scholarly journals Diverse complexities, complex diversities: Resisting 'normal science' in pedagogical and research methodologies. A perspective from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Position Learning ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Children's Literacy

This paper offers an overview of complexities of the contexts for education in Aotearoa, which include the need to recognise and include Māori (Indigenous) perspectives, but also to extend this inclusion to the context of increasing ethnic diversity. These complexities include the situation of worsening disparities between rich and poor which disproportionately position Māori and those from Pacific Island backgrounds in situations of poverty. It then offers a brief critique of government policies before providing some examples of models that resist 'normal science' categorisations. These include: the Māori values underpinning the effective teachers' profile of the Kotahitanga project and of the Māori assessment model for early childhood education; the dispositions identified in a Samoan model for assessing young children's learning; and the approach developed for assessing Māori children's literacy and numeracy within schools where Māori language is the medium of instruction. These models all position learning within culturally relevant frames that are grounded in non-Western onto-epistemologies which include spiritual, cultural, and collective aspirations.

scholarly journals Diverse complexities, complex diversities: Resisting 'normal science' in pedagogical and research methodologies. A perspective from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Position Learning ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Children's Literacy

This paper offers an overview of complexities of the contexts for education in Aotearoa, which include the need to recognise and include Māori (Indigenous) perspectives, but also to extend this inclusion to the context of increasing ethnic diversity. These complexities include the situation of worsening disparities between rich and poor which disproportionately position Māori and those from Pacific Island backgrounds in situations of poverty. It then offers a brief critique of government policies before providing some examples of models that resist 'normal science' categorisations. These include: the Māori values underpinning the effective teachers' profile of the Kotahitanga project and of the Māori assessment model for early childhood education; the dispositions identified in a Samoan model for assessing young children's learning; and the approach developed for assessing Māori children's literacy and numeracy within schools where Māori language is the medium of instruction. These models all position learning within culturally relevant frames that are grounded in non-Western onto-epistemologies which include spiritual, cultural, and collective aspirations.

scholarly journals Diverse complexities, complex diversities: Resisting 'normal science' in pedagogical and research methodologies. A perspective from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Position Learning ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Children's Literacy

This paper offers an overview of complexities of the contexts for education in Aotearoa, which include the need to recognise and include Māori (Indigenous) perspectives, but also to extend this inclusion to the context of increasing ethnic diversity. These complexities include the situation of worsening disparities between rich and poor which disproportionately position Māori and those from Pacific Island backgrounds in situations of poverty. It then offers a brief critique of government policies before providing some examples of models that resist 'normal science' categorisations. These include: the Māori values underpinning the effective teachers' profile of the Kotahitanga project and of the Māori assessment model for early childhood education; the dispositions identified in a Samoan model for assessing young children's learning; and the approach developed for assessing Māori children's literacy and numeracy within schools where Māori language is the medium of instruction. These models all position learning within culturally relevant frames that are grounded in non-Western onto-epistemologies which include spiritual, cultural, and collective aspirations.

scholarly journals Diverse complexities, complex diversities: Resisting ‘normal science’ in pedagogical and research methodologies. A perspective from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Position Learning ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Children's Literacy

Abstract This paper offers an overview of complexities of the contexts for education in Aotearoa, which include the need to recognise and include Māori (Indigenous) perspectives, but also to extend this inclusion to the context of increasing ethnic diversity. These complexities include the situation of worsening disparities between rich and poor which disproportionately position Māori and those from Pacific Island backgrounds in situations of poverty. It then offers a brief critique of government policies before providing some examples of models that resist ‘normal science’ categorisations. These include: the Māori values underpinning the effective teachers’ profile of the Kotahitanga project and of the Māori assessment model for early childhood education; the dispositions identified in a Samoan model for assessing young children’s learning; and the approach developed for assessing Māori children’s literacy and numeracy within schools where Māori language is the medium of instruction. These models all position learning within culturally relevant frames that are grounded in non-Western onto-epistemologies which include spiritual, cultural, and collective aspirations.

scholarly journals Diverse complexities, complex diversities: Resisting 'normal science' in pedagogical and research methodologies. A perspective from Aotearoa (New Zealand)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Position Learning ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Children's Literacy

This paper offers an overview of complexities of the contexts for education in Aotearoa, which include the need to recognise and include Māori (Indigenous) perspectives, but also to extend this inclusion to the context of increasing ethnic diversity. These complexities include the situation of worsening disparities between rich and poor which disproportionately position Māori and those from Pacific Island backgrounds in situations of poverty. It then offers a brief critique of government policies before providing some examples of models that resist 'normal science' categorisations. These include: the Māori values underpinning the effective teachers' profile of the Kotahitanga project and of the Māori assessment model for early childhood education; the dispositions identified in a Samoan model for assessing young children's learning; and the approach developed for assessing Māori children's literacy and numeracy within schools where Māori language is the medium of instruction. These models all position learning within culturally relevant frames that are grounded in non-Western onto-epistemologies which include spiritual, cultural, and collective aspirations.

Food Reciprocity and Sustainability in Early Childhood Care and Education in Aotearoa New Zealand

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Care ◽  
Childhood Care ◽  
Indigenous Perspectives ◽  
Sustainability Practices

AbstractThis article offers a perspective from early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws from the data of four recent studies to demonstrate pedagogical practices informed by Indigenous (Māori) perspectives. Māori values, such as manaakitanga (caring, hospitality, generosity) and whanaungatanga (relatedness), are shown featuring in routines focused on provision of food and serving as a key focus of early childhood education for sustainability. It is argued that providing opportunities for children to become engaged with growing, cooking and sharing food enables them to operationalise compassion towards themselves, others and the environment, reconnecting with the source of their food and demonstrating generosity and care to others (both human and more-than-human) in their communities. This can be viewed as a pedagogical response to the increasing encroachment of neoliberalism, with its incumbent individualism and lack of collectivist consciousness or concern for the environment, into education settings. Furthermore, drawing upon Indigenous perspectives honours traditional, localised wisdom regarding sustainability practices.

scholarly journals Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers’ Preparedness to Teach Education for Sustainability

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-96
Author(s):  
Anita Croft
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Sustainability Practices ◽  
Preparedness To Teach

The benefits of beginning Education for Sustainability (EfS) in early childhood are now widely documented. With the support of their teachers, young children have shown that through engagement in sustainability practices they are capable of becoming active citizens in their communities (Duhn, Bachmann, & Harris, 2010; Kelly & White, 2012; Ritchie, 2010; Vaealiki & Mackey, 2008). Engagement with EfS has not been widespread across the early childhood sector in Aotearoa New Zealand (Duhn et al., 2010; Vaealiki & Mackey, 2008) until recently. One way of addressing EfS in early childhood education is through teacher education institutions preparing students to teach EfS when they graduate.

scholarly journals Positioning Children Citizens: Exploring Discourses in Early Childhood Curricula in China and Aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Peng Xu
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Citizenship Status ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand

 Positioning young children as citizens, now rather than as citizens in waiting, is an emerging discourse in early childhood education internationally. Differing discourses related to young children and early childhood reveal various ideas of children as citizens, and what their citizenship status, practice and education can be. This paper analyses the national early childhood education (ECE) curricula of China and Aotearoa New Zealand for the purpose of understanding how children are constructed as citizens within such policy discourses. Discourse analysis is employed in this study as a methodological approach for understanding the subjectivities of young children and exploring the meanings of young children’s citizenship in both countries. Based on Foucault’s theory of governmentality, this paper ultimately argues that young children’s citizenship in contemporary ECE curricula in China and New Zealand is a largely neoliberal construction. However, emerging positionings shape differing possibilities for citizenship education for young children in each of these countries.

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.

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