Bicultural Development: Innovation in Implementation of Te Whäriki

2002 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Recent Innovation ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Te Whāriki

A recent innovation in early childhood care and education in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been the new curriculum, Te Whäriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), which has a strong bicultural emphasis. This means that early childhood educators and teacher educators are attempting to address the challenges posed by a document which requires them to move outside the mono cultural dominant paradigm. Most early childhood teachers and teacher educators are not speakers of the Maori language, and lack Maori cultural knowledge. This paper discusses some of the strategies identified in research which addresses these issues. The role of teacher education in preparing non-Maori students to deliver a bicultural curriculum, and ‘indicators’ of bicultural development in early childhood centres are also discussed.

scholarly journals Early childhood care and education in the cultural context of aotearoa (New Zealand)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Cultural Constructs ◽  
Narrative Assessment ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Te Whāriki

© 2018 Taylor and Francis. Early childhood care and education in Aotearoa (New Zealand) has been celebrated through the international interest in the innovative sociocultural curriculum, Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 1996). This document is now 20 years old, and is at the time of writing being updated by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. 1 In this chapter, a brief overview of the historical and cultural contexts of early childhood care and education leads into a discussion of some key cultural constructs and values that are recognised in Te Whāriki; in particular, those of the Indigenous people, the Māori. Discussion of the narrative assessment models that were developed to support the implementation of Te Whāriki is followed by an outline of implications for teacher education. The chapter ends with some reflections on aspirations for the future of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa.

scholarly journals Early childhood care and education in the cultural context of Aotearoa (New Zealand)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Cultural Constructs ◽  
Narrative Assessment ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Te Whāriki

© 2018 Taylor and Francis. Early childhood care and education in Aotearoa (New Zealand) has been celebrated through the international interest in the innovative sociocultural curriculum, Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 1996). This document is now 20 years old, and is at the time of writing being updated by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. 1 In this chapter, a brief overview of the historical and cultural contexts of early childhood care and education leads into a discussion of some key cultural constructs and values that are recognised in Te Whāriki; in particular, those of the Indigenous people, the Māori. Discussion of the narrative assessment models that were developed to support the implementation of Te Whāriki is followed by an outline of implications for teacher education. The chapter ends with some reflections on aspirations for the future of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa.

scholarly journals Early childhood care and education in the cultural context of aotearoa (New Zealand)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Cultural Constructs ◽  
Narrative Assessment ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Te Whāriki

© 2018 Taylor and Francis. Early childhood care and education in Aotearoa (New Zealand) has been celebrated through the international interest in the innovative sociocultural curriculum, Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 1996). This document is now 20 years old, and is at the time of writing being updated by the New Zealand Ministry of Education. 1 In this chapter, a brief overview of the historical and cultural contexts of early childhood care and education leads into a discussion of some key cultural constructs and values that are recognised in Te Whāriki; in particular, those of the Indigenous people, the Māori. Discussion of the narrative assessment models that were developed to support the implementation of Te Whāriki is followed by an outline of implications for teacher education. The chapter ends with some reflections on aspirations for the future of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa.

scholarly journals Qualities for early childhood care and education in an age of increasing superdiversity and decreasing biodiversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Opening Up

© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. In this article it is argued that notions of ‘quality’ in early childhood education have been captured by neo-liberal discourses. These discourses perpetuate the western, individualistic, normativising and exploitative attitudes and practices that are contributing to the climate crisis currently imperilling our planet. Educators may inadvertently perpetuate this situation, or they can instead consciously challenge this dominant culture, opening up spaces of divergence. Via a sequence of short scenarios or stories based within the early childhood care and education context of Aotearoa (New Zealand), readers are invited to consider alternative conceptualisations, drawing on post-humanist and Indigenous theorising, which focus on fostering dispositional qualities that holistically engage intra-actively with(in) children’s worlds.

Disrupting the paradigm: “Children need to learn how to learn”

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 6-20
Author(s):  
Beverley Clark ◽  
Hilda Hughson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Know How ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Children And Childhood ◽  
Te Whāriki

The views that early childhood teachers have of children and childhood are informed by the rhetoric and theories of early childhood, their cultures, life stories, philosophies, and ongoing practices as teachers. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Whāriki, the legislated national curriculum for early childhood education, further guides early childhood teachers’ practice and frames teachers’ image of the young child. This article confronts and critiques a short phrase that is an addition to the revised Te Whāriki curriculum document, specifically the phrase that children “need to learn how to learn”. This phrase implies that young children do not know how to learn. The implication in this utterance belies the intense drive that children have to learn, to play, to explore, and to understand as they grow in strength in their sense of self within their whānau and communities. We care about the image that this presents to student teachers, to teachers. We challenge whether the notion that children need to learn how to learn is the image that early childhood teachers hold, or want to hold, of children. We argue that this phrase and image of the child as needing to learn how to learn is a loose thread in the whāriki that potentially undermines and is counter to the more dominant concept within Te Whāriki of the competent child.

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