Pathway to the future? Doing Childcare in the Era of New Zealand's Early Childhood Strategic Plan.

I have always been interested in teachers' work in groups, partly because of my background as a teacher in centre-based childcare and, more recently, as a facilitator of in-service teacher education. When I turned to the literature on teacher decision-making with respect to curriculum I found, however, that existing studies were almost all drawn from accounts of individual teachers. It seemed to me to be one thing to examine individual teachers at work, investigating their beliefs about curriculum and their articulation of their practice (e.g., Ayers, 1989; Burton, 1997; Hseih & Spodek, 1995; Paley, 2001). But what if several such teachers were put together for several hours, in a single teaching space, with a large group of children aged from birth to five? How would they make it work? As I contemplated this research focus, it was evident to me that the curriculum was a key construct around which teachers' shared decision-making might be explored. A milestone in New Zealand education during the 1990s was the development of the early childhood curriculum framework Te Whariki: He Whariki Matauranga mo nga Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996a). This document was the result of extensive collaboration and consultation across the early childhood sector (Te One, 2003) and had been greeted enthusiastically in its draft form by early childhood teachers (Murrow, 1995). But, as I embarked on my doctoral research in late 1999, a persistent question troubled me: What did early childhood teachers mean when they used the word 'curriculum'? Several years had passed between the release of the draft version of Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1993) and the beginnings of my research, but there had been very little investigation of this question in New Zealand. The combination of my interest in teachers' work in groups and this conundrum about early childhood curriculum generated my principal research question: How do groups of early childhood teachers intersubjectively construct and enact their definition(s) of curriculum

Supervision and assessment of the early childhood practicum : experiences of pre-service teachers who speak English as a second language and their supervising teachers

Findings are reported from the third phase of a small exploratory study that aimed to understand how pre-service teachers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and those who supervise them in early childhood settings, experience practicum assessment, and the extent to which practicum assessment takes into account pre-service teacher diversity. Discourse analysis (Foucault, 1972), applied to interviews with pre-service teachers and supervising teachers, revealed a persistent ‘discourse of denial’ of cultural difference on the part of supervising teachers, who nevertheless genuinely attempted to negotiate the inevitable challenges posed by the supervision of CALD pre-service teachers. The paper concludes that supervising teachers were at pains to produce and perpetuate a liberal humanist discourse within which all human beings are ‘the same’ or should be equal, even as they attempted to recognise CALD pre-service teachers’ learning styles and needs

Inter-professional work with young children in hospital: The role of 'relational agency'

This paper reports from the first phase of a study of the inter-professional work of hospital play specialists (HPSs). In this phase, the author aimed to test the utility of Edwards’ concept of ‘relational agency’ in inter-professional work in hospital settings. Individual HPSs in two London hospitals were observed for half-day periods, with particular attention paid to inter-professional episodes. At the end of each observation, the play specialists were interviewed by the author about the interpretations of the work of other professionals they brought to these episodes. Inductive analysis of the resulting transcripts suggests that the participants were able to clearly articulate their core expertise and identify the motives underlying the work of a range of other professionals. While the play specialists were motivated by their commitment to children’s rights, they identified medical professionals as primarily motivated by treatment outcomes. The paper concludes with discussion of the study’s implications for further research and for the preparation of professionals for inter-professional work

Children’s Centre Coordinator Pedagogical Mentoring and Coaching Program Development Project

The development of pedagogical leadership amongst children's centre co-ordinators with the City of Knox. Data gathered to support research on the development of pedagogical leadership in early years settings, in the context of shifting policy, funding, curriculum and staffing. Transcripts of interviews conducted with 11 early child care co-ordinators and family day care co-ordinators. Six interviews were conducted with each participation, with six week intervals between data collection. Approx. 50 electronic format transcripts. Research and Development Project, External Contract with City of Knox. Jocelyn Grace Nuttall (Chief Investigator

Early childhood curriculum and learning frameworks

The study of early childhood curriculum is a fundamental component of programs of early childhood teacher education. This entry addresses three basic dimensions of the study of curriculum: the concept of curriculum; how curriculum has traditionally been defined in early childhood education; and the role of early childhood learning frameworks and curriculum policy documents. It concludes by offering some considerations about how early childhood curriculum can be addressed in teacher education course design

Engaging with ambivalence: The neglect of early childhood teacher education in initial teacher education reform in Australia

Policy reforms in initial teacher education in Australia have typically omitted the early childhood sector. This chapter adopts a cultural-historical perspective to explain this persistent neglect. Obvious explanations, such as the location of early childhood education outside the compulsory education sector, are noted. It then argues that recent policy attention to early childhood education internationally makes this neglect increasingly difficult for teacher education policy-makers to sustain. Five emerging dimensions of teaching in the early childhood sector in Australia, including regulatory demands to increase the supply of degree-qualified teachers, are offered as evidence for the likelihood of teacher education policy reform reaching into early childhood education in the near future. The chapter concludes with proposals for research directions urgently needed to inform such reforms