Positioning Children Citizens: Exploring Discourses in Early Childhood Curricula in China and Aotearoa New Zealand

Positioning young children as citizens, now rather than as citizens in waiting, is an emerging discourse in early childhood education internationally. Differing discourses related to young children and early childhood reveal various ideas of children as citizens, and what their citizenship status, practice and education can be. This paper analyses the national early childhood education (ECE) curricula of China and Aotearoa New Zealand for the purpose of understanding how children are constructed as citizens within such policy discourses. Discourse analysis is employed in this study as a methodological approach for understanding the subjectivities of young children and exploring the meanings of young children’s citizenship in both countries. Based on Foucault’s theory of governmentality, this paper ultimately argues that young children’s citizenship in contemporary ECE curricula in China and New Zealand is a largely neoliberal construction. However, emerging positionings shape differing possibilities for citizenship education for young children in each of these countries.

Positioning young children as citizens, now rather than as citizens in waiting, is an emerging discourse in early childhood education internationally. Differing discourses related to young children and early childhood reveal various ideas of children as citizens, and what their citizenship status, practice and education can be. This paper analyses the national early childhood education (ECE) curricula of China and Aotearoa New Zealand for the purpose of understanding how children are constructed as citizens within such policy discourses. Discourse analysis is employed in this study as a methodological approach for understanding the subjectivities of young children and exploring the meanings of young children’s citizenship in both countries. Based on Foucault’s theory of governmentality, this paper ultimately argues that young children’s citizenship in contemporary ECE curricula in China and New Zealand is a largely neoliberal construction. However, emerging positionings shape differing possibilities for citizenship education for young children in each of these countries.

STEAM to R-SLAMET Modification: An Integrative Thematic Play Based Learning with R-SLAMETS Content in Early Child-hood Education

As an entitlement to rights, well-being and equity, young children’s citizenship lays the foundation for a democratic, just and sustainable world. This article interrogates the discursive constructions of ‘citizenship’ within recent early childhood curriculum documents in China and Aotearoa New Zealand. Since the 1990s, both nations have released national curricula to facilitate children’s growth and learning, unveiling the potential of children to act as competent and active citizens. A previous study explained ways in which citizenship in both nations’ curricula is discursively constructed as a ‘neoliberal construction’. However, other possible constructions of children’s citizenship are worthy of exploration. This article draws from the first author’s doctoral study and further examines alternative discursive constructions of children’s citizenship in both nations’ curricula to address this research gap. Engaging a post-structural positioning that incorporates critiques of power and knowledge drawing from the work of Michel Foucault, we present examples of ways that young children’s citizenship is discursively constructed as (1) development and preparation, (2) rights and participation and (3) relationships and connectedness. The power of cultural and historical discourses in creating these constructions is explored, whereby neoliberal discourse may either be problematised or strengthened.

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 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. …

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

Multi Perspectives on Play Based Curriculum Quality Standards in the Center Learning Model

This paper explores how respect is interpreted and integrated into early childhood education curricula in China and Aotearoa New Zealand, through a comparative analysis of the Early Learning and Development Guidelinesearly childhood curricula and Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa Early childhood curriculum (Te Whāriki). Using a social constructionist lens, respect is conceptualised as contextually situated curricular construction. In China’s ELDG, respect is framed as a traditional moral virtue while also foregrounding children’s individuality, autonomy, and opportunities to have a voice. By contrast, Te Whāriki embeds respect within reciprocal relationships with people, places, and communities, underpinned by a synthesis of socio-cultural theories, Māori theory and Pasifika approaches. Rather than treating the two curriculumframeworks as binary opposites, the analysis highlights sharedground and culturally specific emphases shaped by distinctcontexts. The findings inform a culturally responsive understandingof respectful pedagogy and children’s rights in early childhoodeducation.

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.

Over the past three decades, the term “spirituality” has been included in the Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki (Te Whariki, 2017), the Australian Government’s Belonging, Being and Becoming: Early Years Learning Framework (Belonging, Being and Becoming: Early Years Learning Framework, 2009), and the Welsh Foundation Phase Framework (Early Years Team Department for Educations and Skills, 2015). Despite the use of the term in these countries’ early childhood curriculum documents, little to no pedagogical assistance is given to early childhood educators in describing or defining spirituality that recognises children’s lived experience of spirituality, or further nurturing it once it is recognised. Due to this lack of guidance and support, many early childhood educators tend to ignore spirituality and focus on more easily identified and measurable aspects of education such as physical and mental development. In order to address this issue and explore the expressions of spirituality in young children, this research set out to identify and analyse children’s lived experience of spirituality within an early learning setting informed by the philosophical framework of Reggio Emilia and situated in a natural outdoor environment. This qualitative case study drew upon the sociocultural theory of Lev Vygotsky, which posits that meaning arises and is constructed from interactions between individuals. A new framework of spirituality for early childhood education is proposed that draws upon Vygotsky’s (1998) concept of perezhivanie, a process of reflection and awareness following an event that can lead to transformation and growth in the child. Perezhivanie, combined with the practices of Reggio Emilia philosophy and the stimulated-recall process (Thomson, 2008), creates a robust and productive process with which to recognise and nurture the lived experience of young children’s spirituality in early childhood settings in ways that help educators meet curriculum requirements. This thesis argues that spirituality is an important aspect of children’s growth and development and, when nurtured, can assist them in building increased levels of awareness of themselves, others, and the outside environment as well as help them to make meaning of and negotiate their identity.

The basic premise of this paper is that inclusion in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand is a worthy focus of early childhood education curriculum and that an anti-bias philosophy assists in developing curriculum that is inclusive. It is claimed that the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand is an emancipatory one, and arguments for activism and anti-bias principles in support of curriculum implementation are made. Drawing on anti-bias principles, the current curriculum statement (Te Whâriki: Early Childhood Curriculum) is examined to ascertain what support for anti-bias foci exists. Teaching strategies based upon discussion, critical thinking and an awareness of diversity themes/difference are considered in support of active anti-bias work in early childhood education.

© 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).