ABSTRACT
This chapter records the conversations engaged in by the authors and serves as a summary of the book's content. In turn, each author chairs a series of discussions, during which the chapter contents are grouped as themes used as topics for discussion. The questions from the chair are broadly focused on the challenges that were articulated by the research participants and the perspectives of the individual authors recorded. There are three conversations, each around one of the following topics: trauma and intergenerational trauma; social and emotional development, notions of childhood, and transitioning to school; and inclusion. In the detail of the conversations, the authors' individual perspectives and interpretations of the challenges, strategies, and successes expressed by the participants allow the reader to access the authors as professional educators seeking to deepen their commitment to appropriate, pedagogically sound theory and practices that have the potential to support some of the world's most disadvantaged children. They discuss each topic using their own experiences, relating their substantial years of practice and understanding of theories of child development, education, and cultural competencies to the complexities faced by the diverse research participants in their specific environments. They do this in the hope of raising consciousness regarding the vital work that carers and early educators contribute to the children and communities with refugee and asylum-seeker backgrounds, a critical contribution that too is frequently misunderstood and undervalued in many contexts, but is a vital part of the healing, the sense of belonging, and the journey to authentic integration.
