S2E5 - Blake Stewart: Breaking the Inclusion Confusion
What does true inclusion look like when viewed through the eyes of families, educators, and allied health professionals—together?
Are we unintentionally maintaining silos in early childhood support by clinging to language, systems, or assumptions that exclude?
Episode Summary (Show Notes)
In this rich and reflective episode of Leading the Early Years, host Amie Fabry speaks with Blake Stewart—lecturer, author, and Director of Engagement at Reimagine Australia. Blake brings a powerful blend of lived practice, sector-wide advocacy, and systemic insight into the inclusion of children with disabilities, developmental differences, and neurodivergence.
Together, they explore:
The evolving meaning of inclusion and the concept of “inclusion confusion”
The critical role of language as a gateway to inclusion
Blake’s passion for co-design, where educators, families, and allied professionals collaborate equitably
His journey from early childhood teacher to advocate, lecturer, and policy contributor
Navigating the challenges of advocacy, emotional resilience, and reflection
The importance of personal renewal, “white space,” and slowing down to lead with intent
About Blake Stewart:
Blake Stewart is a dedicated teacher, lecturer, author, and advocate with over 12 years of experience in Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Intervention. Holding a Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (Birth – 5 years) and a Graduate Diploma in Health Studies (Occupational Therapy), Blake is passionate about embedding inclusive, evidence-based practices into early childhood settings. Blake has led national initiatives focused on early childhood inclusion, and sector-wide capability building, ensuring children with disabilities, developmental differences, and neurodivergence can realise their potential.
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[Transcript]
Amie Fabry (00:07)
Hello friends and welcome back to Leading the Early Years for the Future. I am your host, Amy Fabry, and today I am absolutely delighted to be speaking with Blake Stewart, who is a lecturer, a new author, and the Director of Engagement at Reimagine Australia. Blake describes himself as an active advocate for early childhood supports and the inclusion of all children, particularly those with disabilities, developmental differences, or neurodivergence. Blake, it is such a joy to talk to you today. Thank you for joining me.
Blake Stewart (00:37)
Thank you for having me, I'm very excited. Amie Fabry (00:39) Me too. Now Blake, the first question I always ask all of the guests on this podcast is, do you have a hidden talent or something that brings you joy or lights you up outside of the professional work that you do?
Blake Stewart (00:52)
Good question. I actually struggled to think about this one because I do find work is very all consuming in some aspects of my life. recently I have really been drawing on my interest in gardening and only because I've just moved into a new home and we're looking at designing our backyard and our front yard and all of these different things. And what I've been really enjoying is really researching different types of native plants that are native and local to my area. I've been awkwardly watching and viewing people's front yards and and parks around my area to see what is growing well and also just making a notice of of the sun and the weather and humidity and so it's been really this nice little active research piece that I've been doing locally before I dive straight into my backyard and I've got all of these dreams and I've had these dreams for a while, but you can't do all of them and fit them all into a little backyard. So I'm just looking at what is feasible, but also how can I create a creative outlet that allows me to just dig deep, mind the pun, into the space.
Amie Fabry (01:54)
Mmm. I'm That's a great story. I'm so glad you shared that. I love that. I don't have green thumbs myself, but I do love a good garden and being in nature. So full appreciation. And as you're kind of talking, I'm just thinking there's so many like metaphors we could take from that and apply to early childhood, right? All these great ideas, can't necessarily do everything, what's feasible. I love that so much. Good luck with the garden. Sounds like a great fun project to be working on.
Blake Stewart (02:28)
Thank you.
Amie Fabry (02:28)
I would love to tap into the work you do. I know it's quite multifaceted, but it's incredibly important. So can you tell us a bit about what you do?
Blake Stewart (02:38)
What do I do? So at the moment it's a little complicated because I am working and spending my time and energy in multiple different buckets and wearing multiple different hats. But that has come from a piece and a journey that I've been on across the early childhood sector for many, many years. And I am an early childhood teacher. I've always been an early childhood teacher at heart and I've loved my time being an early childhood teacher. early childhood director. But what got me to this space? And I was such a young, energetic, new grad, new grad teacher that wanted to do everything and do it well and get that exceeding practice that embedded practice in my teams. But I continually kept getting drawn to inclusion and what does inclusion look like in early childhood? So for example, how can we support children the best we can? And I think about the years in the sector that I've been in and I've just seen an ever increasing need to support children with disability developmental difference or neurodivergence. And I say that because we have different research coming out around COVID babies and parenting styles and teaching practices and all these different things are coming up. But I just keep going back to what is true inclusion and what does that look like in our sector? So I had the honor and privilege to own and operate with a couple of other business partners, Allied Health Business, because I really wanted to look at the journey of a family or the individual child through their birth to five years outside of the education space. And so I had the honor to work with an amazing team of allied health professionals who walk that journey with that individual family. And so I had some great families that I and therapists that I worked with that gave me a different perspective and a different lens on speech pathology or occupational therapy or diet in a child. And those are the things I don't really think about as an early childhood teacher. As an early childhood teacher, I always found myself looking at curriculum, looking at pedagogy, looking at our team's wellbeing and connection with teams. But I am not a parent. I was a young, what, 25 year old early childhood teacher director and did not have the
Blake Stewart (05:02)
perspective of the home or what the home looked like or transitioning into the service. So all of that made me really acknowledge that home and where that child's sense of being is in the community, in their early childhood service. Made me really think about the goals we were setting and the way we were building relationships and supporting the child and family holistically. So, saying that, I dug into research, I dug into networks and I transitioned out of my role in this allied health clinic into some lecturing, casual lecturing across a couple of universities and I've really enjoyed being able to bring research to life with lecturers and academics, but also to the
Blake Stewart (05:45)
the pre-service teachers who are in the lectures or in the tutorials, et cetera. And alongside that, I had the honor and privilege to work with Reimagine Australia, which formerly known as the Early Childhood Intervention Australia National Pig Body for Early Child Intervention. And I started with them after they released the best practice guidelines in 2016 for the early childhood approach with NDIS. I was on the back end of that and just looking at how that was being delivered and addressed across disability, medical, allied health and education sectors. So with my lecturer hat on and with my role at Reimagine Australia, I've had this really great perspective on how we support children and families individually across the multiple sectors. And I've been doing a lot of consultation work with all of those different sectors for different projects with Reimagine Australia. So we actually, the team at Reimagine Australia developed this group, Facebook group called the Childkind Community Group, which is a group where we have allied health professionals,
Blake Stewart (06:53)
early childhood practitioners, researchers and families. And that's the that's a project I've been really championing a lot lately where we're trying to bridge that gap between different sectors and different programs or initiatives that people are doing across the country. And we're trying to reduce that siloed effect where people can share knowledge. So that's that's been a little project that I've been not a little project, a project I've been loving and connecting and
Blake Stewart (07:20)
on people. that's my journey at this point in time.
Amie Fabry (07:23)
Wow, so fascinating Blake. Thank you for sharing your story and a bit about the work that you're doing now. There's so much we could unpack here. I'm really curious to, I think firstly dive into that, you were just talking about this project with Childkind, which sounds like a really beautiful name, might I just say. trying to break down silos and really support, like take a holistic view to supporting children and families that exceeds just beyond the realms of education, but actually how do we intersect with health and allied professionals and families themselves as part of that process? How do you overcome some of those silos? Because we don't have to look far to see them. They do exist, unfortunately. What are some of the things that you're doing to help break down those silos and bring people together?
Blake Stewart (08:15)
Honestly, the first thing is about just learning about what they do and why they do it first. I think there's a lot of ends or perspectives or misinterpretation of different approaches or ways of working in the different sectors. so obviously in an education, so one example I want to give you is language. So for example, inclusive language in education is different
Blake Stewart (08:39)
or can be different to language in medical or language in allied health. And so people tend to get their back up when that language is misused across the different sectors. And so by as an educator talking with medical, understanding their rationale or meaning behind the language helps me have empathy and understand why they're using that piece of language.
Blake Stewart (09:03)
Then we become, when we have that common ground around, okay, you use that language, I use this language, let's discuss something that is medium and what we can actually come together and advocate for in our conversations or reports or advocacy for funding, et cetera. So for me, really, I really connect with them. I connect with them individually or as an organization, understand their mission, their values, purpose.
Blake Stewart (09:29)
their vision and why they're doing or what they're doing. And then discussing, all right, how can this connect with what I'm doing or what the organization I'm representing is doing to then have a common path moving forward in that. And there's the things that I've learned from a speech pathologist, occupational therapist, psychologist, a dietitian. Those things are so amazing that
Blake Stewart (09:55)
need to come into education, but also education can bring some amazing things to these practitioners as well. So we're all valued and I think we all should be valued at the same level rather than a hierarchy effect, if that makes sense.
Amie Fabry (10:02)
Mmm. Yeah, it totally makes sense. I love what you're talking about here because I think, you know, if I take a step back and think about so many of the, I guess, conflict and challenges that we see, not just in early childhood education, but right across the board and particularly when you think holistically, whether you're talking about working with families and supporting families or medical professionals or anyone really, like so many of our biggest challenges, I think, come down to communication issues and either people not feeling valued or feeling like, my way is more important than yours or this idea of language and how we use language in different terms mean different things to different people. So it's misinterpreted. You know, I think you're, what you're saying just makes so much sense to me, you know, like actually spending time connecting with people. But what I'm hearing you say is that you haven't gone in and just said, is why what we're doing is so important and you need to pay attention. You've actually talked about listening and trying to understand what's important to them and the language they use and what meanings they attach to language. having, you talked about having empathy for the work they do and connecting to understand. That's really powerful. really powerful. What do you see as a result of those kinds of conversations and by taking the time, you know, whether it's families, whether it's allied health professionals, whether it's somebody else, like how, what do you see come from taking that time to, listen and to understand, and talk about language.
Blake Stewart (11:42)
So from a localised level, so let's look at an individual child or family. We see this team that becomes the care team within that family unit. So we have the family, we have the educators, have the therapeutic team that are with that child and we see better outcomes for that child. Research is blowing up around... all of us having the same approach, the consistency and predictability as trauma informed, as strength based, as child centered, as person centered. So when we have that time to connect and understand everyone's perspectives and when I say motives, I mean, motives towards supporting that child and family, we see a greater outcome for children, that individual child and that family. When we look at a national level or a state level, like a
Blake Stewart (12:31)
larger population, we see again the ability to have a more coherent and consistent approach to how we work towards supporting a wider range of children or a community or B. Yeah, the uptake of skills or strategies across the different disciplines. So I know from my perspective, I have learned and taken away so many different new strategies and skills from a speech pathologist or from a dietitian as an example, that I would have thought prior was very clinical or medical, but it's actually when you give that play-based lens that an educator or a teacher brings, there's actually some really great outcomes.
Blake Stewart (13:11)
to that child and to that family or to my own practice. And so, as another child teacher has changed immensely by learning and listening and valuing other people's perspectives as well.
Amie Fabry (13:14)
Mmm. Mm, that's so beautiful. You know, like, I think we often talk about being lifelong learners as educators and wanting to kind of instill, you know, a love of learning for our children. It's such a good reminder, I think that, you know, we can be really amazing practitioners, but we can still learn from so many other people, right? And, you know, which is what you're talking about. And even when we look at our allied health professionals, like they have a different skill set and different knowledge set than we might have as educators, but there are things that we can learn from them which are going to enhance our practice and really support inclusion for different children. And the reality is like, no two children are alike, right? There are just, there's so much difference. Even when we look at ourselves as adults, we're all so incredibly different. I think, you know, what I love about the work that you're doing in championing is that every child does deserve the right to access to quality care and education, but to actually thrive as a human being. And that includes, you know, to be growing up in a family that feels supported within a community where there's lots of support around for that family and that child, you know, and you know, you're creating environments where people talk, you know, they say it takes a village to raise a child. And I've been reflecting a lot recently how far we've moved away from that kind of model of a village, you know, and parents often feel like they're doing everything on their own and there's little support. Educators can feel like they're doing everything on their own and there's little support, you know, and I think the more that we can create these
Amie Fabry (14:58)
opportunities to work in partnership, like really genuine partnership where, like you're describing, where we're not just sharing what we do, but we're actually listening and learning from each other. We can actually build a community around a child, build a team where other people feel supported and heard and valued and respected for the perspective and knowledge and role that they bring to that child's life. That's really powerful. really powerful. Like I'm just so in awe of the work that you're doing. It just sounds so, so impactful and so profound, you know, particularly when we think about our children who do experience, you know, disadvantage, developmental delays, disabilities, neurodivergence. You know, I think there's never been a better time for us to be open to learning and listening to others because not everyone's perspective is like ours. And I think the sooner we kind of become okay with that. I think we could move so much quicker, right, in terms of, you know, really genuinely supporting every child and family to thrive.
Blake Stewart (15:59)
Absolutely, I completely agree with you. And I think the the sector, the early childhood sector specifically are very open and very I've got their ears to the ground listening and learning from people. And I think over the last couple of years, there's been a shift towards understanding what true inclusion looks like. And the CEO of Reimagine, Yvonne calls it the inclusion confusion. And she wants to label that somehow and discuss that further. But we just have this inclusion confusion. because sometimes we bring inclusion to the forefront of our discussions or our practice, but actually it still has an underlying ableist or discriminatory impact because we're not truly aware of what inclusion looks like. Also, inclusion is so broad with so many different perspectives that it can be like, I might be. conducting myself in an inclusive way, but it could be still interpreted differently by somebody else. And so that's why I really want to unpack that we're listening and we're learning from others rather than I'm conducting myself in a way that I think is true and what is right. I need to still be listening and learning from other people. And I could come into these conversations with the research says this or My experience does this, but I want to try and humble myself and learn from other people's perspectives before bringing research or bringing that new practice or best practice as people say in, because people may think they're doing the best thing they can in the space they have, in the resources, in the time constraints, in the parameters they're in. And that's the best they
Blake Stewart (17:32)
and we need to acknowledge that and celebrate that. And I think all of us coming into the sector or into our own practice within with children and families. are doing it or I hope are doing it with the right intent. And I think when we're trying to deal with the right intent, that's the best we can do in that time. And I think about myself 10, 15 years ago in the sector, it hurts me to think about the way I conducted myself as an early childhood teacher then what I thought was best practice or evidence-based to what we know now. I...
Blake Stewart (18:08)
about the children that I was teaching or engaged with who had a disability or developmental difference or neurodivergence. think about, I was not a good teacher for them. I was not a person who supported them holistically or was able to really encourage how to best support their connections with the broader community. I thought I was doing great there.
Blake Stewart (18:31)
the moment. Now I think about that hint that hindered everything and I it hurts to think back and reflect on that and I think about if I was me going back to younger Blake I would think that he's doing his best in the time and the space and the knowledge he knows that's amazing let's just move that like 1 % more and I think about the change and I
Blake Stewart (19:01)
I think that's a Tommy Habits book. I forget the author. Where I just think that let's move 1 % closer to inclusion if we can, rather than trying to leap 15 years of learning and practice in failures and mistakes. Forward. Sorry, that was a bit of a digress.
Amie Fabry (19:17)
No, that's great. It's so good. Like, you know, I'm reflecting on on what you're talking about. And I think, you know, whether it's inclusion or another aspect of practice, there's, think we all look back and cringe on the things that we did, know, because the reality is, hopefully, we're all still learning and growing. And the more we learn and grow, the more we can, you know, make those 1 % adjustments, you know, regularly, as opposed to trying to be an educator that we're not yet. So I really appreciate that you're recognizing that because I think there's so many educators who would be thinking, I'm not doing enough. You know, the reality is we do the best at the time with what we know and you know, the resources available to us. But I love, you know, that we can all keep learning and I really... think really value and appreciate that you're saying, you know, we don't necessarily have to go off and, and do another degree or, you know, read all of the research, we'll keep learning. But so much of the learning we can do is actually tapping into the perspectives around us, you know, what do children think? What do their families think? What's their experience? So rather than just do what we think is right, we're actually broadening our own perspectives by checking in with other people and listening to their perspectives and their experiences and what they want. which will help us to keep, you know, thinking about inclusion through a lens that actually serves the people it's designed to serve, right. And actually support them in the way that works for them.
Blake Stewart (20:45)
Exactly. And we think about neuro affirming practice. We think about strength based. We think about child centered or person centered, family centered practice. It starts with learning and listening to them first and having their voice heard. And I think if that can be the underlying factor to what true inclusion is, is listening and learning, then I think we've got that down pat.
Amie Fabry (20:57)
Hmm. Yeah, I totally agree. totally agree. Earlier, we talked to like mentioned, advocacy is a big part of your role as well. And I know you describe yourself as being an advocate. What does that look like for you in the work that you do?
Blake Stewart (21:23)
So from my many hats and many roles, I think there's a lot of common themes in my advocacy. And the first one would be language. I think my own professional learning and professional journey, language is something that I aim, I try and be at the forefront of what best practice or recent new language is. And so that is listening.
Blake Stewart (21:46)
to communities who represent the different communities in inclusion. That is listening and researching the current research around what language or best practices or affirming language looks like. And so when I'm in those day-to-day conversations with students or with other educators or I'm on placement visits in other services or I'm in my day-to-day meetings, that's when I bring language into those conversations.
Blake Stewart (22:13)
There's times where I might stop someone and say, let's just unpack that language, what we're saying, and let's talk about what the current language is. Or there's other times where I'll let it slide, but I will keep bringing it up in my own conversation. And I think, again, language is ever-changing, and it's always being renewed or refreshed or advocated for. And I think... across my years in my career again, I know my language has evolved or changed and I thought I was doing the right thing, but actually it wasn't. So I do put that disclaimer in when I have these conversations. So advocacy starts with language. Someone has quoted and I would not know who that I would say, I always say language is the gateway to true inclusion because in our communication and in our language, we then invite people in or we...
Blake Stewart (23:01)
put a wall up and exclude them. so having conversations and hearing from, for example, I had a conversation with Ashley from Rainbow Families a couple of weeks ago, talking about language on our enrollment forms and what language looks like when we have mum and dad as the names on the enrollment forms, we have parent one or parent two. So,
Blake Stewart (23:23)
That simple change in language is a great example of including or excluding parents or caregivers or services. The other piece of advocacy I have is listening and learning from other sectors and building on a co-design body of work rather than just assuming.
Blake Stewart (23:42)
that's what is going to be needed for the sector or needed for our community or needed for the people we work with. And so I've really learnt in my role with Reimagine Australia, the value of co-design and within co-design, you invite people in to then have the opportunity to have their voice or have their perspectives on the initiatives of the work we're doing at Reimagine Australia. And I've been doing that also in my classroom, in lecture halls, in
Blake Stewart (24:10)
my tasks in my day-to-day work as well. I found it's, again, it's empowering others to have a voice or have an opportunity to be invited in rather than task, or this is what we need to do now, go do it. Yeah.
Amie Fabry (24:19)
Hmm. Hmm That's brilliant. I love those two examples. you know, I think often when we think about advocacy, like we see some really outward facing, amazingly strong advocates in the sector. And we've seen some of the incredible reform shifts that are coming out as a result of advocacy. But I love what you're talking about because it doesn't mean you need a microphone or a soapbox or, you know, to be really public facing, but you're talking about advocacy in the day-to-day work that you do, talking about language, paying attention to the language that we use. And again, asking people to unpack that with you in a conversation or using, you know, the language that you know is actually preferred as opposed to just letting... letting it slip when people use different language that perhaps is not actually as affirming. And this idea of co-design, like coming back to bringing people together, breaking down silos, giving people a voice. We don't often think about advocacy as listening, right? Like it's often, what am I saying to champion inclusion and all children and families? So I actually just really love hearing your perspective and hearing the work that you do as an advocate. which doesn't all have to be about us as leaders doing all the talking, saying all the right things and trying to convince people of anything. But you're actually talking about the complete opposite, listening and valuing the perspective of others, empowering other people and really spending time unpacking language so that we're coming from a common place. That's really powerful Blake, like really powerful.
Blake Stewart (25:55)
Thank you. I've kind of fell into that space, but I think from what gives me true joy, as I'm going to say it, in my work is being able to facilitate those conversations. Those conversations where there's no agenda, there's no, we need to get this task done. There's no, there is.
Blake Stewart (26:18)
because we to respect people's time. But there's a space where people can have those conversations. And I think when I can jot down the perspectives or record those perspectives and then bring that into pieces of work that I'm doing and allowing the people to voice their perspective has just been an honor to listen and hear what people are going through in their own backyards, in their own services, in their own
Blake Stewart (26:40)
because when you bring that quote or that voice to whatever piece of work I'm doing is way more powerful than saying, quote from research in 2005, you know? So being able to draw on those perspectives in the work that I'm doing has been quite lovely. And I think about a project I did with Reimagine and it's around the foundational supports NDIS stuff that's been happening. And there was invitations to write a discussion paper.
Blake Stewart (27:13)
for Department of Social Services. So I had the opportunity to lead Reimagine's discussion paper work project. And we invited our Reimagine community in to be involved in that discussion and that conversation. And we thought we'd just have like a little working group, little task force that would just help me gather perspectives from different. representations of community across the country. And we ended up getting like 135 people wanting to be part of this working group. And so we were like, how do we exclude someone from this working group? So the reimagined team, we decided to actually have a co-design tribe and we call it a co-design tribe of 135 people.
Blake Stewart (28:01)
to be involved in this conversation. And obviously capturing that in data collection was a lot because there's lots of voices and lots of disabilities, but it really helped give me more understanding of where people sit and people's interpretations of that particular project. my piece of advice out there is when people want to be involved or have a voice, let them in. It may just be one sentence.
Blake Stewart (28:26)
It may be sitting and listening, reflecting and then coming back a week later to then talk about their reflection. It may be the loudest person in the room, but allowing everyone to feel included in that decision making or that discussion is true inclusion. And I think about my time in services with trying to capture family voice, so trying to capture family feedback or trying to drop off and pick up. pick up, there's always that one family coming through and they're always wanting to talk, like let them and, and allow them to voice what they're going through or what they're experiencing within the service. Because you may take away some things that could be part of that quality improvement or self-assessment process. well, whatever it is policy review or other things, but, that's what co-design is. And I think co-design allows us to capture people's perspectives in a way that everyone's an equal playing field, on an equal playing field, Yeah.
Amie Fabry (29:18) That's brilliant. And it's so important, isn't it? Often we think about, even if we take the example of educators to families, I think we have to be really mindful of the power imbalances or perceived power imbalances. And I love this idea of co-design and letting people have a voice when they wanna have a voice. Because I think if we don't do that, And sometimes we can't like, and you know, I do want to acknowledge things like time or how do you actually, you know, navigate this when you've got lots of interest. But I think, you know, in building really genuine partnerships at a local level, at a broader level, if people want to talk and we say no, Like where does that leave our conversations? And when we think back to, you're talking about language before, I can see that potentially we often end up with misaligned views of language and how we use language or what language means because we don't have enough of these conversations where we listen to different perspectives. And I know why it happens. Everyone's busy and everyone's kind of got their own agendas and there's a lot going on. So yeah, I want to acknowledge that, you know, again, this work that you're doing to listen, to give people a voice, you know, even when you don't expect 135 and you're probably thinking now how do we manage that? But going with that because it's not easy, I'm sure. But it's so necessary, you know, to connect and you were talking about hearing people's lived experience and how that's actually more powerful than a quote from research. And I think, you know, That's one of the ways we can actually connect again as human beings. It's hard to connect over research because it feels too distant. But when you're talking to someone and they're saying, well, this is what my experience is like as a parent, or this is what my experience is like, you know, as a allied health professional trying to support this family. we can actually start to connect over, I guess those things we have in common, like you were talking about before and what it is we're all here to do to support a child or family, but perhaps we even can connect over some of the challenges, you know, and it's kind of talking about the realities is what reminds us all that we're human. So I just love everything about what you're saying. It just resonates so strongly with me. I would love to know though, this sounds like very ideal work and so valuable and so needed. Do you face any challenges? in this kind of work, you know, whether you're talking about language, whether you're advocating for inclusion, whether you're bringing people together in co-design processes, what are some of the challenges that you've faced doing this?
Blake Stewart (31:53)
I laugh because I get a lot of challenges on a daily basis and I think about some examples of misinterpretation of my intentions. And I think things through social media or email or like a newsletter. And my intention is to spark conversation, whereas it could be misinterpreted as discriminatory or could be just seen as a particular
Blake Stewart (32:18)
view or standpoint on a particular perspective. And I people, not people, I need to learn to soften the language or the communication to invite people to have that view. And Yvonne, the CEO, helps me. thank them for those perspectives rather than see it as an attack. So I think I'm growing to see these differing views or perspectives coming back as an opportunity to reflect, an opportunity to critically reflect on the communication that went out, but also how it could be interpreted by different communities or different perspectives of people. So that's one. The other one is
Blake Stewart (33:05)
I just feel like... Championing the cause can sometimes be too big and I feel exhausted or I feel a lack of hope because I feel like I'm always hitting a brick wall as we champion the next thing. And I think I forget about looking behind and going, look how much we've achieved in either my local community, in my family unit or within.
Blake Stewart (33:31)
a conversation or practice that I'm doing, I forget how much we've grown or how much I've grown over what's the next thing we need to work on. And so that can be quite exhausting to think about. All right, we're not there yet. We're not at that point where we can say we've done it and we've conquered that particular advocacy standpoint. Yeah, they're my two examples.
Amie Fabry (33:52)
They're really good examples, Blake. Thanks for being so honest about the challenges, you know, and you're talking about like the misinterpretation of your intention, which probably feels really personal, right? And I think that is a hard thing as a leader. You know, you're having to be vulnerable and put yourself out there, which means you can be open to scrutiny or judgment misinterpretation. So I want to acknowledge, you know, I guess your vulnerability in being open and honest about that, because I think it's something that we don't talk enough about as leaders. And, you know, the challenges of being a leader is how do you navigate that? I really like the reframe from kind of taking it personally to thanking that perspective and, you know, learning from that perspective. I think what came to mind for me when you were talking about this was Brene Brown's work. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dare to Lead and you know, she talks about who's in the arena and who's worth paying attention to, which I think is a good caveat. But you know, again, if we kind of circle back to the conversation, which has been about listening to other perspectives and learning from other perspectives, I think that's a very, that is a real challenge to not just react emotionally when someone disagrees with you, or even goes as far as telling you you're doing something that you know you're not actually trying to do. Being able to process that and maybe let the emotions pass, you know, but then to think about, what can I learn from that? Is this a place to go and say, tell me more about your perspective or to actually sit and reflect with it? I think that becomes such a powerful tool for growth, but really hard to do. I know personally that's something I struggle with too.
Blake Stewart (35:34)
I really remind myself, like let the emotion slide before you act. And so I think I just act emotionally straight away, where now I can kind of pause a bit and then have that perspective. And I think even being able to write it out or write your response or do something and then pause and then come back to it the next day and have that clear in mind is really helpful. No, what...
Blake Stewart (35:59)
I've learned is the thanking part and going, it's really helpful to have that because that is what critical reflection is, right? Critical reflection is gathering different perspectives and then looking at the data or looking at the research or looking at how that can then be molded or shifted to then what is the next piece of best practice or that critical reflective analysis of change. So I see it as a critical reflection rather than an attack.
Amie Fabry (36:18)
you Hmm. Yep. It's so true. And yeah, such powerful learning can come when we're willing to do that and sit with the uncomfortable because it is uncomfortable, right? It can be deeply uncomfortable. So, you know, to lean into that, what can I learn from this? What can, how can I grow? That's just so profound. I also love that you were talking about, you know, sometimes the cause feels so big and Again, it's something I relate to in the work that I do. How do you overcome that? You you mentioned looking back and not just focusing on all the things we haven't yet done. Is that one of the strategies you use? Are there any others that you use to kind of keep going when it does feel all too big and a bit hopeless?
Blake Stewart (37:03)
Yeah, I really look at what the next step is. And I just have that image probably circulate all over social media, but just the little steps rather than the big jumps. And so going what's achievable in my day or what's achievable in my week or season. And I'm working in that space. And I think for me juggling many hats at the moment, having those little steps is all I can do because I don't have the time or space to do the big leaps. And I think by
Blake Stewart (37:30)
going to bed tonight knowing I've achieved X, Y and Z makes me feel like I'm a step closer to championing the cause rather than becoming the next Prime Minister of Australia, you know? Like that's not gonna happen in a week.
Amie Fabry (37:43)
Absolutely. Yeah, that's really good advice, actually. And I think we can lose sight of those little steps and how ultimately it is all the series of little steps that add up to the bigger change. But I also don't think we're very good as human beings at just looking back and acknowledging how far we've come or, you noticing you talked about noticing your own growth, which I think is also huge. So not just what's the impact I'm making around me, but where have I come? I think that's really significant. and yeah, like what have we done? But also what's next, I think makes it far more manageable. But I do think collectively, you know, there's probably a lot of leaders that are at times go, there's so much to do. And, you know, how do we do it? But it's about not losing hope, I think so that we, we do keep getting up and, keep advocating and keep championing and keep leading the kinds of change that we want to see. Blake, before we finish, I'd love to know, do you have any words of wisdom or advice for anyone working in our sector, whether it's an educator, a director, a leader, someone in policy, whatever they might be doing, do you have any advice for people who are really looking to be inspired to keep leading and keep going?
Blake Stewart (38:56)
Yes, I've got two. Can I have two? Okay, so my first one is, and I've mentioned this previously around, don't get bogged down or overwhelmed by the failures you've done in the past. And I really reflect on individual children that I taught or individual practices that I did as a new grad teacher or as a start a student and think about I've just
Blake Stewart (39:22)
ruined that child's life or I've ruined them early years. Don't get caught up in those times. Look at, okay, this is the learning and this is the practice I know now. And where can I apply that for the children or the practice or the space I'm in now moving forward? So that's my first one. I tend to get overwhelmed with emotion around what I used to do when I'm compared to what I'm championing now. So That's my first one. My second one is actually take time for yourself because you're not going to be able to advocate or champion a cause or do the work you're doing if you are filled. And this is coming from, you might be saying this hypocritically, but I'm really trying to invest in spaces where I can fill my bucket up so that I have the energy and the effort to then be able to, to, to move forward. So I,
Blake Stewart (40:13)
My partner laughs because I'm going for walks all the time and I go for walks in nature on the beach and I tend to have my AirPods in that I've got some wonderful ones from Chris for Christmas that are the noise cancelling ones. So tune out from the world, no music, but I just walk and I just enjoy the surroundings, but it helps me process what I'm working through in those.
Blake Stewart (40:38)
And I tend to then have notes on my phone that I type down and action points and reflections about what I'm doing. That's what I'm really unpacking what I'm working through or going through. Find the piece that fills your cup up so then you have the energy to then go out and do it again. Again, as I mentioned, the garden, the garden allows me to getting out there is it's getting me physically active, getting me outdoors, which I find rejuvenating and also.
Blake Stewart (41:03)
it cleans my mind from the day-to-day work that I'm doing and then allows me to then have that space and this person, a leader, leadership person that I cannot quote, but talked about having white space and having white space in your day where you can think creatively or problem solve or have solutions in your day, in your, in your mind, rather than being that reactive person. And so those
Blake Stewart (41:29)
opportunities throughout my day or my week where I can have that white space to think creatively helps me survive my week.
Amie Fabry (41:37)
That is such good advice. Such good advice. I love both of those points. So thank you for sharing too, Blake. You know, I think this idea of failure and it can totally derail us if we let it. You know, we can talk ourselves out of anything if we just focus on failure. But I think remembering that it's all part of our journeys. you know, and we are growing, it's a sign that we're growing and any failure is a learning opportunity. I think that's really powerful. And I love that you've mentioned taking time for yourself, you know, and finding something that works for you. But I think we all can very easily just fall into the traps of living a very fast paced life, you know, which can include work, but also family and all the things that happen outside of your day to day work. which does sometimes mean we get into those reactive zones as opposed to actually taking that time, you know, for thinking and reflecting or getting in nature. And again, you know, it's not always that easy, but I do think it's, it's something that we are better for when we prioritize it and we spend time thinking, well, how can I... take a few minutes for myself. How can I slow down? How can I find some peace and some quiet, even if it's 10 minutes or get into nature? And we'll have different things that work for us. But as you were talking about the white space, I remember hearing it again, I can't quote this one because I can't remember who said it, but on a podcast they were talking about music and the space around the notes is so integral to the melody. because if it was just a whole pile of notes, you wouldn't actually have the melody. You know, the pauses, for example, are just as important as the notes. And I was like, that's such a beautiful perspective because we do often think we just have to go, go, go. And we live in a society of performance. So, you know, any minute sometimes you're sitting down is like, well, I feel guilty now. But I think we have to challenge that, right? Again. have more conversations about these things because they are so, important for us to, for us to thrive as leaders, you know, who are thinking, feeling people at, at the end of the day, despite the work that we do. Blake, thank you so much. It's been such a joy talking to you, listening to your story and your perspective and hearing more about the work you do. I am incredibly in awe of you and so delighted that you are one of the amazing leaders that we have in early childhood, being an advocate and a champion for children. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being here.
Blake Stewart (43:59)
Thank you so much. It's been wonderful being here and be able to share some insight, but also I just would love to continue the conversation in any possible way.
Amie Fabry (44:11)
Absolutely. And we'll put up some links where you can find Blake and contact Blake in the podcast notes. And Blake, I hope that you and I continue this conversation too. It's been delightful.
Blake Stewart (44:22)
Thank you.
