesty,
fairness, trustworthiness, courage, responsibility, and respect in relation to academic work.
The Southern Cross University Academic Integrity Framework aims to develop a holistic, systematic,
and consistent approach to addressing academic integrity across the entire University. For more
information see the SCU Academic Integrity Framework
NOTE: Academic Integrity breaches include poor referencing, not identifying direct quotations
correctly, close paraphrasing, plagiarism, recycling, misrepresentation, collusion, cheating, contract
cheating, fabricating information.
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Assessment Brief
At SCU the use of GenAI tools is acceptable, unless it is beyond the acceptable limit as defined in the
Assessment Item by the Unit Assessor.
Instructions for this task
GenAI May Not be Used
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGPT, must NOT be used for this
Assessment Task. You are required to demonstrate if you have developed the unit’s skills and
knowledge without the support of GenAI. If you use GenAI tools in your assessment task, it may
result in an academic integrity breach against you as described in the Student Academic and Non-
Academic Misconduct Rules, Section 3.
Special Consideration
Students wishing to request special consideration to extend the due date of an assessment task
must submit a Request for Special Consideration form via their MyEnrolment page as early as
possible and prior to the original due date for that assessment task, along with any accompanying
documents, such as medical certificates. Please refer to the Special Consideration section of the SCU
Policy https://policies.scu.edu.au/document/view-current.php?id=140
Late Submissions & Penalties
Except when special consideration is awarded, late submission of assessment tasks incur a late
penalty. Penalties will be incurred as soon as the deadline for task submission is reached.
• A penalty of 5% of the available marks will be deducted from the actual mark at one
minute after the time listed in the due date
• A further penalty of 5% of the available mark will be deducted from the actual mark on
each subsequent calendar day until the mark reaches zero.
Please refer to the Late Submission & Penalties section of Policy
https://policies.scu.edu.au/view.current.php?id=00255
Grades & Feedback
Assessments that have been submitted by the due date will receive an SCU grade. Grades and
feedback will be posted to the ‘Grades and Feedback’ section on the Blackboard unit site. Please
allow 7 days for marks to be posted.
