Strengthening infant and toddler pedagogy through an online specialised postgraduate qualification: building on initial teacher education and teaching experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Aotearoa New Zealand, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of infants and toddlers participating in ‘out-of-home’ care and education settings. While initial teacher education programmes include references to this age group, due to competing priorities in the programmes, space to include the depth of knowledge required is scarce. In 2020, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand developed and implemented an online specialist infant and toddler learning and development postgraduate diploma qualification. The online programme employs multi-disciplinary theories and research from fields such as education, health, and social services to support a holistic view of learning, development, and wellbeing. This paper draws on collaborative self-study and survey methodologies that investigated the key requirements of an effective online specialist infant and toddler postgraduate qualification and how these supported teachers to engage with the learning. Our findings highlight the positive impact of the qualification on infant and toddler teacher identity and pedagogy and, from their perspective, improved outcomes for infants and toddlers. Key aspects of success were asynchronous online delivery, teacher-educator availability, and multi-disciplinary perspectives. Keywords: infant; toddler; online; specialisation; pedagogy; self-study; teacher-educator availability, and multi-disciplinary perspectives.