Early Childhood Folio vol. 18 no. 1 (2014)

The rights of children with disabilities to access and fully participate in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres are protected by key international legislation including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Furthermore, Aotearoa New Zealand’s legislation reinforces international conventions by way of the Human Rights Act (1989) and The New Zealand Disability Strategy. This legislation, and… Read more

In New Zealand there is currently no one definition of what it means for a child to be categorised as “gifted and talented”. The very notion of “giftedness” is in itself unclear, with teachers holding varying levels of understanding. This is problematic, making identification complex and pedagogical decision-making ad hoc, with gifted and talented young children often going unnoticed and unsupported in the early years. This article presents findings from a qualitative case study that… Read more

The multicultural nature of early childhood services in New Zealand is highlighted by the statistical reality that 22 percent of children are Māori, 7 percent are Pasifika, and 11 percent are Asian and other non-European/Pākehā ethnicities. Multicultural early childhood education has become a vital practice underpinning educational reforms. This is evident in a range of government initiatives including, for example, building partnerships with whānau Māori to improve Māori success in… Read more

Parent–teacher partnerships are critical to enacting the principles of Te Whāriki: relationships, family and community, empowerment, and holistic development. Our project used “funds of knowledge” as a theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tool to explore partnership connections for children between the contexts of home and centre. This article discusses teachers’ experiences of visiting children’s family homes and ways these visits transformed… Read more

Children are constantly trying to make sense of their world. Working theories—one of the key learning outcomes of Te Whāriki—are constructed, adapted, and enriched in children’s lives as children experience the world around them and interact with others. This article presents findings from a study that investigated teacher strategies that were used to support and challenge children’s working theories. In particular, verbal strategies—engaging in dialogue—are… Read more

This article discusses aspects of the journeys and emergent thinking of teachers/kaiako in the three Māori immersion/bilingual early childhood services that participated in the Whatu Kākahu—Assessment in Kaupapa (Philosophy) Māori Early Childhood Practice study. Through the exploration of kaupapa Māori assessment approaches, the services worked to reclaim and reframe Māori ways of knowing and being within early childhood and assessment theory and practice. The… Read more