Early Childhood Folio Online First

Of great concern within the Ministry for Regulation’s 2024 Regulatory Review of Early Childhood Education report was Recommendation number 10 that aims for greater flexibility in qualifications within the early childhood education (ECE) workforce. The recommendation directly undermines current policy objectives within the Early Learning Action Plan (2019–2029) which aspire towards a goal of 100% qualified teachers. Taking a strongly market-based approach to ECE and privileging the interests… Read more

This article is premised on a view that early childhood education (ECE) is a public good and a child’s right. As such, there is no place for ECE services to be treated as a private commodity that is bought and sold in the marketplace. Yet, despite policies to transform its ECE system under some enlightened governments, no substantive attempts have been made to shift from a model of marketisation and privatisation in providing ECE. This article discusses recent research on the growth of… Read more

This article examines how government policies have undermined equity and access in early childhood care and education in Aotearoa. While flaxroots initiatives have historically fostered inclusive, community-centred, low- or no-cost early childhood models, recent policies favouring commercial providers have intensified disparities, particularly for Māori and Pacific communities. The analysis situates these developments within broader patterns of structural injustice and cultural erosion,… Read more

Regulatory reform, recolonisation, and the fight for te reo Māori: This interview continues a vital thread from our previous issue’s coverage of Kōhanga Reo by situating the movement—and the political and pedagogical leadership of Associate Professor Mere Skerrett—within the increasingly fraught context of regulatory reform in Aotearoa.