Te whāriki, citizenship and young children: re-considering the ‘pioneering’ pedagogies of early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

ABSTRACT In response to growing attention to young children’s citizenship, and recent calls for critique of Western discourses and practices, we explore the movement of Western ‘pioneering’ pedagogies of early childhood education (ECE) and their localisation in Aotearoa New Zealand. Employing a poststructural positioning, and theoretical devices drawn from the work of Michel Foucault and Kuan-Hsing Chen, this article ‘bewilders’ discourses of children’s citizenship in Aotearoa by analysing the juxtaposition of pioneering pedagogies alongside complexities of power effects in early childhood settings. This article draws on data from the first author’s doctoral study and employs reflexive thematic analysis to interrogate data gathered in interviews with kindergarten teachers in Aotearoa. Based on these analyses, this paper bewilders pioneering pedagogies in Aotearoa by advocating that young children’s citizenship be recognised as a cultural-historical construct which acknowledges the syncretism of Western and Māori knowledges in ECE, and argues that children occupy a negotiated position as citizens in ECE settings in Aotearoa.