Literacy and the Early Education Curriculum in New Zealand

Abstract

New Zealand was considered a leader in the field of early childhood education when it developed the curriculum document for the field, during the 1990s. Te Whāiki (Ministry of Education, 1996) is used as the basis for early years education, which covers the ages from birth to school entry. New Zealand has a tradition of informal play-based programmes with a holistic approach to curriculum planning (Anning et al., 2009), based on a rich mix of curriculum traditions. More recent emphasis on theories that foreground social contexts for learning has resulted in a curriculum document that emphasizes the learning environment, not what is learned (Blaiklock, 2013; Nuttall, 2005). Consequently, there is little discussion about how literacy learning can be promoted in early childhood education settings. This chapter will discuss the The Whāriki curriculum document in relation to research on young children’s learning. We will discuss what effective literacy policy in early years could look like, using Olson’s (2009) questions: “how well?” and “read what?” as the basis for the discussion. We conclude that due to the existing policies and curriculum for early years in New Zealand, literacy disparities at school entry are neither recognized nor responded to.