Bicultural Curriculum Research Articles

Reignited flames: Just Early Childhood Education in neoliberal times

In Australasia there is great enthusiasm if little understanding of the ontology of Reggio Emilia preschools. The ontology of both Reggio Emilia schools and the New Zealand Early Childhood Education (ECE) bi-cultural curriculum emerge from invasive experiences of military violence, of framing ECE as social justice. In this paper I tell three tales of ‘quality’. Two are contexted, local, where the quality draws on the ontology of resisting violence. The third, with a veneer of neutrality, does a violence to these, through decontextualized econometric claims to universality.

Māori leadership and early childhood educational leadership in Aotearoa: A critical literature review

Abstract Five early childhood teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand explored a range of literature to respond to the question: What does literature tell us about Māori leadership and how are our findings relevant to leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa? The process of finding and reviewing literature sources about Māori leadership led us to think critically about how Māori values, concepts, and customs have been diminished or sustained in fields such as education and business. ECE in Aotearoa is shaped by the bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki and underpinned by obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Although education and leadership structures and processes in Aotearoa are overwhelmingly produced within Westernised perspectives, ECE curriculum and practice foregrounds Māori ways of knowing, being, and doing. Through the literature review process, we shared insights and critical discussions that enriched our perceptions of leadership by and for Māori, and of relevance to ECE leadership through shared values. The literature reviewed provided examples from education and business settings where Māori leadership grounded in values of whanaungatanga/reciprocal relationality originating in Māori traditional beliefs and societal structures has been sustained, remembered, and reclaimed through processes of navigating and negotiating present-day colonised contexts. Literature also provided examples of official programmes and policies that seek to acknowledge and enhance Māori leadership in education.

Early childhood education student teachers’ perceptions of implementing a bicultural curriculum

ABSTRACT This article explores how early childhood student teachers are developing competency to implement bicultural practices in New Zealand. It uses surveys and focus-group interviews to examine 162 student teachers’ understanding of the early childhood curriculum, and its implementation during their three-year degree initial teacher education programme. Results showed that the term “bicultural curriculum” was not well understood, and there was confusion over whether Te Tiriti o Waitangi or the Treaty of Waitangi forms the basis of the bicultural curriculum. Student teachers lacked confidence in competently using te reo (the Māori language) within their daily practices and articulating tikanga Māori (cultural constructs).

Transformative shifts in early childhood education systems after four decades of neoliberalism

Aotearoa New Zealand’s policy shifts to an integrated system of early childhood education (ECE), its development of a bicultural curriculum for all children from birth to five years, and its progress towards a fully qualified, equitably paid, ECE teaching workforce, have partially transformed the ECE system. But there is still much to do. Four decades of neoliberalism have led to the rise of financialised corporate ECE, and weakened the sustainability of community and public provision. This paper analyses the people, politics and processes that facilitated and hindered reform, and proposes policy measures needed to make substantive transformations to a high quality, public and democratic ECE system.

Advice from Māori Experts for Bicultural Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Te Whāriki, the first bicultural early childhood education curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand, gained national and international attention. While there was widespread acceptance of its bicultural intent, Te Whāriki was not well understood and implemented as a bicultural curriculum. Early childhood education teachers lacked confidence and struggled to integrate te reo me ngā tikanga Māori into their daily practices. This article gives voice to the wisdom of three mature stalwarts of te ao Māori and the unique community-based lens of tangata whenua from five marae across the country. It provides pathways into how te ao Māori can be implemented into daily practices, programmes, and pedagogies of teachers in the early childhood sector. An Indigenous framework was used to explore what needs to happen to have a bicultural early childhood education sector. These included knowing and understanding how whakapapa can be the key to engaging in te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori.

The status of the image in ECE assessment practice

While much has been done to advance narrative assessment practice in the early years, less attention has been granted to the role of the image in this pursuit. As a consequence, the purposes, value and strategic use of images (photographs, videos, visual metaphors etc.) in foregrounding learning of young children are not well understood. This paper reports on the results of a short pilot survey, sent to the early childhood education (ECE) sector Aotearoa New Zelaand in early February 2022, asking a series of exploratory questions about the status and utility of the image in ECE assessment. Images were not only viewed by many respondents as central to assessment and the co-production of knowledge about children’s learning, but they were also considered to be significant in terms of the trustworthiness and credibility of assessment information. Images represented young children’s learning in accessible ways and provided for reinterpretation, negotiation of meaning, and ongoing conversations about children’s changing experiences, capabilities, relationships, and community in ECE. As entry points to assessment dialogues with whānau and children, images provided a shared source of evidence about valued learning. We conclude with a provocation arising from understanding images as central to assessment that calls for more critical literacy concerning the placement and status of the image in ECE assessment practice – especially in light of assessment in the bicultural curriculum context of Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017).

Pedagogical intentions: Enacting a “refreshed” bicultural curriculum positioned at the crossroads of colonial relations, biocultural education, and critical literacy

Pedagogical intentions: Enacting a “refreshed” bicultural curriculum positioned at the crossroads of colonial relations, biocultural education, and critical literacy

Early Childhood Education and Biculturalism: Definitions and Implications

My doctoral research concerned implementing bicultural curriculum in mainstream early childhood centres in Aotearoa New Zealand. While I explored these ideas from an appreciative inquiry standpoint, some troubling aspects related to the notion of biculturalism occurred. In this article, definitions of biculturalism are examined, as is the relationship between bilingualism and biculturalism, as well as the growing move to replace power sharing implied by biculturalism, with multiculturalism. In addition to perusing the literature, data were collected through a survey of 76 early childhood respondents, in 2003. Generally, respondents had a positive definition of biculturalism. However, when considering whether bicultural practices were a positive expression or not academic literature was divided. What was interesting in Aotearoa New Zealand was overall those promoting biculturalism were Pākehā and those opposed were Māori. One conclusion I draw is that the term Tiriti-based better captures the intention of partnership than biculturalism.

Early Childhood Inclusion in Aotearoa New Zealand

Early childhood education is encouraged for all 3- to 5-year-old children in New Zealand (known in the Māori language as Aotearoa) and is supported by a well-constructed bicultural curriculum (Te Whāriki) and reasonably generous government funding. However, a number of factors mitigate against inclusion of children with developmental delays and disabilities. These include a lack of training for early childhood teachers; no requirement for Early Childhood Centers to have policies of inclusion; funding and support arrangements based on age rather than developmental stage; a lack of sufficient specialist and paraprofessional support; and a strong sociocultural approach to early childhood education that is often at odds with the need for active support of child development. These barriers to inclusion are surprising, given the quality of the curriculum, the government-supported levels of oversight and quality assessment, and the strong rights-driven research tradition across the nation's universities. The most pressing need is for significant changes to the preservice and in-service teacher education programs to ensure that the responsibility for inclusion is shouldered by the whole profession and the potential of Te Whāriki can be realized.

New Zealand perspectives on early childhood education: Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi

Abstract This special issue focuses on histories, pedagogies, policies, philosophies and alternative perspectives in early childhood education. Te Whāriki is heralded as the first bicultural curriculum not only in New Zealand, but in the world. Its importance is reflected in national and international research and early childhood discourses. Despite this, there is simultaneous critique of neoliberal policy, globalised practices and public and private investment in early childhood education in this region. Some lessons from New Zealand, of curriculum building, policy implementation, philosophies and sociologies of children and childhood are explored by New Zealand scholars, and focus on these broad New Zealand perspectives of ECE, to address the diverse interests of an international audience.

Bicultural Babies: Implementing Tiriti-Based Curriculum with Infants and Toddlers

AN IMPORTANT ESSENCE IN becoming bicultural and bilingual is for additional languages to be learnt early on. This article is based on an infant and toddler case study within my doctoral research to discover how practitioners with this age group incorporate the bicultural curriculum into their teaching. The methodology was action development which is a synthesis of appreciative inquiry and action research. The findings show that the early childhood practitioners had strategies to support and encourage the implementation of the bicultural curriculum with children less than two years of age. Working as team, modelling both te reo Māori and English, enabled the children to begin their bicultural journey. Practitioners using the appreciative approach built on their strengths to grow in confidence. This research is important for practitioners working with babies to ensure they have the possibilities to develop cognitively and linguistically through learning additional cultures and languages.

Funds of knowledge: Developing a Diploma in Teaching in Early Childhood Education in the Solomon Islands

This article discusses how three early childhood teacher educators, from the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education School of Education and the University of Waikato Faculty of Education, worked in partnership together and with others to develop a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the Solomon Islands. We argue that the knowledge and understandings that we shared about New Zealand early childhood education and its bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki made our task easier from the outset. So too did our shared “funds of knowledge” and expertise, particularly the Solomon Islands women’s indigenous knowledge and abilities to reflect on teaching and learning in their nation and New Zealand, two contexts they understood well. As we worked through a range of issues related to the development and delivery of courses, the primacy of relationships and historical, cultural and social contexts for learning were reinforced. Broad understandings of relevant education pedagogy for adults and young children were incorporated through the diploma development process. The result was a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education and new ways of teaching and learning embedded in Solomon Islands contexts, blending the best of local and imported knowledge. This article adds to a small body of literature related to ECE in the Solomon Islands and the Pacific region.

Bicultural Development: Innovation in Implementation of Te Whäriki

A recent innovation in early childhood care and education in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been the new curriculum, Te Whäriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), which has a strong bicultural emphasis. This means that early childhood educators and teacher educators are attempting to address the challenges posed by a document which requires them to move outside the mono cultural dominant paradigm. Most early childhood teachers and teacher educators are not speakers of the Maori language, and lack Maori cultural knowledge. This paper discusses some of the strategies identified in research which addresses these issues. The role of teacher education in preparing non-Maori students to deliver a bicultural curriculum, and ‘indicators’ of bicultural development in early childhood centres are also discussed.

Implementing a bicultural curriculum: Some Considerations

Implementing a bicultural curriculum: Some Considerations