As part of ongoing collaborations with associate and mentor teachers, we explore teachers’ decision making in order to help student teachers and others become aware of the myriad  decisions and political choices made by teachers in their everyday work with children. In this article we are particularly interested in care ...

Stories are a way that children under 3 years of age learn to share meaning with others. Most research with this age group has focused on 1:1 parent–child story relationships at home, largely book reading. These studies have positioned children in the role of story listeners rather than story tellers ...

The focus of this study is the cognitive process called mentalisation and how it is woven into Te Whāriki. Employing a qualitative content analysis, we sought to examine the embedded expectations and assumptions evident in the curriculum concerning how mentalisation processes and practices should be employed by teachers. Results showed ...

Recognising children as active and competent citizens holds promise for early childhood research and pedagogies worldwide. Researchers in China have not previously explored young children’s citizenship in detail. The project that is the focus of this article sought to address this research gap. Moss’ critical approach and Chen’s Asia as ...

The Middle Eastern population in New Zealand has grown significantly in the past two decades. However, little is known about Middle Eastern parents’ expectations and their children’s experiences of the New Zealand early education system. The PhD research on which this article is based was an attempt to address this ...

In te ao Māori, our connection to our maunga and physical landmarks speaks to who we are as a people. Our maunga are also a source of inspiration and direction. This article draws on the symbolism of maunga and describes a Māori process of the way maunga can also act ...

This article stems from participation in a TLRI research study, Renewing Participatory Democracy: Walking with Young Children to Story and Read the Land. It presents an account of the growing awareness of the place-based environmental and cultural relationship between Maunganui Kindergarten and Mauao.

The 2017 refresh of Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education (ECE) curriculum Te Whāriki was undertaken to better guide teachers in understanding their role in supporting children’s learning and to foster alignment of teaching practices, including intentional teaching, across the ECE sector. This article draws on a small-scale research project ...

Autism/takiwātanga causes differences in the way people develop and learn. This research, using case study methodology, focused on teacher interactions with young autistic children in different early childhood education and care settings. The findings indicated most of the teachers included the autistic child through the use of acceptance, good communication ...