A sensory landscape of place as an invitation to belonging in early childhood settings

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Raella Kahuroa
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Children's Home ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

This article analyses data from a study that explored the role of early childhood education in supporting a sense of belonging for immigrant children and families in Aotearoa New Zealand, whilst sustaining their connections with homes and homelands. We draw on teachers’ documentation of curriculum experiences, focus group discussions, and interviews to consider ways in which teachers purposely integrated sensory experiences from children’s home countries within the curriculum in order to generate a sense of belonging. After introducing the topic and relevant literature, we describe the research design for the study and characteristics of the four participating early childhood centres. We then summarise representative comments about incorporation of the five senses within the centres, and set up an extended vignette of one centre. We assert that the sensory landscape of a place is a taken-for-granted and thus a largely overlooked aspect of early childhood pedagogy worthy of direct theory and practice attention.

scholarly journals Building Pedagogical Leadership Knowledge in Early Childhood Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janis Carroll-Lind ◽  
Sue Smorti ◽  
Kate Ord ◽  
Lesley Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Activity System ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

THIS PAPER DESCRIBES A research and development project that trialled a coaching and mentoring methodology with pedagogical leaders in early childhood settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. The methodology, which drew on ‘third-generation’ cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) was taught to leaders who were coached and mentored to use it as a mediating tool to identify connections between everyday leadership tensions and systemic contradictions (as identified within CHAT). The paper elaborates on the way in which participants came to understand the centre as an activity system and learned to ‘play the system’ rather than the person in the exploration and resolution of contradictions. They did so through engaging in productive change conversations with colleagues within their workplace settings. The paper concludes by confirming the potential of CHAT as a tool for building pedagogical leadership capacity through using tension and/or conflicting views as starting points in developing shared meanings and practices.

Pōwhiri: The ritual of encounter

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912199559
Author(s):  
Lesley Rameka ◽  
Ruth Ham ◽  
Linda Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Head Teacher ◽  
Refugee Education ◽  
Pedagogical Documentation ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
First Arrival

A primary task for refugee families and children who are resettling in a new country is to develop a sense of belonging in that place, time and context. This article theorises the pōwhiri, the traditional Māori ceremony of welcome or ritual of encounter, as a metaphor for refugee families and children coming to belong in Aotearoa New Zealand. The theory-building is derived from observation of pōwhiri at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, where refugees live on their first arrival in Aotearoa New Zealand; pedagogical documentation from the Early Childhood Centre at the Auckland University of Technology Centre for Refugee Education; collaborative discussions with the co-researcher, Ruth Ham, who is the kaiako (‘head teacher’) at the Early Childhood Centre; and recordings of discussions with interpreters. The next phase in this research will be to trial and evaluate this theory and strategies of belonging in three different early childhood centres, two of which include refugee families, and the third, immigrant families.

scholarly journals Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Alcock ◽  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Outdoor Education ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Forest Schools ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

© 2018, Outdoor Education Australia. Early childhood care and education services in Aotearoa New Zealand drew initially on the Fröbelian model of the kindergarten or ‘children’s garden’. Later models such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, the highly respected curriculum Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa, and the Enviroschools programme are grounded in te ao Māori, Māori worldviews, that feature a strong connectedness to place, and a deep sense of a spiritual inter-relationship with the land, mountains, rivers, and oceans. This article considers how the imported Scandinavian/European/UK models of ‘forest schools’ might fit within this context. To illustrate early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa (New Zealand) we draw upon research conducted in early childhood settings in this country that illuminates children’s experience in the outdoors. We draw upon critical early childhood scholarship to theorise this situation of forest schools emerging in Aotearoa, along with influences from the forest school movement evident in existing New Zealand early childhood services. The article suggests that traditional Indigenous Māori worldviews and knowledges give meaning and contextualised authenticity to ‘forest schools’ approaches in early childhood education in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

scholarly journals Early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Alcock ◽  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Outdoor Education ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Forest Schools ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

© 2018, Outdoor Education Australia. Early childhood care and education services in Aotearoa New Zealand drew initially on the Fröbelian model of the kindergarten or ‘children’s garden’. Later models such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, the highly respected curriculum Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa, and the Enviroschools programme are grounded in te ao Māori, Māori worldviews, that feature a strong connectedness to place, and a deep sense of a spiritual inter-relationship with the land, mountains, rivers, and oceans. This article considers how the imported Scandinavian/European/UK models of ‘forest schools’ might fit within this context. To illustrate early childhood education in the outdoors in Aotearoa (New Zealand) we draw upon research conducted in early childhood settings in this country that illuminates children’s experience in the outdoors. We draw upon critical early childhood scholarship to theorise this situation of forest schools emerging in Aotearoa, along with influences from the forest school movement evident in existing New Zealand early childhood services. The article suggests that traditional Indigenous Māori worldviews and knowledges give meaning and contextualised authenticity to ‘forest schools’ approaches in early childhood education in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

scholarly journals Early childhood education as a site of ecocentric counter-colonial endeavour in aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human World ◽  
A Site ◽  
Early Childhood Settings ◽  
Ethical Project

This article draws upon a range of theoretical domains, first to outline the historical rationale for the urgent changes needed to challenge and transform the dominator culture which has justified exploitation of Indigenous peoples and the resources of the earth. It invites educators to reconsider the narratives that are either consciously or inadvertently promoted in our work, suggesting that we can learn from Indigenous epistemologies in which humans are situated alongside earth others, as respectful, related guardians and caretakers. It finally draws on some examples from a recent qualitative study conducted with ten early childhood centres from across Aotearoa, to illuminate possibilities for enactment of counter-colonial renarrativisation within early childhood settings in service of an ethical project of enhancing relationalities, reconnecting children and their families with the more-than-human world.

Toddlers as active, competent story weavers: Lexie’s story

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879842110479
Author(s):  
Amanda White ◽  
Janet S Gaffney ◽  
Helen Hedges
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Community Settings ◽  
Shared Meaning ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Personal Story ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Diverse Community ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Communication and literacy development of young children is shaped by the nature of social and cultural relationships in everyday situations. Few studies, however, have explored early story experiences encountered by infants and toddlers in naturalistic settings. We argue that personal stories about everyday lived experiences are a vital context for considering how toddlers develop communicative competencies as they participate in these stories within their families and communities. The paper presents selected findings from a qualitative study underpinned by a broad theoretical view of story embedded in a sociocultural, participatory framework. We contend that stories are collaborative, social endeavours in which intersubjectivity is accomplished collectively and multimodally. Evidence is offered of the communicative process enacted by 1-year-old Lexie, her parent, teacher and peers, as they shared meaning together in a personal story about eating lunch. Lexie and her family were participants in a wider study of the story experiences of 1-year-old toddlers, within and across their family home and early childhood settings, in a culturally diverse community of Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on multimodal ethnography and video data, findings illustrate how Lexie and her family, teacher and peers actively participated together in the weaving of a shared personal story using verbal, visual and kinaesthetic forms of communication. The study contributes to the field of early childhood literacy by providing unique insights into the potential of everyday personal stories as a valuable context for exploring ways children’s communicative competencies are developed through relationships in family and community settings.

Early childhood teacher cultural Otherness and belonging

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Arndt
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Teaching Team ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Early childhood education settings are arguably places of community, togetherness and belonging. But what if they are not? What if individuals’ senses of identity, place or reality clash, do not fit or, worse, repel or offend? This article picks up on the largely under-researched area of teachers’ belonging and sense of cultural identity in early childhood settings. It argues for the critical importance of elevating and paying attention to teachers’ subject formation and identity. Drawing on some of the concerns and common conceptions of cultural Otherness in early childhood education, the article uses Kristeva’s foreigner lens and her theory on the subject in process to argue that teachers’ sense of belonging, of their own cultural identity and place, in their teaching team and in their early childhood setting is critical for an overall sense of openness and belonging throughout the setting. Teachers are commonly called on to nurture children’s and their families’ cultural identities. The sense of belonging intended through such practices depends on teacher attitudes and orientations to cultural Otherness that go beyond the surface – that allow for the difficult, complicated, unpredictable processes of becoming part of a centre community. This article offers a challenge to rethink teacher Otherness, for the (re-)elevation of their own sense of belonging in early childhood settings and teaching teams.

scholarly journals Early childhood education as a site of ecocentric counter-colonial endeavour in aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Indigenous Epistemologies ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human World ◽  
A Site ◽  
Early Childhood Settings ◽  
Ethical Project

This article draws upon a range of theoretical domains, first to outline the historical rationale for the urgent changes needed to challenge and transform the dominator culture which has justified exploitation of Indigenous peoples and the resources of the earth. It invites educators to reconsider the narratives that are either consciously or inadvertently promoted in our work, suggesting that we can learn from Indigenous epistemologies in which humans are situated alongside earth others, as respectful, related guardians and caretakers. It finally draws on some examples from a recent qualitative study conducted with ten early childhood centres from across Aotearoa, to illuminate possibilities for enactment of counter-colonial renarrativisation within early childhood settings in service of an ethical project of enhancing relationalities, reconnecting children and their families with the more-than-human world.

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