Early Childhood Folio Vol. 17 No. 1 (2013)

This is one of a series about researchers whose work has made a difference in early years education. Jane Blaikie writes about the work of Marie Bell (19 February 1922–3 November 2012).

How might ways of engaging with families set Pasifika children up for learning success? Early childhood education in New Zealand is commonly play-based and builds on teachers’ understandings about children’s interests and abilities. Teachers are encouraged to collaborate with families in their assessment and planning. However, there is little research available to guide teachers in mainstream centres to interpret Pasifika children’s interests and inquiries, particularly those that link with… Read more

How do teachers use their interests to support teaching and learning episodes with children? How is the national early childhood curriculum,  Te Whāriki, implemented by teachers? This article uses the conversation analysis of video and audio recordings of three teachers in their day-to-day interactions with children to further explore teaching strategies that reveal how individual teachers implement Te Whāriki in their unique way.

Recent demographic changes create new challenges for teachers in English-medium settings in early years education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Increases in the number of children learning in more than one language demand an urgent review of teachers’ pedagogies. This article draws on findings from a study that examined ways five bilingual teachers used their home languages in English-medium early childhood education and care settings in Auckland. It takes up a challenge from a recent… Read more

This article is based on a small-scale qualitative study that explored children’s and teachers’ responses to a selection of picture books about family diversity. The picture books all featured same-gender parented families and are in keeping with Te Whāriki where it is maintained that children and their families should see their culture, values, and family diversity reflected in the curriculum in ECE settings. Findings show that children were more likely to talk about the… Read more

What constitutes a quality centre or an effective teacher cannot be assumed to be globally the same and beliefs about quality invariably support dominant ideologies. For example, in the New Zealand early childhood education context, teacher-child ratios and group size are seen as two of the criteria used to identify structural indicators of quality. In Japan, it is difficult to support the kind of learning environment favoured in New Zealand due to the high Japanese teacher-… Read more

When children in Aotearoa New Zealand begin school at 5 years of age they take with them a wealth of learning. For the majority of children transitioning from early childhood education to school this learning has been documented in portfolios. In many cases, and for many reasons, these portfolios are not shared with the school. However, teachers in a number of early childhood centres and schools have explored ways in which this sharing can contribute to continuity for the child and their… Read more