Dominant cultural beliefs about disability can impact on the learning, participation, and inclusion of disabled children. This case study highlights the experiences of one family and their daughter, Clare, at their early childhood centre, where teacher beliefs about disabled children being “deficient” and “different” resulted in Clare not fully participating in the life ...

For the teachers at Botany Downs Kindergarten, inclusion is an attitude and a set of values. They don’t just focus on special-needs children; they create a welcoming, inclusive environment for all involved in the kindergarten—children, families, teachers, even pets—and use possibility thinking to overcome problems and increase inclusion.

In home-based early childhood networks, co-ordinators play a key role in supporting educators to provide quality education for children. This article investigates what co-ordinators can do to effectively support educators to enhance their work with children, including providing supportive advice and on-the-job training.

Ann Hatherly distills three key messages from the Early Childhood Education Information and Communication Technology Professional Learning Programme.

Wadestown Kindergarten became one of the six designated Centres of Innovation in round three of the COI programme in 2006. This article discusses the kindergarten's focus on multiple literacies and its role in communicative competence and meaning making.

In late 2003–early 2004, NZCER researchers surveyed early childhood services around the country, talking to parents, managers, and teachers about all aspects of what was being provided.

Rules are presented as cultural tools that assist socialisation, yet observations revealed that young children subvert adults’ messages. A sociocultural interpretation offers teachers an alternative way of understanding this more challenging aspect of young children’s behaviour.

The connecting role of playfulness in young children’s communication is explored with a specific focus on children’s playful narratives. Such narratives are useful frameworks for teachers’ understanding and interacting with children in meaningful ways to promote learning for teachers and children.

Supporting Parents Alongside Children’s Education (SPACE) programme is a New Zealand early childhood Centre of Innovation (COI) aiming to support first-time parents with newborn infants in a group setting as they share the journey through their infant’s early months.

Strategies to support children’s active participation in research about them or the conditions of childhood are investigated in this article. Some participatory-research approaches used with children in a kindergarten setting are included.