A philosophical anchor for creating inclusive communities in early childhood education: Anti-bias philosophy and te Whāriki: Early childhood curriculum

Preface I. Introduction 1. "Silent Voices of Knowing" in the History of Early Childhood Education and Curriculum, Debora Basler Wisneski 2. Curriculum and Research: What Are the Gaps We Ought to Mind? Nancy File II. Influences on Curriculum 3. The Relationship between Child Development and Early Childhood Curriculum, Nancy File 4. From Theory to Curriculum: Developmental Theory and Its Relationship to Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education, J. Amos Hatch 5. The Curriculum Theory Lens on Early Childhood: Moving Thought into Action, Jennifer J. Mueller 6. From Theory to Curriculum: The Project Approach, Judy Harris Helm 7. Using Critical Theory to Trouble the Early Childhood Curriculum: Is It Enough? Mindy Blaise and Sharon Ryan 8. Using Critical Theories in the Curriculum, Betsy J. Cahill and Tammy L. Gibson III. Examining Curriculum Approaches and Their Applications 9. Infant Toddler Curriculum: Review, Reflection, and Revolution, Diane M. Horm, Carla B. Goble, and Kathryn R. Branscomb 10. Creative Curriculum and High Scope Curriculum: Constructing Possibilities in Early Education, Sara Michael-Luna and Lucinda G. Heimer 11. Te Whariki - The Early Childhood Curriculum of Aotearoa New Zealand, Jenny R. Ritchie and Cary A. Buzzelli 12. A Situated Framework: The Reggio Experience, Andrew J. Stremmel 13. Publishers in the Mix: Examining Literacy Curricula, Mariana Souto-Manning IV. Conclusion 14. The Place of Play in Early Childhood Curriculum, Debora Basler Wisneski and Stuart Reifel 15. Early Childhood Curriculum as Palimpsest, Katherine Delaney and Elizabeth Graue 16. Strengthening Curriculum in Early Childhood, Nancy File, Debora Basler Wisneski, and Jennifer J. Mueller List of Contributors

In this article I look at how education thought and practice can act as a barrier inclusion in early childhood education for children with disabilities and their families. I suggest that changes in thought and practice are necessary if early childhood education is progress inclusion for all children and families. Inclusion in education is about identifying and removing barriers that get in way of a child's full acceptance, participation, and learning, so that all children receive high-quality, inclusive early educational experiences (Ballard, 1999a; Booth & Ainscow, 2002). In this article I examine issue of how early childhood education includes or excludes disabled children. I suggest that one of most significant barriers that disabled children and their families face in accessing early childhood education involves belief system of education. In relatively recent times early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand has determined that it has a commitment all children. This is evident in Te Whariki, which promotes inclusiveness and aspirations for all children to grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in knowledge that they make a valued contribution society (Ministry of Education, 1996b, p. 9), and in government policy, which supports all children's and their families' rights an early childhood education that is non-discriminatory and inclusive (Minister for Disability Issues, 2001; Ministry of Education, 1996a, 1998; New Zealand Government, 1993, 1998). The belief system of education, however, reinforces idea that disabled children are special; they are different, and therefore require different treatment. Special education has been part of education in New Zealand and elsewhere for a considerable period of time and has been provided either as separate treatment within mainstream education or in segregated centres and schools. It is typically accepted as a normal and appropriate approach issues of disability. I suggest belief system and language of education are barriers disabled children's inclusion in early childhood education. Constructing children as In many settings children with disabilities are typically constructed as children, having special educational and therefore in need of a education. However, literature and research on inclusive education and disability highlights that language of needs may act as a powerful barrier development of inclusion in education (Barton, 1997; Booth & Ainscow, 2002; Corbett, 1996). This is because labelling children as having needs communicates and reinforces particular beliefs about nature of disability as a function of individual impairment. What is evident is that this language maintains idea that there are kinds of student and two kinds of education, one and other typical, ordinary, not 'special' (Ballard, 1999a, p. 167). Special is a term that constructs disabled child as different, as the other, as having significantly different curriculum and teaching needs, and as belonging elsewhere (MacArthur, Dight, & Purdue, 2000; MacArthur, Purdue, & Ballard, 2003). Removing language of needs from centres is not an easy task because this vocabulary is firmly embedded in legislative and policy framework of mainstream early childhood education (Ministry of Education, 1996a, b, c, 1998, 2005; New Zealand Government, 1993, 1998). The language of needs is part of daily discourse in many early childhood settings and influences a variety of practices. Oliver (1988) states that: ... definition of educational need which still dominates today is one that sees it as an individual problem. …

Curriculum material is generally considered the subject matter of information, talents, dispositions, understandings, and principles that make up research programs in the field. At a more complex level, the curricula need to contain historical and socio-political strengths, traditions, cultural views, and goals with wide differences in sovereignty, adaptation, and local understanding that encompass a diversity of cultures, laws, metaphysics, and political discourse This study aims to develop a curriculum with local content as a new approach in early childhood science learning. The Local Content Curriculum (LCC) is compiled and developed to preserve the uniqueness of local culture, natural environment, and community crafts for early childhood teachers so that they can introduce local content to early childhood. Research and model development combines the design of the Dick-Carey and Dabbagh models with qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that local content curriculum products can be supplemented into early childhood curricula in institutions according to local conditions. Curricula with local content can be used as a reinforcement for the introduction of science in early childhood. The research implication demands the concern of all stakeholders to see that the introduction of local content is very important to be given from an early age, so that children know, get used to, like, maintain, and love local wealth from an early age.
 Keywords: Early Childhood, Scientific Learning, Local Content Curriculum Model

In this reflection on early childhood curriculum development in Aotearoa New Zealand since the mid-1980s, the author identifies some of the factors that were influential in the genesis, and subsequent implementation, of Te Whariki. The article concludes with a discussion of possible future directions in early childhood curriculum, including issues in policy and practice that remain unresolved. ********** There is a Maori proverb that states that in order for the canoe to know where it is going it has to understand where it has come from. This is an apt metaphor for understanding the last 20 years, and thinking about the next 10 years, in early childhood curriculum development in Aotearoa New Zealand. The release of Te Whariki: He whariki mataranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996) marked a turning point for early childhood education in New Zealand, but the development of Te Whariki had been preceded by at least 10 years of rapid development in early childhood provision. These developments had, in their own right, flowed from decades of debate about the nature and purpose of early childhood services in New Zealand and elsewhere (May, 1997, 2001). Almost 10 years after the publication of Te Whuriki, 2005 has been marked by another milestone in early childhood education in New Zealand: the release of Kei tua o to pae: Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars (Ministry of Education, 2004). In the first part of this article I describe where the canoe has come from, tracing the genesis of Te Whariki, particularly from 1986 onwards. Next, I reflect on the period from 1986 until today, and the present status of early childhood curriculum development in New Zealand, including the place of Kei tua o to pae. In the final part of the article I speculate on future directions, highlighting those questions that, in my view, remain unresolved. The origins of Te Wharki The story of how Te Whariki was conceptualised, drafted, written, and consulted upon remains one of the great unwritten PhD theses in education in New Zealand. Te One (2003) gives an article-length account of the process of Te Whariki's development, and the thinking of the leader writers of the document has been well documented (Carr & May, 1991, 1993a, 1993b, 1994, 2000; May & Carr, 2000; Reedy, 2003). Less is recorded about the context for the development of Te Whariki provided by the years prior to the writing of the early childhood curriculum framework (begun under contract to the Ministry of Education by the University of Waikato in 1990). In this section, I reflect on a number of key influences in the early childhood field which, with the benefit of hindsight, help explain the nature of Te Whariki, as well as subsequent developments in the field. The 1980s were characterised by renewed interest in the educational potential of good-quality early childhood education, following on from the calls of second wave feminists of the 1970s who had largely subsumed early childhood services into a wider vision for the emancipation of women. Anne Meade was particularly influential in examining and creating policy surrounding early childhood education in New Zealand, both as a bureaucrat and as an academic (see Meade, 1981, 1990, 2000). At the same time, Helen May (then Cook) was consistently re-emphasising the political dimension of early childhood services, particularly their impact on women's lives (Cook, 1983, 1985a, 1985b, 19850. (1) argue that the work of May, Meade, and others during the 1980s, by persistently focusing on the scope and quality of early childhood provision, provided an important platform for the subsequent development of Te Whariki. At the same time, the galloping development off e Kohanga Reo movement ... [and] ... the development of Pacific Islands language nests ... had a massive impact on government policy and on education generally (Cooper & Tangaere, 1994, p. …

Preface I. Introduction 1. Silent Voices of Knowing in the History of Early Childhood Education and Curriculum, Debora Basler Wisneski 2. Curriculum and Research: What Are the Gaps We Ought to Mind? Nancy File II. Influences on Curriculum 3. The Relationship between Child Development and Early Childhood Curriculum, Nancy File 4. From Theory to Curriculum: Developmental Theory and Its Relationship to Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education, J. Amos Hatch 5. The Curriculum Theory Lens on Early Childhood: Moving Thought into Action, Jennifer J. Mueller 6. From Theory to Curriculum: The Project Approach, Judy Harris Helm 7. Using Critical Theory to Trouble the Early Childhood Curriculum: Is It Enough? Mindy Blaise and Sharon Ryan 8. Using Critical Theories in the Curriculum, Betsy J. Cahill and Tammy L. Gibson III. Examining Curriculum Approaches and Their Applications 9. Infant Toddler Curriculum: Review, Reflection, and Revolution, Diane M. Horm, Carla B. Goble, and Kathryn R. Branscomb 10. Creative Curriculum and High Scope Curriculum: Constructing Possibilities in Early Education, Sara Michael-Luna and Lucinda G. Heimer 11. Te Whariki - The Early Childhood Curriculum of Aotearoa New Zealand, Jenny R. Ritchie and Cary A. Buzzelli 12. A Situated Framework: The Reggio Experience, Andrew J. Stremmel 13. Publishers in the Mix: Examining Literacy Curricula, Mariana Souto-Manning IV. Conclusion 14. The Place of Play in Early Childhood Curriculum, Debora Basler Wisneski and Stuart Reifel 15. Early Childhood Curriculum as Palimpsest, Katherine Delaney and Elizabeth Graue 16. Strengthening Curriculum in Early Childhood, Nancy File, Debora Basler Wisneski, and Jennifer J. Mueller List of Contributors

The right of children to have access to inclusive education is widely supported and well recognized in international human rights law. Inclusive education involves the placement of learners with disabilities and non-disabilities to study in the same classrooms with adaptable facilities and equipment. Meanwhile, in Nigeria over the past three decades, focus on inclusive education has been pervasive at all levels of educational system including in early childhood education, as the school system struggle to meet the needs of children who are physically challenged. It has been argued that for a society to develop, education must be inclusive and global organization are not left behind on the global initiative for inclusion in education. However, despite the numerous advantages of inclusive education there are various factors contending with effective implementation of the programme in early childhood education. This paper attempts to highlights the concepts of inclusion, understanding inclusion in education, the value of inclusion in early childhood education and some of the basic requirement for the inclusive programme to be feasible in Nigeria educational system most especially in early childhood education. In addition, the paper discusses the challenges militating against inclusion in early childhood education and practical ways to overcome the challenges are provided.

This paper uses a framing derived from refugee and child rights conventions to analyse the positioning of young refugee children and their families in Aotearoa New Zealand’s resettlement policies, early childhood curriculum and early childhood education (ECE) funding policies. It also analyses data from interviews with participants from ECE settings who are working with refugee children and families, to discuss how policy is experienced in ECE practice, and makes recommendations about future policy directions. Main findings are that the Refugee Resettlement Strategy has critically important goals for refugee resettlement, but outcomes are narrowly defined and future-focused. While the ECE curriculum, Te Whariki, offers a strong basis for refugee families and children to come to belong and participate in Aotearoa New Zealand, and to have their own culture upheld, the rights of the young refugee child have no visibility within resettlement and ECE funding policies. We argue that a rights-based framework, focused on the young refugee child within their wider family, offers a productive lens through which to analyse refugee resettlement and ECE policies.

Early childhood care and education services in Aotearoa New Zealand drew initially on the Frobelian 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).

© 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).

© 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).

© 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).

© 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).

This paper examines the role of collaboration in inquiry-based project work in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws upon findings from a research project exploring how inquiry-based project learning has been interpreted and undertaken in early childhood settings in this context. Inquiry-based project learning is a collaborative approach, underpinned by sociocultural theories, that supports a democratic view. The study is positioned in an interpretivist qualitative paradigm and is informed by sociocultural theories. A narrative inquiry approach informed the study design. Phase One of the project, which comprised a national questionnaire sent to all early childhood centres registered on the national ECE data base was completed in 2021. Phase Two, underway at the time of writing this paper, has involved a small number of purposively selected early childhood settings. At each of these settings, data collection has comprised an interview with the teaching team about their pedagogical frameworks, key influences and teaching practices, and a period of classroom observations focused on a current inquiry. Analysis of the data suggests that collaboration is cultivated when kaiako (teachers) prioritise whanaungatanga (sustaining connections and relationships) and have spent time developing pedagogical practices resulting in shared understandings surrounding inquiry-based project work. The impact of collaboration on the learning of tamariki (children) is demonstrated by a series of vignettes from the Phase Two data, demonstrating that developing a collaborative learning culture of inquiry fosters reciprocity, connection, theory making and problem solving.

This article argues that posthumanist thinking can frame early childhood curriculum and professionalism to productively attend to complex ways they constitute each other. Posthumanist perspectives on early childhood curriculum and professionalism encompass multiple human and non-human components co-/re-/constituting children and teachers, teaching and learning practices and processes, policies and procedures, values and beliefs, and materials and resources of early childhood settings. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki is envisaged as a woven mat; each early childhood setting weaves its own local curriculum from a set of principles and strands of learning. This article describes how a diffractive methodology employing four theoretical approaches can weave a complex and messy cartographic story of data from a research study into emotions in early childhood teaching. Early childhood teacher participants in focus group discussions used the imaginary ‘professional hat’ to describe how their expressions of emotions with children were constrained and enabled. This article affirmatively combines critique with creativity to explore early childhood professionalism within a specific localised enactment of curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand.

This study explored teachers’ understanding and enactment of Inclusion in Early Childhood Education (IECE) in Ghana. Inclusion theorises that, every child of school-going age must have access to quality education regardless of their cultural and socioeconomic dissimilarity. The keystone of the policy is to stimulate inclusion and lessen exclusions in the educational system. By utilising an interpretive qualitative multi-case study approach involving semi-structured interviews, observation, and photo-elicitation instruments, data from six study teachers was collected. The inductive thematic analysis method was used to interpret the data. Findings from the study revealed IECE was understood as the accommodation and merging of learners with disability with their mainstream peers in the same learning environment to reduce stigmatisation, segregation, and exclusionary practices. Disability was a major factor influencing Ghana’s IECE practices, more than equity issues, ability, and stage of child’s enrolment. Despite the progressive principles underpinning IECE, the enactment of the programmes is encountering challenges due to various debilitating factors such as the lack of educational resources, funding, inappropriate training programmes, and conservative cultural views towards children with disabilities. The study recommended that for a high level of IECE practice, the policy should be supported by effective and ongoing training, Government support by providing the required resources, clear policy guidelines, and employing teachers with knowledge and understanding IECE. For an IECE school to succeed, a culture mind shift must begin at the top, with a coherent understanding, shared vision throughout the entire staff, commitment, and best practices in teaching and learning throughout the whole school community. Teachers, policymakers, and other role-players in education should view IECE in the context of learners’ rights to education rather than focusing on disability problems associated with exclusion and segregation. The exploration concludes that, even though the enactment of IECE is fraught with impediments, it is a reasonable practice that should be enacted to achieve national objectives since IECE exposes children to information and skills which is vital for economic growth and confidence building. By meaningfully adopting IECE and enacting it successfully, the nation’s current and future human resource development, will be enhanced. building. By meaningfully adopting the IECE policy and enacting it successfully, the nation’s current and future human resource development, will be enhanced.