Navigating the entanglements: Curriculum and assessment priorities in transitioning to school in Aotearoa-New Zealand

<p>This thesis critically examines the curriculum and assessment priorities children encounter as they transition from early childhood to school and the modes of being, doing, knowing, and relating these priorities promote or make difficult. An initial focus on children’s multimodal ways of operating shifted as this study progressed toward a more relational materialist conception of multimodality, drawing on the thinking of Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Karen Barad. A key focus became tracing the heterogeneous forces and entities that authorise and prioritise particular constructions of learning and learners. The thesis follows the curriculum and assessment priorities six focus children met with in their last six months at kindergarten and their first six months in a new entrant classroom, and explores how these priorities relate to those of the children and their families. Data drawn on include a range of policy and practice-related documentation, interviews, fieldnotes and video-recorded observations. Excerpts of video are incorporated into the thesis as ‘cases to think with’ about key dimensions of everyday pedagogical activity not well represented by words. While it may be a truism to say children navigate the move from early childhood to school differently, this thesis brings attention to the multiplicity of forces at play in how this move unfolds for particular children. It offers critical insights into the complex ways the global, local and ‘here and now’ specificities operate in entanglement to produce pedagogical priorities and learner-subjectivities. It highlights that the curriculum and assessment priorities for children in this study being/becoming new entrants strongly favoured children who were lingusitically adept, and willing and able to adjust to tightly prescribed classroom normativities, many of which centred around control of the body. This thesis challenges the ongoing privileging of the verbal, arguing for the importance of making space for children’s other modes of being, doing, knowing and relating. It questions the recent narrowing and intensifying emphasis on standards-based assessment and the strongly individualistic, regulatory discourse of self-managing learners. It foregrounds the ways in which transition to school agendas have escalated nationally and internationally and become part of day-to-day curriculum and assessment priorities. On the basis of these findings I call for greater ethical regard for the heterogeneity of children and the capacities they bring and are capable of, including the capacity to engage with ‘real world’ multiplicity and difference-making interconnectivities with human and more-than-human others.</p>

Navigating the entanglements: Curriculum and assessment priorities in transitioning to school in Aotearoa-New Zealand

<p>This thesis critically examines the curriculum and assessment priorities children encounter as they transition from early childhood to school and the modes of being, doing, knowing, and relating these priorities promote or make difficult. An initial focus on children’s multimodal ways of operating shifted as this study progressed toward a more relational materialist conception of multimodality, drawing on the thinking of Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari and Karen Barad. A key focus became tracing the heterogeneous forces and entities that authorise and prioritise particular constructions of learning and learners. The thesis follows the curriculum and assessment priorities six focus children met with in their last six months at kindergarten and their first six months in a new entrant classroom, and explores how these priorities relate to those of the children and their families. Data drawn on include a range of policy and practice-related documentation, interviews, fieldnotes and video-recorded observations. Excerpts of video are incorporated into the thesis as ‘cases to think with’ about key dimensions of everyday pedagogical activity not well represented by words. While it may be a truism to say children navigate the move from early childhood to school differently, this thesis brings attention to the multiplicity of forces at play in how this move unfolds for particular children. It offers critical insights into the complex ways the global, local and ‘here and now’ specificities operate in entanglement to produce pedagogical priorities and learner-subjectivities. It highlights that the curriculum and assessment priorities for children in this study being/becoming new entrants strongly favoured children who were lingusitically adept, and willing and able to adjust to tightly prescribed classroom normativities, many of which centred around control of the body. This thesis challenges the ongoing privileging of the verbal, arguing for the importance of making space for children’s other modes of being, doing, knowing and relating. It questions the recent narrowing and intensifying emphasis on standards-based assessment and the strongly individualistic, regulatory discourse of self-managing learners. It foregrounds the ways in which transition to school agendas have escalated nationally and internationally and become part of day-to-day curriculum and assessment priorities. On the basis of these findings I call for greater ethical regard for the heterogeneity of children and the capacities they bring and are capable of, including the capacity to engage with ‘real world’ multiplicity and difference-making interconnectivities with human and more-than-human others.</p>

Transition from Aoga Amata to school: case studies in the Wellington region

<p>Background The rapid increase in the number of Samoan children receiving early childhood education in their heritage language through the Aoga Amata movement has prompted the researcher to examine how continuity is being handled during the transition to primary schooling. During 1996-7, I interviewed parents, teachers, principals and children about the transition from Aoga Amata programmes to junior class programmes in fourteen primary schools. In addition, I gathered descriptions of how parents viewed the nature and the quality of Aoga Amata programmes, and how teachers and principals viewed issues of language maintenance. I also asked children to reflect on their Aoga Amata experience and then engage in performance tasks that provided me with an opportunity to gauge their spoken proficiency in Samoan. Aim The primary aim of the study was to gather information from parents, children, teachers and principals about the way the transition to school was organised for Aoga Amata children. Sampling procedures I used a community network approach to gain access to a pool of twenty recent graduates of Aoga Amata and their receiving schools. In addition, I chose six children for case study purposes because of the interesting circumstance each child represented. Thirty-nine parents, fourteen teachers and fourteen principals completed the sample. Procedures I used structured interviews, questionnaire versions of the structured interviews, and performance tasks in order to collect information. I asked about the strategies used to cope with the transition to primary school; the impact of the transition on children, the perceptions of parents about Aoga Amata programmes, perceptions of teachers about the transition to primary school, and the factors thought by stakeholders to be contributing to the maintenance of the Samoan language in school. The procedures used to gather information were carried out using culturally appropriate communication processes that made use of faafeiloaiga faa Samoa (cultural greetings), faaaloalo (respect and supply of food), faamalie ona o ni itu e faalavelavea ai le suesuega (acknowledgement of intrusion) and lauga faafetai/faamavae (speeches of appreciation and farewell). Results Only one Aoga Amata/school partnership had a comprehensive programme where the graduates of the Aoga Amata were received into a bilingual programme taught by a native speaker of Samoan. The Aoga Amata was on the school grounds and this enabled linkages to develop over a period of time between its staff, the teachers at the school, the children, and the children's families. When children were received into schools where there was no continuity of language and curriculum, the transition was perceived as less satisfactory, especially in the early days of the transition. Compared to children who attended other early childhood educational centres, or remained at home, children who had attended an Aoga Amata programme were generally perceived by most teachers and parents as having more developed literacy, numeracy, and social skills. Schools varied in the position they took on language maintenance and on the actions that they were prepared to take. Lack of funding, lack of trained Samoan teachers, and a view that the school's cultural activities were sufficient were all reasons given for absence of language maintenance. Conclusion There is lack of an agreed understanding of what is necessary for successful transition to school in the case of Aoga Amata children. Stakeholders in the children's education will need to target policy, strategies, and standards to guide continuity between home, Aoga Amata, school and community.</p>

Transition from Aoga Amata to school: case studies in the Wellington region

<p>Background The rapid increase in the number of Samoan children receiving early childhood education in their heritage language through the Aoga Amata movement has prompted the researcher to examine how continuity is being handled during the transition to primary schooling. During 1996-7, I interviewed parents, teachers, principals and children about the transition from Aoga Amata programmes to junior class programmes in fourteen primary schools. In addition, I gathered descriptions of how parents viewed the nature and the quality of Aoga Amata programmes, and how teachers and principals viewed issues of language maintenance. I also asked children to reflect on their Aoga Amata experience and then engage in performance tasks that provided me with an opportunity to gauge their spoken proficiency in Samoan. Aim The primary aim of the study was to gather information from parents, children, teachers and principals about the way the transition to school was organised for Aoga Amata children. Sampling procedures I used a community network approach to gain access to a pool of twenty recent graduates of Aoga Amata and their receiving schools. In addition, I chose six children for case study purposes because of the interesting circumstance each child represented. Thirty-nine parents, fourteen teachers and fourteen principals completed the sample. Procedures I used structured interviews, questionnaire versions of the structured interviews, and performance tasks in order to collect information. I asked about the strategies used to cope with the transition to primary school; the impact of the transition on children, the perceptions of parents about Aoga Amata programmes, perceptions of teachers about the transition to primary school, and the factors thought by stakeholders to be contributing to the maintenance of the Samoan language in school. The procedures used to gather information were carried out using culturally appropriate communication processes that made use of faafeiloaiga faa Samoa (cultural greetings), faaaloalo (respect and supply of food), faamalie ona o ni itu e faalavelavea ai le suesuega (acknowledgement of intrusion) and lauga faafetai/faamavae (speeches of appreciation and farewell). Results Only one Aoga Amata/school partnership had a comprehensive programme where the graduates of the Aoga Amata were received into a bilingual programme taught by a native speaker of Samoan. The Aoga Amata was on the school grounds and this enabled linkages to develop over a period of time between its staff, the teachers at the school, the children, and the children's families. When children were received into schools where there was no continuity of language and curriculum, the transition was perceived as less satisfactory, especially in the early days of the transition. Compared to children who attended other early childhood educational centres, or remained at home, children who had attended an Aoga Amata programme were generally perceived by most teachers and parents as having more developed literacy, numeracy, and social skills. Schools varied in the position they took on language maintenance and on the actions that they were prepared to take. Lack of funding, lack of trained Samoan teachers, and a view that the school's cultural activities were sufficient were all reasons given for absence of language maintenance. Conclusion There is lack of an agreed understanding of what is necessary for successful transition to school in the case of Aoga Amata children. Stakeholders in the children's education will need to target policy, strategies, and standards to guide continuity between home, Aoga Amata, school and community.</p>

Negotiating the Transition: Parents' Experience of their Oldest Child's Transition to School

<p>This study follows the lived experience of parents within six families during their oldest child's transition from early childhood centre to school. The aim was to understand the transition to school from a parent perspective in order that early childhood and school staff can better support families through their child's transition. A successful transition to school is frequently associated with later success in schooling. Research into children's transition has often focused on the child as an individual, with adults acting as informants about children's experiences. Parents have the unique position as the adults who are part of each of the three microsystems of home, early childhood centre and school, and therefore have an essential role in communicating between the microsystems and supporting their child's transition. This qualitative constructionist study interviewed parents one month before and one month after their oldest child started school, followed by a parent focus group. Each of the families in the study had existing theories of development and transitions which they combined with the information they obtained about school to plan and enact strategies to support their child's transition to school. The parents viewed school as a community to which they wanted their child and themselves to belong. They had some expectations of their role as a school parent; this identity was affected by the discourses of parents and teachers which they held and encountered, and by their interactions with people at school. The essence of these parents' experience was of negotiating the transition to school. There were two aspects to this: fitting in to an existing school culture; and attempting to adapt some aspects of the transition experience for their child by discussion with the teacher. Good communication, including feeling their point of view had been heard and also understanding the teacher's point of view, helped these parents to feel effective and valued in their role as school parents.</p>

Negotiating the Transition: Parents' Experience of their Oldest Child's Transition to School

<p>This study follows the lived experience of parents within six families during their oldest child's transition from early childhood centre to school. The aim was to understand the transition to school from a parent perspective in order that early childhood and school staff can better support families through their child's transition. A successful transition to school is frequently associated with later success in schooling. Research into children's transition has often focused on the child as an individual, with adults acting as informants about children's experiences. Parents have the unique position as the adults who are part of each of the three microsystems of home, early childhood centre and school, and therefore have an essential role in communicating between the microsystems and supporting their child's transition. This qualitative constructionist study interviewed parents one month before and one month after their oldest child started school, followed by a parent focus group. Each of the families in the study had existing theories of development and transitions which they combined with the information they obtained about school to plan and enact strategies to support their child's transition to school. The parents viewed school as a community to which they wanted their child and themselves to belong. They had some expectations of their role as a school parent; this identity was affected by the discourses of parents and teachers which they held and encountered, and by their interactions with people at school. The essence of these parents' experience was of negotiating the transition to school. There were two aspects to this: fitting in to an existing school culture; and attempting to adapt some aspects of the transition experience for their child by discussion with the teacher. Good communication, including feeling their point of view had been heard and also understanding the teacher's point of view, helped these parents to feel effective and valued in their role as school parents.</p>