![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
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.
References
Section:
|
Alcock, S, Haggerty, M (2013) Recent policy developments and the ‘schoolification’ of early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Early Childhood Folio 17(2): 21–26. Google Scholar | |
|
Barad, K (2003) Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs 28(3): 801–831. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Bennett, P (2012) Social obligations mean better outcomes for children. Available at: http://beehive.govt.nz/release/social-obligations-mean-better-outcomes-children Google Scholar | |
|
Braidotti, R (2013) The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Cameron, E, Shine, T, Bevins, W (2013) Climate justice: Equity and justice informing a new climate agreement. Working paper, September. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available at: http://www.wri.org/publication/climate-justice-equity-and-justice-informing-new-climate-agreement Google Scholar | |
|
Carr, M (2006) Learning dispositions and key competencies: A new curriculum continuity across the sectors? Set 2: 23–27. Google Scholar | |
|
Dockstator, JS (2014) Widening the Sweetgrass Road: Re/balancing ways of knowing for sustainable living with a Cree-Nishnaabe medicine circle. PhD Thesis, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. Google Scholar | |
|
Education Counts (2014a) Annual ECE census report 2014. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Available at: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/early-childhood-education/annual-ece-summary-reports Google Scholar | |
|
Education Counts (2014b) Participation in early childhood education. Available at: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/indicators/main/student-engagement-participation/1923 Google Scholar | |
|
Education Review Office (2012) Partnership with whānau Māori in early childhood services. Wellington, New Zealand: Education Review Office. Available at: http://www.ero.govt.nz/National-Reports/Partnership-with-Whanau-Maori-in-Early-Childhood-Services-Feb-2012 Google Scholar | |
|
Education Review Office (2013) Working with Te Whāriki. Wellington, New Zealand: Education Review Office. Available at: http://www.ero.govt.nz/National-Reports/Working-with-Te-Whariki-May-2013 Google Scholar | |
|
George, R (2008) The pursuit of profit in education: The penetration of business into the early childhood and primary schooling sectors. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work 5(1): 13–20. Google Scholar | |
|
Goldenberg, S (2014) Climate change a threat to security, food and humankind – IPCC report. The Guardian, 31 March. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-threat-food-security-humankind Google Scholar | |
|
Guild, DE, Guild, RL (c.1999) Educational opportunity across the Auckland region: The relationship between early childhood facilities and demographic and socio-economic characteristics. ACE Papers 5: 54–63. Available at: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/25057 Google Scholar | |
|
Hanh, TN (1991) Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life. New York: Bantam Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Hanh, TN (2008) The World We Have: A Buddhist Approach to Peace and Ecology. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Haraway, D (2012) Awash in urine: DES and Premarin® in multispecies response-ability. Women’s Studies Quarterly 40(1–2): 301–316. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Hayashi, A, Karasawa, M, Tobin, J (2009) The Japanese preschool’s pedagogy of feeling: Cultural strategies for supporting young children’s emotional development. Ethos 37(1): 32–49. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Jenkins, K, Harte, HM (2011) Traditional Maori parenting: An historical review of literature of traditional Maori child rearing practices in pre-European times. Available at: http://www.ririki.org.nz/index.php/what-we-do/our-research Google Scholar | |
|
King, T (2005) The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Kohn, A (1996) Beyond discipline. Education Week, 20 November. Available at: http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/beyond-discipline-article/ Google Scholar | |
|
Latour, B (2004) Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern. Critical Inquiry 30(2): 225–248. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Lenz Taguchi, H (2012) A diffractive and Deleuzian approach to analysing interview data. Feminist Theory 13(3): 265–281. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Levinas, E (1987) Time and the Other. Trans. Cohen, RA . Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Luafutu-Simpson, P (2011) Exploring the teaching of effective approaches for assessing young Samoan children’s learning in early childhood centres: Developing an authentic Samoan lens. Wellington, New Zealand: Ako Aotearoa National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence. Available at: https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/ako-hub/ako-aotearoa-southern-hub/resources/pages/developing-authentic-samoan-lens Google Scholar | |
|
May, H (2009) Politics in the Playground: The World of Early Childhood in New Zealand. 2nd ed. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
May, H (2013) The Discovery of Early Childhood. 2nd ed. Wellington, New Zealand: NZCER Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Meade, A (1988) Education to be more: Report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Group. Wellington, New Zealand: Government Printer. Google Scholar | |
|
Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand (2015) Environment Aotearoa 2015. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand. Available at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/environmental-reporting/environment-aotearoa-2015?_ga=1.7223345.2038543076.1445667533 Google Scholar | |
|
Mitchell, L (2008) Early Childhood Education Services in 2007: Key Findings from the NZCER National Survey. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Google Scholar | |
|
Mitchell, L (2014a) Alternatives to the market model: Reclaiming collective democracy in early childhood education and care. Early Education 55: 5–8. Google Scholar | |
|
Mitchell, L (2014b) Linda Mitchell: Put children’s education before shareholders. New Zealand Herald, 2 December. Available at: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11367139 Google Scholar | |
|
Moss, P (2015) There are alternatives! Contestation and hope in early childhood education. Global Studies of Childhood 5(3): 226–238. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Moss, P, Dahlberg, G, Pence, A (2000) Getting beyond the problem with quality. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 8(2): 103–115. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
New Zealand Government (2013) Obligations for people on a benefit with dependent children. Available at: http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/individuals/benefit-changes/obligations-for-people-on-a-benefit-with-dependant-children.html Google Scholar | |
|
New Zealand Ministry of Education (1996) Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. Available at: http://www.education.govt.nz/early-childhood/teaching-and-learning/ece-curriculum/te-whariki/ Google Scholar | |
|
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2002) Pathways to the Future: Ngā Huarahi Arataki. A 10-Year Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Education. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Google Scholar | |
|
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2004, 2007, 2009) Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. Google Scholar | |
|
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2008) Ka Hikitia/Managing for Success: Māori Education Strategy 2008–2012. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/49SCMA_EVI_00DBSCH_INQ_9064_1_A14037/0449a92c3574c1e5b0f850ae1fdb155b155fe3aa Google Scholar | |
|
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2009) Te Whatu Pōkeka: Kaupapa Māori Assessment for Learning. Early Childhood Exemplars. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. Available at: http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Early-Childhood/TeWhatuPokeka.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
Ochs, E, Izquierdo, C (2009) Responsibility in childhood: Three developmental trajectories. Ethos 37(4): 391–413. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
O’Neill, J, Adams, P (2012) ‘Damned to mediocrity’: Political targets, bureaucratic intent, classroom performativity and the child as cipher. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work 9(1): 1–5. Google Scholar | |
|
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment/Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata (2004) See Change: Learning and Education for Sustainability. Wellington, New Zealand: Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Google Scholar | |
|
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment/Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata (2014) Changing Climate and Rising Seas: Understanding the Science. Wellington, New Zealand: Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Available at: http://www.pce.parliament.nz/our-work/news-insights/environment-commissioner-warns-of-impact-from-rising-seas Google Scholar | |
|
Puig de la Bellacasa, M (2012) ‘Nothing comes without its world’: Thinking with care. Sociological Review 60(2): 197–216. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Raeff, E (2006) Individuals in relation to others: Independence and interdependence in a kindergarten classroom. Ethos 34(4): 521–557. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Ritchie, J (2013) Indigenous onto-epistemologies and pedagogies of care and affect in Aotearoa. Global Studies of Childhood 3(4): 395–406. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Ritchie, J, Duhn, I, Rau, C. (2010) Titiro whakamuri, hoki whakamua. We are the future, the present and the past: Caring for self, others and the environment in early years’ teaching and learning. Final Report for the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative. Wellington, New Zealand: Teaching and Learning Research Initiative. Available at: http://www.tlri.org.nz/tlri-research/research-completed/ece-sector/titiro-whakamuri-hoki-whakamua-we-are-future-present-and Google Scholar | |
|
Rose, D (2009) Love in the time of extinctions. Australian Journal of Anthropology 19(1): 81–84. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Royal Society of New Zealand (2013) Languages in Aotearoa New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: Royal Society of New Zealand. Available at: http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/expert-advice/information-papers/yr2013/languages-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/ Google Scholar | |
|
Shichor, D (1997) Three strikes as a public policy: The convergence of the new penology and the McDonaldization of punishment. Crime and Delinquency 43(4): 470–492. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Sims, M, Waniganayake, M (2015) The performance of compliance in early childhood: Neoliberalism and nice ladies. Global Studies of Childhood 5(3): 333–345. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Spoonley, P (2015) New diversity, old anxieties in New Zealand: The complex identity politics and engagement of a settler society. Ethnic and Racial Studies 38(4): 650–661. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Taylor, A, Pacini-Ketchabaw, V (2015) Learning with children, ants, and worms in the Anthropocene: Towards a common world pedagogy of multispecies vulnerability. Pedagogy, Culture and Society 23(4): 507–529. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Thrupp, M (2014) At the eye of the storm: Researching schools and their communities enacting national standards. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies 49(1): 6–20. Google Scholar | |
|
Torquati, J, Cutler, K, Gilkerson, D. (2013) Early childhood educators’ perceptions of nature, science, and environmental education. Early Education and Development 24(5): 721–743. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Waitangi Tribunal (2011) Ko Aotearoa tēnei: A report into claims concerning New Zealand law and policy affecting Māori culture and identity. Te taumata tuarua, vol. 1. Wai 262. Wellington, New Zealand: Waitangi Tribunal. Available at: http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/waitangi-tribunal Google Scholar | |
|
Waitangi Tribunal (2013) Matua rautia: Report on the Kōhanga Reo claim. Wai 2336. Wellington, New Zealand: Waitangi Tribunal. Available at: http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/waitangi-tribunal/news/wai-2336-matua-rautia-report-on-the-kohanga-reo-claim Google Scholar | |
|
Walker, R (2004) Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle without End. Rev. ed. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin. Google Scholar | |
|
Wilson, S (2008) Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Black Point, NS, Canada: Fernwood. Google Scholar |
