Early Childhood Folio vol. 23 no. 1 (2019)

In this article, we discuss findings from a study of how 22 teachers in kindergartens and education and care centres in Aotearoa New Zealand spent their time at work. The teachers filled in time-use diaries, writing down details of what they did at different times over a whole working day. The diary entries were coded using a taxonomy developed by Charles Sturt University and Queensland University of Technology researchers in Australia, identifying the types of activities and length of time… Read more

In this article I discuss how discourses of democratic early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a child’s right, and enterprise discourses of ECEC as a commodity, have constructed teachers’ work and professional identities in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past two decades. I illustrate two prevailing identity constructions of teachers emerging from these discourses—activist–advocates and teachers–entrepreneurs. By revealing the powerful impacts of inconsistent policy directives on the… Read more

Excursions (field trips) can provide new and exciting learning opportunities outside schools and early childhood education (ECE) centres, adding new dimensions to an education programme. This article presents the findings from two doctoral studies by Terreni (2017) and Ryder (2019). Terreni, as part of a mixed-method approach, undertook a large-scale national questionnaire which asked early childhood teachers in New Zealand about the degree to which early childhood teachers undertake… Read more

This article reviews the draft Strategic Plan for Early Learning 2019–2029 against the New Zealand Government’s obligations to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Using discourse analysis, the authors identify explicit and implicit references to protection, provision, and participation rights within the document. The analysis shows that the Government has prioritised protection and provision rights, even though the vision for early childhood education offered within the… Read more

The draft early learning strategic plan He Taonga Te Tamaiti/Every Child a Taonga (Ministry of Education, 2018) has a goal to improve quality by regulating for 100% teachers in teacher-led services. This proposal assumes a distinct separation between teachers and parents, and between services employing professional teachers and those with parents-as-educators. This article uses the “What’s the problem represented to be?” (WPR) policy analysis approach of Carol Bacchi (2009) to examine and… Read more

What do we know about the situation of leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa New Zealand? What can we learn from relevant leadership research? How can we use these insights to support change processes in ECE? The release of the draft 2019–29 Strategic Plan for Early Learning suggests we give serious consideration to these questions. Engaging with the goals of the plan will depend on leadership at all levels of the system. We cannot, however, make any assumptions about how… Read more