Overview
- Provides exemplars from ECEC policy initiatives, pedagogical innovation, research and advocacy in Aotearoa New Zealand
- Details how collaborative advocacy can influence policy change
- Offers a critical, yet forward thinking, analysis of early childhood education and care policy and practice
Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development (CHILD, volume 24)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Competition in education
- Democratic education
- Early childhood assesment
- Early childhood education in New Zealand
- Early childhood education reform
- Early childhood pedagogy
- Parental choice in education
- Te Whāriki
- economies of welfare
- international policy comparisons
- marketization of early childhood education
- preschool education
- radical education
- social justice in education
About this book
This book uses case studies of Aotearoa New Zealand policy formulation and practice to explore early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a site for democratic citizenship and social justice. Addressing fundamental questions about the purpose of education, it argues for explicit values focusing on children and childhood as a basis for ECEC policy to replace discourses of economic investment and child vulnerability that are dominant within policy goals in many countries. A commitment to democracy and equity is a good place to start. Aotearoa New Zealand is of special interest because of its world-renowned ECE curriculum, Te Whāriki, which is based on principles of social justice, respect for rights and an aim to support children growing up in a democracy. The curriculum upholds Māori rights to tino rangatiratanga (absolute authority over their lives and resources). Yet, Aotearoa New Zealand’s extreme market policies and harsh labour laws during recent periods run contrary to idealsof democracy and are puzzlingly inconsistent with curriculum principles.
The book starts with an analysis and critique of global trends in ECEC in countries that share capitalist mixed economies of welfare, and where competition and marketisation have become dominant principles. It then analyses ideas about children, childhood and ECEC within a framework of democracy, going back to the Athenean origins of democracy and including recent literature on meanings and traditions of democracy in education. The book uses vivid examples from researching curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices within Aotearoa New Zealand ECEC settings and collective action to influence policy change in order to illustrate opportunities for democratic education. It concludes by examining what conditions might be needed for integrated and democratic ECEC provision in Aotearoa New Zealand, and what changes are necessary for the future. It offers a compass not a map; it points to promising directions and provides insights into issues in ECEC policy and practice that are of current global concern.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Linda Mitchell is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education and Director of the Early Years Research Centre at The University of Waikato, New Zealand. She has built a national and international reputation through her research and publications in early childhood education policy, and has been a strong critic of the marketization and commercialisation of education and their impact on children, families and early childhood services. Other current areas of her research are assessment, culturally responsive pedagogy, and connections with parents, families and community. A main interest is in democratic policies and practices in early childhood education.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Democratic Policies and Practices in Early Childhood Education
Book Subtitle: An Aotearoa New Zealand Case Study
Authors: Linda Mitchell
Series Title: International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1793-4
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-1791-0Published: 03 November 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-4686-6Published: 02 February 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-1793-4Published: 24 October 2018
Series ISSN: 2468-8746
Series E-ISSN: 2468-8754
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 176
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations
Topics: Early Childhood Education, Educational Policy and Politics, International and Comparative Education