Margaret Sims
Biographic Data
| ID | 6108773 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Margaret Sims |
| GIVEN NAMES | Margaret |
| FAMILY NAME | Sims |
| SIGNATURE | SIMS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of New England |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4686-4245 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Examining the Effectiveness of Family Mobility Resources Using a Trauma-Informed Framework
Co-created research outputs are considered the gold standard in research translation projects. It is often a requirement for gaining funding to work with affected community members and partners when working to provide resources or support communities with a lived experience of trauma. However, there is limited literature on combining a co-creation framework and trauma-informed approaches. This paper adds to these studies by describing our project…
Moving Beyond Mosaic
The Mosaic approach has been effectively used to gather children’s voices in early childhood settings using a children’s voices framework, although research translation using these voices is less reported. This paper bridges this gap by reporting on the voices of young children from military and veteran families and the free, narrative-based resources co-created using these voices to strengthen children’s capacity to survive and thrive in these f…
Co-Created Psychosocial Resources to Support the Wellbeing of Children from Military Families
It is well known that early education and care lay the foundation for learning and wellbeing; however, resources available to support children with different life experiences can vary. For example, resources available to support early childhood educators working with young children from military families are particularly lacking. This is of concern, given that these children face a range of stressors in their daily lives. To address this gap, our…
Social and emotional wellbeing of children from Australian military families
During their careers, many Australian early childhood educators will teach children from military and veteran families; one in 20 households includes someone with military experience. Children from these families are impacted by the stressors of military family life, including frequent relocations, parental absences, and potential parental injuries. This mixed‐methods study explored the perceptions of 27 educators about supporting young children …
Young children's understanding of military family life
Young children from military families often struggle to comprehend the changes occurring within their households due to parental training and deployment. This paper (a) presents children's understandings of their experiences in Australian military families in a study, and then (b) provides an example of how we used children's voices to co‐create free psychosocial resources to better support this cohort, which can be employed by those working with…
“It’s like the root of a tree that I grew up from….”
A key factor that has been found to be critical in shaping family language policy is parents’ linguistic identities, or “parents’ personal experiences with bilingualism, biculturalism or second language learning” (King, Kendall A. & Lyn Fogle. 2006. Bilingual parenting as good parenting: Parents’ perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 9(6). 695–712, p. 703). In other words, p…
Women Academics in the World of Neoliberal, Managerial Higher Education
In my last years in academia, I have experienced the intimidating impact of pettybureaucracy and top-down micromanagement that typify managerialism in higher education today. In this paper I use my own experiences to reflect on why this is happening, attempting to gain understanding that can support others still working in the sector to survive and ultimately thrive. I argue that neoliberalism operates as an ideology, shaping the way we perceive …
Bullshit Towers
Making Sense of Indigenous Youth Night Patrols
We use Weick’s sense-making and Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy to tease out understandings and perspectives about youth night patrol services in New South Wales, Australia. We examine synergies, tensions, and contradictions in the different ways participants make sense of the purpose of youth night patrols and their role in service delivery. Although all the service were based on the same model, used the same program logic, and reported agains…
Early childhood education and early childhood development
In many Western nations (an area of the world identified by Connell as the Global North), the early childhood sector has positioned itself within the education discourse. This positioning brings along with it the neo-liberal agenda in relation to education – i.e. that education’s key aim is the preparation of employable future employees (children as human capital). Along with this is the increasing imposition of employer-identified skills and kno…
Neoliberalism and early childhood
Over 30 years ago, Freire warned of the dangers of neoliberalism and Chomsky today sees this as the greatest threat to democracy. Education is particularly targeted by the neoliberal state because potentially, as educators, we can teach children to think critically, and as adults, critical thinkers are positioned as problems, not resources. Neoliberalism has a devastating impact on the early childhood sector with its focus on standardisation, pus…
Crime prevention and young people
The performance of compliance in early childhood
In this article, we propose to critique the way in which a hegemonic understanding of quality in early childhood settings is imposed upon practitioners, families and children through legislated quality assurance processes. The reality of neoliberalism is played out in the establishment and maintenance of the Australian early childhood quality assurance processes as they operate up to 2015, and the definition of approved qualifications for those w…
Inclusive Services for Children and Families From CaLD Backgrounds in an Australian Context
The current Australian government is proposing an agenda focused around social inclusion in an attempt to address the complex issues associated with inequality evident in this country. Despite valiant attempts, many agencies struggle to offer inclusive services, particularly to families who have migrated to Australia from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. In this study, we surveyed a range of programs identified by key inf…
The experiences of grandparents who have limited or no contact with their grandchildren
Building the capacity of family day care educators to promote children's social and emotional wellbeing
343312
Migration and Parenting
When families migrate to a new country they are required to map their parenting practices from their country of origin onto those of their country of residence. Sometimes there is dissonance between practices from both cultures, and families need to decide if they wish to discard the practices associated with their country of origin, amend those practices, or continue to use them in their original form. This study, using the interpretive paradigm…
The performance of compliance in early childhood
In this article, we propose to critique the way in which a hegemonic understanding of quality in early childhood settings is imposed upon practitioners, families and children through legislated quality assurance processes. The reality of neoliberalism is played out in the establishment and maintenance of the Australian early childhood quality assurance processes as they operate up to 2015, and the definition of approved qualifications for those w…
Migration and Parenting
When families migrate to a new country they are required to map their parenting practices from their country of origin onto those of their country of residence. Sometimes there is dissonance between practices from both cultures, and families need to decide if they wish to discard the practices associated with their country of origin, amend those practices, or continue to use them in their original form. This study, using the interpretive paradigm…
The experiences of grandparents who have limited or no contact with their grandchildren
Crime prevention and young people
Early childhood education and early childhood development
In many Western nations (an area of the world identified by Connell as the Global North), the early childhood sector has positioned itself within the education discourse. This positioning brings along with it the neo-liberal agenda in relation to education – i.e. that education’s key aim is the preparation of employable future employees (children as human capital). Along with this is the increasing imposition of employer-identified skills and kno…
Migration and Parenting
When families migrate to a new country they are required to map their parenting practices from their country of origin onto those of their country of residence. Sometimes there is dissonance between practices from both cultures, and families need to decide if they wish to discard the practices associated with their country of origin, amend those practices, or continue to use them in their original form. This study, using the interpretive paradigm…
Building the capacity of family day care educators to promote children's social and emotional wellbeing
343312
The experiences of grandparents who have limited or no contact with their grandchildren
Inclusive Services for Children and Families From CaLD Backgrounds in an Australian Context
The current Australian government is proposing an agenda focused around social inclusion in an attempt to address the complex issues associated with inequality evident in this country. Despite valiant attempts, many agencies struggle to offer inclusive services, particularly to families who have migrated to Australia from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. In this study, we surveyed a range of programs identified by key inf…
The performance of compliance in early childhood
In this article, we propose to critique the way in which a hegemonic understanding of quality in early childhood settings is imposed upon practitioners, families and children through legislated quality assurance processes. The reality of neoliberalism is played out in the establishment and maintenance of the Australian early childhood quality assurance processes as they operate up to 2015, and the definition of approved qualifications for those w…
Crime prevention and young people
Neoliberalism and early childhood
Over 30 years ago, Freire warned of the dangers of neoliberalism and Chomsky today sees this as the greatest threat to democracy. Education is particularly targeted by the neoliberal state because potentially, as educators, we can teach children to think critically, and as adults, critical thinkers are positioned as problems, not resources. Neoliberalism has a devastating impact on the early childhood sector with its focus on standardisation, pus…
Early childhood education and early childhood development
In many Western nations (an area of the world identified by Connell as the Global North), the early childhood sector has positioned itself within the education discourse. This positioning brings along with it the neo-liberal agenda in relation to education – i.e. that education’s key aim is the preparation of employable future employees (children as human capital). Along with this is the increasing imposition of employer-identified skills and kno…
Making Sense of Indigenous Youth Night Patrols
We use Weick’s sense-making and Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy to tease out understandings and perspectives about youth night patrol services in New South Wales, Australia. We examine synergies, tensions, and contradictions in the different ways participants make sense of the purpose of youth night patrols and their role in service delivery. Although all the service were based on the same model, used the same program logic, and reported agains…
Bullshit Towers
Women Academics in the World of Neoliberal, Managerial Higher Education
In my last years in academia, I have experienced the intimidating impact of pettybureaucracy and top-down micromanagement that typify managerialism in higher education today. In this paper I use my own experiences to reflect on why this is happening, attempting to gain understanding that can support others still working in the sector to survive and ultimately thrive. I argue that neoliberalism operates as an ideology, shaping the way we perceive …
“It’s like the root of a tree that I grew up from….”
A key factor that has been found to be critical in shaping family language policy is parents’ linguistic identities, or “parents’ personal experiences with bilingualism, biculturalism or second language learning” (King, Kendall A. & Lyn Fogle. 2006. Bilingual parenting as good parenting: Parents’ perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 9(6). 695–712, p. 703). In other words, p…
Moving Beyond Mosaic
The Mosaic approach has been effectively used to gather children’s voices in early childhood settings using a children’s voices framework, although research translation using these voices is less reported. This paper bridges this gap by reporting on the voices of young children from military and veteran families and the free, narrative-based resources co-created using these voices to strengthen children’s capacity to survive and thrive in these f…
Co-Created Psychosocial Resources to Support the Wellbeing of Children from Military Families
It is well known that early education and care lay the foundation for learning and wellbeing; however, resources available to support children with different life experiences can vary. For example, resources available to support early childhood educators working with young children from military families are particularly lacking. This is of concern, given that these children face a range of stressors in their daily lives. To address this gap, our…
Social and emotional wellbeing of children from Australian military families
During their careers, many Australian early childhood educators will teach children from military and veteran families; one in 20 households includes someone with military experience. Children from these families are impacted by the stressors of military family life, including frequent relocations, parental absences, and potential parental injuries. This mixed‐methods study explored the perceptions of 27 educators about supporting young children …
Young children's understanding of military family life
Young children from military families often struggle to comprehend the changes occurring within their households due to parental training and deployment. This paper (a) presents children's understandings of their experiences in Australian military families in a study, and then (b) provides an example of how we used children's voices to co‐create free psychosocial resources to better support this cohort, which can be employed by those working with…
Examining the Effectiveness of Family Mobility Resources Using a Trauma-Informed Framework
Co-created research outputs are considered the gold standard in research translation projects. It is often a requirement for gaining funding to work with affected community members and partners when working to provide resources or support communities with a lived experience of trauma. However, there is limited literature on combining a co-creation framework and trauma-informed approaches. This paper adds to these studies by describing our project…
Sociology (10 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (5 works) · Early childhood (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Pedagogy (5 works)