Is New Zealand a World Leader in Early Childhood Education? An Examination of the Empirical Evidence in Recent Reports

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
Ken Blaiklock
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Participation Rates ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
High Participation ◽  
Te Whāriki

NEW ZEALAND HAS A reputation for being a world leader in early childhood education (ECE); a reputation built on the development of innovative policies, high participation rates, high levels of teacher education, and the implementation of a national curriculum, Te Whāriki. A number of national and international reports have been used to support statements about the high quality of ECE in New Zealand. A closer examination of these reports, however, shows they provide insufficient attention to empirical information about children's learning and in some cases appear to be based on opinion rather than evidence. This article suggests that a downside of the belief that New Zealand is a world leader in ECE is that it may lead to complacency and a lack of willingness towards making evidence-based changes that could improve the wellbeing and learning of young children.

Emergent literacy as sociocultural practice: How well do New Zealand parents fit with Te Whāriki?

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qilong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Emergent Literacy ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Te Whāriki

A sociocultural approach to emergent literacy and growing concerns over the de-emphasis on literacy of the New Zealand early childhood education curriculum Te Whāriki call for locally situated emergent literacy programmes co-constructed by teachers, parents and children. While teachers’ approach to emergent literacy takes centre stage in research, little is known about approach of parents and whether and to what extent it is in tune with the national curriculum framework. Adopting deductive qualitative analysis, this study examines beliefs and practice about their child’s emergent literacy of 25 parents from New Zealand public kindergartens against the learning outcomes of emergent literacy proclaimed in Te Whāriki. The findings confirm general compatibility between parents’ approach to emergent literacy and that of Te Whāriki. Parents in this study recognize and respond to the importance of the preliteracy skills (e.g. name writing) for school readiness, which concretizes, operationalizes and localizes the generally, loosely and vaguely defined Te Whāriki learning outcomes. The findings support the practicality of the co-construction of local emergent literacy programmes by teachers and parents in chartered early childhood education services in New Zealand.

The Bicultural Imperative within the New Zealand Draft Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education, ‘Te Whariki’

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 28-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Primary Site ◽  
Early Childhood Curriculum ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Curriculum Guidelines ◽  
Te Whāriki

The New Zealand Draft Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education, ‘Te Whariki’, introduced in 1993, are discussed in relation to the historical and cultural contexts which underlie their development, and aspects of the bicultural focus of the document are highlighted. The document addresses the aspirations of the indigenous people of New Zealand, the Maori, for their language and culture to be protected and sustained. Early childhood is the primary site for the transmission of language and culture, and this places the onus on all early childhood educators in New Zealand to address these issues in an integrated way within the early childhood curriculum.

scholarly journals New Zealand perspectives on early childhood education: Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Tesar
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Children And Childhood ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Building Policy ◽  
Te Whāriki

Abstract This special issue focuses on histories, pedagogies, policies, philosophies and alternative perspectives in early childhood education. Te Whāriki is heralded as the first bicultural curriculum not only in New Zealand, but in the world. Its importance is reflected in national and international research and early childhood discourses. Despite this, there is simultaneous critique of neoliberal policy, globalised practices and public and private investment in early childhood education in this region. Some lessons from New Zealand, of curriculum building, policy implementation, philosophies and sociologies of children and childhood are explored by New Zealand scholars, and focus on these broad New Zealand perspectives of ECE, to address the diverse interests of an international audience.

scholarly journals Kei hea te Ora? The whereabouts of the health of children in the early childhood curriculum of Aotearoa New Zealand

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-102
Author(s):  
Andrew Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Early Childhood Curriculum ◽  
Competing Values ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Te Whāriki

AbstractThe policies and practices of early childhood teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand have been an ongoing site of political, economic, social and cultural contestation. Competing values and beliefs regarding experiences of both the child and the teacher have been central to the contesting. Helen May (2001, 2009) tracks these tensions through the waxing and waning of particular landscapes or paradigms, each of which can be seen to have contributed to the growth of the early childhood sector, its purpose, operations, manifestations, and its arguably tenuous cohesion as an educational sector. This paper provides a brief overview of the various paradigms, their purposes, and their spheres of influence (recognising that other papers in this special issue will contribute to a very detailed picture of early childhood education in Aotearoa) before analysing the discourses of child health in relation to the early childhood curriculum. Health is woven into the strands and principles of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 1996). Yet, this paper questions whether teachers and student teachers are attuned to what it means to have health as a key part of the curriculum, and explores whether health is a marginal consideration in the curriculum. The paper engages Foucault’s work, exploring tensions between pedagogical and medical disciplines in relation to the professionalisation of early childhood teaching. The idea of holism is then discussed as an approach to early childhood education curriculum discussions with reference to the participatory approaches to the development of Te Whāriki.

Moving Beyond Inclusion to Participation: Essential Elements

2019 ◽  
pp. 54-67
Author(s):  
Toby Long
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
Full Participation

This paper discusses the evolution of the early childhood education system from excluding children with disabilities to fully including them in a manner emphasizing full participation.  Evidence indicates meaningful participation in everyday activities is necessary for development to occur. The essential elements needed to bring about participation will be presented as well as specific evidence-based strategies used to promote inclusion and participation.

Social Investment and Childcare Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita León
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Perfect Match ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

The chapter first examines at a conceptual level the links between theories of social investment and childcare expansion. Although ‘the perfect match’ between the two is often taken for granted in the specialized literature as well as in policy papers, it is here argued that a more nuance approach that ‘unpacks’ this relationship is needed. The chapter will then look for elements of variation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) expansion. Despite an increase in spending over the last two decades in many European and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, wide variation still exists in the way in which ECEC develops. A trade-off is often observed between coverage and quality of provision. A crucial dividing line that determines, to a large extent, the quality of provision in ECEC is the increasing differentiation between preschool education for children aged 3 and above and childcare for younger children.

scholarly journals Business managers in children’s playground : Exploring a problematic (or not!) identity construction of early childhood teachers in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912198936
Author(s):  
Olivera Kamenarac
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Business Managers ◽  
Professional Identities ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Early Childhood Education Policies ◽  
Policies And Practices

The impacts of neo-liberal education reforms on the early childhood education sector have been a focal point of scholarly critiques in New Zealand. Interestingly, only a few studies have addressed how teacher professional identities and professionalism have changed in response to the neo-liberal context of New Zealand early childhood education. It has been, however, recognised that understanding the complexity of teacher professional identities within the rapidly transforming landscape of early childhood education is a key consideration in implementing and sustaining a change agenda in education policies and practices. In this article, the author draws on data from her research study about how teachers’ professional identities have been reconstructed in response to the shifting discourses in New Zealand early childhood education policies and practices. Specifically, the author explores the construction of teachers as business managers, which has emerged through an interplay of discourses of marketisation and privatisation driving some of the country’s early childhood education policies and practices. It is argued that the construction of teachers as business managers has altered core professional ethical values underpinning the teaching profession, professionalism and the purpose of early childhood education in New Zealand, which were traditionally embedded in discourses of collective democracy, equity and social justice.

(In)visible perceptions of objects (‘things’) during early transitions: Intertwining subjectivities in ECEC

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110279
Author(s):  
E Jayne White ◽  
Fiona Westbrook ◽  
Kathryn Hawkes ◽  
Waveney Lord ◽  
Bridgette Redder
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Object A ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Mediating Tools ◽  
Teachers And Parents ◽  
To Receive

Objects in early childhood education (ECEC) experiences have begun to receive a great deal more attention than ever before. Although much of this attention has emerged recently from new materialism, in this paper we turn to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological concern with the (in)visibility of ‘things’ to illuminate the presence of objects within infant transitions. Drawing on notions of écart and reversibility, we explore the relational perceptions objects are bestowed with on the lead up to, and first day of, infant transitions. Recognizing the intertwining subjectivities that perceive the object, a series of videos and interviews with teachers and parents across three ECEC sites in Australia and New Zealand provided a rich source of phenomenological insight. Our analysis reveals objects as deeply imbued anchoring links that enable relational possibilities for transitions between home and ECEC service. Visible and yet invisible to adults (parents and/or teachers) who readily engage with objects during earliest transitions, the significance of things facilitates opportunities to forge new relationships, create boundaries and facilitate connections. As such, our paper concludes that objects are far more than mediating tools, or conceptual agents; they provide an explicit route to understanding with potential to play a vital role in supporting effective early transitions when granted visibility within this important phenomenon.

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