Online portfolios, which allow teachers, families and children to document and share children’s experiences and learning, are increasingly used by New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) services. This study examined teachers’ and families’ engagement through one online portfolio system. An online survey gathered management, teacher, and whānau perspectives from 80 ...

Documentation of children’s assessment for learning is a vital cog in the turning gears of early childhood education (ECE). This article examines findings from a current research study comparing teacher, parent, and whānau engagement with, and use of, paper-based portfolios traditionally used in an ECE setting and newly introduced online ...

The authors of this article explore one child’s connections between the dispositional learning outcomes recognised during the child’s time at kindergarten, and those of the key competencies of the school curriculum. The kindergarten teachers who worked with the child came to think of these learning dispositions as part of the contents of the ...

This article considers ways in which early childhood educators in Aotearoa New Zealand might draw upon te ao Māori conceptualisations in delivering pedagogies that foster and enhance dispositions of empathy, compassion, and caring, thereby strengthening children’s emotional and social competence as well as their self-control. It first outlines some theoretical considerations from both ...

Relationships lie at the heart of early childhood education principles, curriculum, and pedagogy. Building strong relationships is taken for granted as a capacity all teachers possess; yet this might be an area of practice in which teachers need support and professional guidance. In this article, we examine and discuss what teachers do to ...

Imagine you are an immigrant early childhood teacher ... This article tells your story of transition and diversity. It interweaves tensions and complex realities, and explores issues and concerns for immigrant teachers in the cultural places and relational spaces of early childhood settings. Using teacher narratives and a post-structural discourse analysis, this article ...

Relationships between children’s preschool and school educators are regarded as an important influence on children’s transition to school. This article reports on a study which investigated the nature of communication between preschools and schools in Australia. The strengths and weaknesses of communication reported by educators indicate elements which build positive relationships between settings ...

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study aiming to deepen the understanding of the transition from preschool into school, with special regard to participation and learning, from the perspective of students and teachers involved. The results show that, although children appear well prepared and comfortable facing school, a system that requires two ...

This article is about the barriers and supports experienced by “priority” (defined by the Ministry of Education as Māori, Pasifika and low socio-economic status) families in making decisions and enrolling their children in early childhood education (ECE). It draws predominantly on data from interviews with parents to examine some of the key ways ...