{"id":1404,"date":"2026-08-30T22:53:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2026-08-30T22:53:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:53:57","slug":"cvc2026-701","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childrensvoicesconference.csu.domains\/2026\/cvc2026-701\/","title":{"rendered":"CVC2026-701 \u2013 The spoon and \u201cgood care\u201d: Rethinking infants\u2019 rights in early childhood education"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cvc-hero alignfull\">\n  <span class=\"cvc-chip\">Presentation \u2013 CVC2026-701<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">The spoon and \u201cgood care\u201d: Rethinking infants\u2019 rights in early childhood education<\/h1>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<div class=\"cvc-authors\">\n<p><strong>Nadia Di Martino,<\/strong> JCU and University of Newcastle, Australia<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe title=\"CVC2026-701 The spoon and \u201cgood care\u201d: Rethinking infants\u2019 rights in early childhood education\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YuFEg9somO4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p><strong>Background: <\/strong>Everyday care practices are central to the early years, particularly in infant settings where children communicate through what Moz\u00e8re (2007, p. 256) termed \u201cwhispering languages\u201d. Despite its centrality, care in early childhood education is increasingly blurred and marginalised, often overshadowed by regulatory and educational imperatives. Following calls to re-centre care within early childhood education (Ailwood, 2020; Arndt &amp; Tesar, 2019), this study explores care as a reflective, intellectual, and ethical practice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aim: <\/strong>This presentation explores how feeding practices in infant-toddler settings reveal broader micropolitical tensions surrounding professionalism, inclusion, and \u201cgood care\u201d in Australian early childhood education. It examines how culturally sustaining care can support infants\u2019 rights, identities, relationalities, and ways of being.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method\/approach:<\/strong> Drawing on qualitative data from my PhD research, this presentation focuses on a conversation with Vishnu*, a Nepalese research participant reflecting on feeding practices with infants in a long day care (LDC) setting in Sydney. The broader study received approval from the relevant university Human Research Ethics Committee. This was a qualitative study that employed a DeleuzoGuattarian framework, utilising semi-structured interviews and a focus group. * Pseudonym<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results\/findings: <\/strong>Within the infant-toddler room, spoon-feeding was tacitly positioned as the \u201ccorrect\u201d and professional approach associated with hygiene and developmental appropriateness. Over time, the participant began to internalise these expectations, contrasting them with eating by hand, which she associated with messiness and backwardness. Simultaneously, she also described hand-eating within her Hindu tradition as spiritually and relationally significant.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion: <\/strong>Feeding practices emerge not as neutral routines, but as micropolitical encounters shaped by power relations and competing understandings of care. Attending carefully to these everyday moments enables a rethinking of infants\u2019 rights beyond protection and participation, towards culturally sustaining care that recognises diverse identities, relationalities, and ways of being.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Implications for children and families: <\/strong>Infants and families have the right to care practices that listen respectfully to their preferences, identities, and cultural ways of being within early childhood education settings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Implications for practitioners:<\/strong> Practitioners need guidance to reflect on how everyday care practices and dominant understandings of \u201cgood care\u201d may shape inclusion, professionalism, and daily interactions with infants. Are children being heard?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Funding: <\/strong>My PhD was funded by an Australian RTP scholarship.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong> children\u2019s rights, infant, care, culturally sustaining care, feeding, professionalism, inclusion, diversity<\/p>\n<p><strong>This presentation relates to the following <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\"><strong>United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"cvc-sdgs\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\/goal3\">SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\/goal4\">SDG 4: Quality Education<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sdgs.un.org\/goals\/goal10\">SDG\u00a010: Reduced Inequality<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nadia Di Martino, JCU and University of Newcastle, Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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