Learning stories have been used in Aotearoa New Zealand early learning settings for over two decades to capture children's learning while honouring the intent of "Te Whariki" to nurture children's languages, cultures, and identities. This article provides a brief overview of a listening, dialogic investigation into ways the community of…

Te Whariki, the first bicultural early childhood education curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand, gained national and international attention. While there was widespread acceptance of its bicultural intent, Te Whariki was not well understood and implemented as a bicultural curriculum. Early childhood education teachers lacked confidence and struggled…

A controlled intervention study supported the effectiveness of teachers implementing an integrated intervention ("Better Start Literacy Approach"; "BSLA") to accelerate foundational literacy skills for children in Year 1 with low levels of oral language ability in a community with significant challenges to effective teaching…

This article analyses data from a study that explored distance learning teaching and nursery school children's experiences in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Douala, Cameroon. Following the spread of COVID-19 to Africa, the Cameroon Government placed emphasis on the impact of the pandemic on the socio-economic sector and actions to support…

Empty spaces, open spaces, prefabricated buildings, disused school halls, patches of grass and suchlike have long been the teaching spaces of subjects such as Drama and Physical Education; likewise, ECE and Marae-based learning are other 'marginalised' domains of education in Aotearoa New Zealand today. Subjugated in the educational landscape,…

This paper reports a case study of the manifestation of the teaching-research nexus in a research-active professor's classroom teaching of a research methods course targeting a cohort of Master of Education (MEd) students in early childhood education (ECE). The study was conducted at a research-intensive English-medium university in Hong Kong…

Due to its large and diverse population of migrants, New Zealand is now considered to be a 'superdiverse' country (Royal Society of New Zealand in Languages in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2013), and its early childhood education settings are also increasingly ethnically and linguistically diverse (Ministry of Education in Early childhood education me…

Caring occupies a contested space in early childhood teaching. Caring is valued as crucial to children's physical and emotional wellbeing but, at the same time, it is undervalued as separate from education and more difficult to measure. This article argues for reconceptualising care as complex, dynamic, problematic, political, and assembled in…

Teachers of year 0/1 students in English-medium schools in New Zealand (1896 schools) were invited to participate in a survey focussed on assessment of new entrant children's oral language and emergent literacy skills, with an estimated 21% response rate (N = 745). Teachers indicated using a variety of methods for assessing children's skills at…

Bourdieu's thinking tool of habitus is helpful for understanding the relationship between the individual and the environment. Although habitus is often seen as something that an individual acquires in early life and is 'stuck with,' there are opportunities to develop a secondary habitus. Explicit pedagogy is a key factor in assisting individuals…

This paper presents research findings in relation to the multiple identities of students undertaking early childhood field-based initial teacher education (FBITE). The research draws on the understanding that social actors hold multiple identities based on membership across a myriad of social groups, or communities. Data was gathered using…

This paper examines the associations between attendance at early childhood education (ECE) and longer-term academic attainment and socioeconomic wellbeing in a New Zealand birth cohort studied to age 30. Nearly 95% of the cohort had attended ECE by age 5. After adjustment for family background and child characteristics, results showed…

Early childhood education (ECE) has to an increasing extent become an integrated part of the education system in some countries, with national ECE curricula. Being states with indigenous people, Norway and Aotearoa/New Zealand have faced challenges and possibilities regarding how to deal with both past and present during the curricular processes.…

This article describes and analyses a small scale qualitative research project which explores teachers' and parents' perspectives on whether e-portfolio software can support and enhance collaborative partnerships between teachers, children, parents and whanau (families) in an early childhood setting in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Two of the key themes…

Recent policy initiatives in New Zealand have prioritised increasing participation in early childhood education (ECE) settings; yet cumulative reports have outlined concerns for the quality of services available. In this paper, we argue that a focus on participation without concurrent attention to the quality of early learning experiences puts…