Abstract
As a concept, ‘belonging’ is acknowledged to be complex, culturally determined and multifaceted. The processes of supporting belonging through early childhood education, especially where different cultural beliefs require understanding and negotiation, are not well understood. This is certainly the case for refugee children and families within early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Coming to belong is a particular challenge for these families who have been forcibly displaced from their home country. This article analyses documentation and video and interview data from a research study in an early childhood centre for refugee children and families. The ways in which cultural values and communication modes of gesture, spoken language, voice tone and dance were integrated within the curriculum are examined. A main argument is that pedagogy which incorporates key cultural constructs that refugee families bring with them strengthens a sense of belonging.
Keywords
Introduction
Refugee children and families are transitioning from their home country to a new country and culture. Brooker (2014: 32) has described children’s transitions as ‘a process in which a primary task is to develop a sense of belonging, of membership, of feeling suitable in the new space’. Belonging is a strand of New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, and is described as: ‘Belonging/Children know they belong and have a sense of connection to others and the environment. Mana whenua/Children’s relationship to Papatūānuku is based on whakapapa, respect and aroha’. 1 The interconnectedness of people, places and things, especially with family and community, past and present, and participation are central constructs in Te Whāriki’s portrayal of belonging – children ‘know that they are accepted for who they are and that they can make a difference’ and ‘whānau feel welcome and able to participate in the day-to-day curriculum and in curriculum decision making’ (Ministry of Education, 2017: 31). 2
Within the context of early childhood education, there have only recently been attempts to theorise and analyse constructs of belonging and to make more explicit connections with identity and participation (e.g. Stratigos et al., 2014; Sumsion and Wong, 2011). Moreover, there is little research on how belonging can be supported through early childhood education, especially where different cultural beliefs require negotiation. Belonging is a particular challenge for immigrant families, and more especially refugee families who have left their home country often in traumatic circumstances. Belonging is portrayed as a ‘fundamental human need’ (Stratigos et al., 2014: 173), which forms a basis for contributing to society. Guo and Dalli (2016), in a study of two Chinese immigrant children as they started to attend their first early childhood centre in New Zealand, argued that gaining a sense of belonging was a focus and a springboard for participation. They found that ‘the drive to belong appeared to promote the children’s agency to learn about how to be and behave in their new cultural setting of the early childhood centre’ (Guo and Dalli, 2016: 263). Sumsion and Wong (2011), who developed a cartography of understandings of belonging from diverse theoretical perspectives, also concluded that desires for belonging are a powerful driving force. Their 10 dimensions of belonging were labelled ‘emotional’, ‘social’, ‘cultural’, ‘spatial’, ‘temporal’, ‘physical’, ‘spiritual’, ‘moral/ethical’, ‘political’ and ‘legal’. These were conveyed as dynamic and interconnected, and crossed with political, analytical axes from different theoretical traditions. They argued, citing Yuval-Davis (2006), that processes of belonging or not belonging are rarely articulated, and that through critical reflexivity and close attention to the dimensions and politics of belonging, recognition will more readily be given to those who are historically or currently excluded. This article examines pedagogical approaches in a New Zealand education and care (childcare) centre, focusing on how the teachers incorporated cultural ways of communicating that contributed to a sense of belonging for refugee families and children.
Refugee crisis
In the year to May 2017, 1017 refugees came to New Zealand as United Nations quota refugees, and 355 of these were children aged under 13 (Immigration New Zealand, 2018). Children and families coming to New Zealand as refugees are from countries where there has been war, ethnic, political or religious persecution, famine and poverty. Many have been separated from family members, lost family members, and been displaced for long periods of time in refugee camps. In New Zealand and internationally, refugee children face challenges in acquiring a second language, meeting with racism and prejudice, overcoming trauma and settling into a new culture (McMillan and Gray, 2009). Refugee women with young children face other challenges in accessing education opportunities for themselves and finding opportunities to socialise (Broome and Kindon, 2008).
In a study of teaching and learning in three culturally diverse early childhood education and care settings (Mitchell et al., 2015), we explored how teachers in diverse settings implemented their values by drawing on the ‘funds of knowledge’ (Moll et al., 1992) and cultural capital of the families they worked with. For this article, we have reanalysed the data from one of the early childhood education centres to explore cultural values and practices that strengthened a sense of belonging for refugee children and families.
The research study
The focus centre is a refugee family centre, located in the grounds of a secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. A Refugee Education and Families Programme operates in adjacent buildings where most parents attend English-language classes and community classes on a range of subjects.
The research participants from the centre reported in this article were two teachers and two case-study children and their families. In this article, a main focus is on the Burmese community, and specifically the interactions and communication of Htwe Htwe Myint (the supervisor), a qualified early childhood education teacher. Htwe Htwe is a fluent speaker and writer of Burmese (her home language) and English. She fills the roles of ‘bilingual teacher, cultural broker, trusted interpreter and community representative’ (Mitchell et al., 2015: 42). The two children were Thamee and Tharthar, both aged four. Thamee’s parents are Mon from Burma, and speak Mon and Burmese at home. Tharthar’s parents are Mon Tavoy from Burma. His father speaks Mon and Tavoy, and his mother speaks Tavoy and Burmese.
At the start of the project, the teacher participants and researchers met in a one-day workshop, where each teaching team made a presentation about their centres, and their values and practices. These presentations and discussions were recorded. The case-study children and participating teachers were video-recorded – the children for around two hours during their free play and the teachers at times when the children were arriving and during their interactions with children. Family members were given a copy of their child’s video and then invited to comment, in a semi-structured interview, on the learning that they valued, their child’s strengths, interests and strategies as learners, family funds of knowledge, and continuity between the home and centre. The participating teachers were given video recordings of themselves teaching and asked to pick out and comment on episodes related to belonging, communication, language and culture. The family and teacher interviews were recorded and transcribed. A selection of the case-study children’s learning stories (Carr et al., 2015; Carr and Lee, 2012; Carr et al., 2010), illustrating strands of New Zealand’s national curriculum Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996, 2017), was gathered.
The teachers also had a role as teacher-researchers for this study alongside the academic researchers. They were therefore active members of the research process, and their input in the data analysis was invaluable. Each brought a perspective from their own understanding of everyday teaching and learning, and important cultural insights.
The study had research ethics approval from the University of Waikato Research Ethics Committee. The teacher participants gave written consent for video-recording and their own interview, and for their real names to be used. The teacher interpreters explained the information sheets and consent forms (for video-recording, interviews and use of the learning stories) to the parent participants where appropriate. The parents gave written consent for their own interview, for their child to be video-recorded, and for specific documentation about their child to be used in analysis and publications. The children gave verbal assent to be video-recorded and for their learning stories and drawings to be used as data. Pseudonyms have been used for the children in this article.
Analysis
The data was analysed thematically and with a conversation analysis approach (Bateman, 2015; Sacks et al., 1974) to investigate cultural nuance and specific aspects of the interaction that were significant to the participants. Conversation analysis has its roots in ethnomethodology, offering an approach for the study of the orderly ways people interact with one another through talk and gesture. Through exploring the turn-taking sequences of talk and gesture used by members in everyday interactions, we can see how they structure their everyday lives in thoughtful and detailed ways. Working with video or audio recordings of participants in various contexts, transcriptions are written using conventions that indicate micro-details such as pauses in talk in tenths of a second, emphasis on words or words spoken quietly, and the systematic order in which talk and gesture were performed between participants. All of these details help to reveal how people communicate with each other, and the social order that is invoked within that interaction – for example, if someone takes a particular stance on a topic of conversation. Increasingly, bilingual and multilingual conversations between young children and their peers and adults are analysed (e.g. Björk-Willén, 2007, 2008, 2017; Björk-Willén and Cromdal, 2009; Huq et al., 2017) to reveal how languages are learnt and friendships are made (for a collection, see Theobald, 2017).
The videotaped episodes, interview data and learning stories were analysed thematically (Creswell, 2013; Patton, 2002) to build stories of belonging in context. This was an iterative process in which we analysed and re-analysed the data, going back to literature and checking with the participants to gain their interpretations. This collaborative analysis was important for the interpretation in this article of video data made of Htwe Htwe Myint interacting with the children, where her tones of voice, movements and hand gestures had special cultural significance as well as global value. The researchers, who did not know the cultural significance of these aspects of communication, could interpret these only from their own limited perspectives and understandings. These initial analytical themes were then analysed in more detail using a conversation analysis approach to reveal how the interactions were co-produced through gesture and talk in ways that supported and extended children’s learning of language, and cultural norms and acceptance.
Findings
In her presentation at the initial workshop for this project, a teacher described the way in which the programme is enhanced by knowledge and awareness of the refugee experience and the United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child. Underpinning the programme is an insistence on ‘dignity and social justice for all of us’. In regard to language, culture and identity, she said: We pay special attention to supporting and enhancing children’s languages and cultures and enabling children, and then their families, to develop a strong, rich identity, which we believe bridges the past, and the present, and the future learning for all of us. (Presentation at teacher workshop)
The qualified team of multilingual teachers affords opportunities for learning from each other and with families, and for working with cultural understanding. Htwe Htwe Myint commented on how ‘comfortable’ Burmese children feel in being able to work with her in their home language at a deep level, and that this is manifested through the children’s talk and smiles.
Respect for culture and an overture of friendliness are evident in the practice of calling others ‘Aunty’ and their first name: It adds to the warmth and the richness of this centre and the family philosophy that underpins it. And anyone can be an ‘Aunty’, so when the students come in here, they automatically become ‘Aunty’. And children become ‘Aunty’ as well because some children, especially coming up to four and five years old, they step up and they are teachers. And they’ve always been teachers but they become, like, very into that role, so – and it’s suddenly, ‘Oh, we have a new Aunty’. So, an older child can be the ‘Aunty’ for the younger children. (Presentation at teacher workshop)
Not only are the values and practices a sign of respect in many cultures, but they are also in keeping with the New Zealand Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) philosophy of mana tangata (‘contribution’), which Soutar described as: ‘The expression of generosity through customary practices involving welcoming, hosting and reciprocity’ (Lee et al., 2013: 83). In the workshop example, children are encouraged and recognised for caring for others by stepping up and taking responsibility for younger children. In the analysis of the transcriptions below of ‘greetings’, the high value placed on welcoming is very evident.
Greetings
On arrival at the centre, the teachers made a conscious effort to greet the children and families in their home language in verbal and non-verbal ways. One of the early childhood teachers, Htwe Htwe, was observed initiating greetings with the standard salutation among Muslims – ‘As-salāmu ʿalaykum’ – coupled with the gesture of offering a flat, open-palmed hand towards them. Two observations of these welcoming routines are analysed here.
Transcription 1
Salām [lowers her open, flat hand with palm upwards at the child’s level].
[looks at Htwe Htwe and places her hand on Htwe Htwe’s]
[they clasp each other’s hands, making small shaking gestures]
How are you [to mother]?
The arrival of families and children at early childhood centres has an observable temporal organisation, shaped by cultural practices that are embedded within the routine of each centre by the members present – the teachers, family and children. As family members arrive with their children, interactions are initiated as families and children are greeted and welcomed into the centre for the day. These welcoming initiations of interactions can be seen as sequences of action that are co-produced (Raymond, 2016), where a gesture of welcome is offered and the recipient chooses to align with the welcome by offering a positive reply, or not. The ways in which these greetings are co-produced involve many varied forms, including simple gestures such as a nod of a head, or a more elaborate and prolonged embrace (Lōkken, 2004), and are tailored by the individuals and the social settings within which the greeting occurs.
In Htwe Htwe’s initiation of a greeting towards a mother and child detailed above, we see her using a gesture and verbal welcome that are specifically relevant to these people. Htwe Htwe initiates the interaction here by offering the greeting ‘Salām’, speaking in the Arabic language of the arriving mother and child, and so immediately showing that this is a place where their home language is valued. As she offers this verbal gesture, she lowers her open, flat hand with palm upwards towards the child’s, at her level. These gestures are responded to positively by the child, as she places her hand on top of Htwe Htwe’s and they configure their interaction by co-producing a synchronised shaking motion with their hands. Once the connection with the child is secured, Htwe Htwe then skilfully shifts her attention to the mother, asking how she is and, in doing so, ensuring that both the child and mother are equally welcomed in multimodal ways.
This flat, open-palmed gesture is seen again on the arrival of another child and mother. In the following interaction, the greeting is initiated by Htwe Htwe and a second teacher, Sadia.
Transcription 2
[walks towards the boy with outstretched arm with flat, open, palm-up hand gesture] Salām ʿalaykum. Alya?? Salam.
[stop walking and stand in front of Sadia. Both look towards Htwe Htwe]
[walks towards the boy, still with outstretched, palm-up gesture] Salām ʿalaykum.
[they shake hands]
We didn’t see you yesterday. Were you staying with your mummy?
[reaches her hand forward towards the boy in the same open, flat, palm-up hand gesture]
[bends down to the boy] You stayed home.
Htwe Htwe has now initiated and secured hand contact with the child, and so Sadia follows up on her opportunity as the child moves forward into the centre:
[makes calling hand gesture to the boy]
[approaches the second teacher]
[offers palm-up hand gesture]
[places his hand on top of hers and they shake hands]
Once again, this greeting is initiated by Htwe Htwe on the arrival of another child and his mother at the centre. She does this by moving towards the child and his mother as they begin walking into the centre, and using the verbal welcome ‘Salām ʿalaykum’, as she did with the child and mother in Transcription 1. A similar hand gesture is then offered to this child, and is also responded to positively as he willingly offers his hand and they engage in a synchronised shaking motion that affirms their connection. Htwe Htwe comments on this episode: I greet him verbally and [hold my] hand out to reach him to welcome them more deeply, and show our care through holding [his hand] or touching [his] hand. When I [hold my] hand out towards a child, a child understands my greeting comes from the heart and wants to recognise the greeting and build friendship, positive relationships through touching/shaking hands.
By welcoming the child and his mother in their home language and with specific gestures, Htwe Htwe demonstrates her respect for their home language, and also shows them that they are known and valued members of this early childhood community.
Once the hand contact has been secured, Htwe Htwe begins talking with the boy on the topic of his family. Htwe Htwe translated the episode as follows: ‘We talked about the child’s father coming back from overseas and that’s why he stayed home yesterday. On asking him to make conversation, the child said: “Daddy come back for the Eid Mubarak?” And we laughed’.
Through these sequences of action, and Htwe Htwe’s persistence in securing an interaction with the family when they arrive, Htwe Htwe demonstrates the importance placed on the routine welcome as being of cultural significance within this centre.
Once Htwe Htwe has greeted the boy and his mother, a second teacher, who is sitting on the floor nearby, offers the same greeting involving the verbal ‘Salām ʿalaykum’ at the same time as the gesture of an open, flat hand with palm up. The presence of two teachers offering this particular type of greeting as part of the everyday routine of the centre demonstrates the importance placed on acknowledging significant cultural norms relevant to the arriving families, and also incorporates them as regular lived experiences in situ. The gesture offers a ‘haptic sociality’ (Goodwin, 2017), where socialisation is lived through touch. Through such practices, the centre encourages and supports a sense of belonging through initiating and engaging in the symbols of the child’s culture.
Positioning the child within the family and wider cultural community
There is a two-way process of learning and coming to belong at the centre. In excerpts from the teachers’ workshop presentation transcribed below, the birthday celebrations that are held for each child are made more special and more relevant to the refugee experience, thereby deepening their meaning for these people in this time and place. They were renamed ‘celebrations of life’ following teachers’ discussions with parents. The teachers explained that the celebration practices evolved because once a parent talked to us about the birthdays and said: ‘We love it, we love the birthdays. And we didn’t have this in our country, it’s not our … way. But … what we see is that our child is alive and for another year. And we’re so happy that we want to celebrate that our child is alive’. … So that’s what we think now – it’s not just a birthday party, you know. It’s very special.
Subsequently, the teachers have enhanced the birthday parties with a beautiful serving set and special tablecloths.
The connections the teachers made with families reached out into their communities to incorporate family weddings, anniversaries, and special occasions such as the closing ceremony of the Mon Summer School, where the Mon teaching team encourage Burmese children to learn to speak and write in their home language, Mon. The community reaches into the centre. A group of four or five older women come in most days, where they are welcome to have a cup of tea and a biscuit, and sit and talk together with the children and teachers. They were described as being ‘like the watchers of the community – they know all the children from their own community so … always in here you have the family, the community’s eye is on you always’ (Teacher interview). These older women play a very important role in the community by being involved in the day-to-day activities of the programme and regular events, such as outings to the school library, and then telling the other parents: ‘This is how it works, all word of mouth. So parents aren’t available to come to things like that but often these older women can come along with us … and just see what happens’ (Teacher interview).
Consistent with understandings of being and belonging from a Māori perspective, belonging was enhanced through connections made with the universal human values of ‘kindness’ and ‘hospitality’ (manaakitanga), ‘home languages’ (mana reo), and ‘funds of knowledge and interests from home’ (mana tangata): Philosophically, [the families are] very close to us for the belief of the happiness, the kindness, those intrinsic values, they value really highly. And when they see their children operating and using – you know, being engaged in those types of behaviours, they are really, really thrilled. And so [values are evident] because we’re always encouraging of course, and building that stuff, and we’re looking for it and finding ways to encourage it. (Teacher interview)
The alignment of human values was evident in comments made by the families of the case-study children as they discussed the video recording of their child. Thamee’s father, on seeing a video clip of his daughter engaged in building a temple with blocks, commented that she played ‘really comfortably at the centre’ and on her feeling that ‘she belongs there’. He liked the way Thamee coped with a younger child knocking down the blocks: ‘she has a kindness inside and she is able to understand that the destructive children are younger and they do not upset her’.
Belonging was strengthened through the welcoming of children and families on their own terms, the encouragement of contribution by all parties, shared values of kindness and acts of hospitality.
Reading
Transcription 3
In the following interaction, one of the children attending the centre, Tharthar, choses a book written in Te Reo Māori (Māori is the language of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and one of the three official languages – the others being English and New Zealand Sign), and brings it to Htwe Htwe to read to him. The book he has chosen is titled He Kaui and is about the names of colours in Te Reo Māori. The language which is spoken is indicated in brackets.
Let’s read about colour [in Burmese]. He porowhita whero.
Whero.
Do you know what it is? It’s Māori language.
Whero is red [in English]. Whero is red [in Burmese].
Whero is red [in English]. Whero is red [in Burmese].
This colour is red [in Burmese]?
You’re right. It’s red [in English], red [in Burmese].
What’s next [in Burmese]?
Star [in English].
Star in Burmese star [in Burmese].
What colour of the star?
Purple [in English].
Purple [in English], purple [in Burmese].
The next one is … you know very well for the next one.
Blue. This colour [in Burmese as he points on his shirt]?
Yes, blue. The same blue that you’re wearing [in Burmese].
Red, purple, blue [in English].
Then, kakariki green [in English].
Kakariki green.
Kowhai yellow.
Kowhai yellow.
Karaka orange.
Ka rrr orange.
Ka Ra Ka.
Ka r aka.
Kowhai yellow.
Kawhai yellow.
Kowhai yellow [in English], yellow [in Burmese].
Yellow [in Burmese].
This is [in Burmese]?
Orange [in English].
In Burmese.
Orange [in Burmese].
Shall we say the name of the colour in Burmese?
This is red. Remember? OK [in Burmese]?
Red, purple, blue, green [in English].
Green [in Burmese], green [in English].
Do you like green [in Burmese]? What colour do you like [in Burmese]?
Blue [in English]. Here is my blue [in Burmese].
Yes, it’s blue.
Blue [in English], blue [in Burmese].
Where is the red go [in Burmese]?
On my toy [Lego man].
On your toy?
Here red [in English].
This is the colour from my salong [in Burmese].
Purple [in English], purple [in Burmese].
Yes, purple. OK, I take purple [in Burmese].
I take blue [in Burmese].
What more colour do you like to take [in Burmese]?
Blue and red … [in English].
More colour for my toy [in Burmese].
You need more for your shirt.
Blue [in English], blue [in Burmese] and then red [in English], red [in Burmese].
Tharthar has initiated this interaction with Htwe Htwe by using his autonomy to select this specific book, showing his interest in its topic, and by bringing it to Htwe Htwe to read to him, rather than looking at it by himself. As they settle down to read the book together, Htwe Htwe speaks to him in his home language, Burmese, and then reads the book as it is written, in Te Reo Māori. Tharthar shows his willingness to be involved and competence in learning a new language as he repeats the cited word whero. Htwe Htwe responds to Tharthar’s interests here by reading the text in the book in a usual ‘book-reading orientation’, but also takes the opportunity to talk to him about the content of the book by telling him that ‘It’s Māori language’, offering further learning opportunities (Reese et al., forthcoming), including a meta-linguistic awareness around the story being read. Further learning opportunities are then offered, extending his language learning by telling him what the Te Reo Māori is for the colour red, initially in English and then in his home language. Tharthar once again embraces this opportunity for language learning as he repeats Htwe Htwe’s information and then checks with Htwe Htwe that he has understood correctly, to which Htwe Htwe offers support in both English and Burmese.
Throughout the subsequent lines of transcription, we see Tharthar now taking the lead in ‘reading’ the book, in both English and Burmese. The importance of having a skilled teacher with linguistically diverse knowledge to support such learning is observable here. McNaughton (1995: 17) suggests that through family activities, children ‘develop ideas and values about literacy practices and activities and their personal and social identity’. In our example, reading activities at the centre were helping Tharthar to develop ideas and values about literacy activities in his home language and the language of his new country.
Dancing
Following children’s interests and affording them the opportunity to contribute their funds of knowledge were strong foci within the everyday routine of the centre. One of the child-initiated activities that was treasured and embraced was dancing. The dancing observed at the centre offered opportunities for children to engage in the cultural practices of their homeland.
Transcription 4
In one dance episode, the children have asked Htwe Htwe to put some music on for them, which she does. Htwe Htwe then dances with them, using specific gestures that are valued in Burmese culture:
[claps her hands once and begins dancing with pronounced hand gestures]
[watch Htwe Htwe and join in with the hand gestures]
Ngwe’s dancing well and Thamee’s feet movement is excellent. Yes, that’s right, very clever – Burmese dance is very important. We need to move our feet and hands on the beat. Start with feet movement then hands follow in orderly [way].
[begin moving their feet from side to side as well as doing the hand movements]
[begins clapping and moves away from the girls, still watching them. Dances with the boy, then moves towards the stereo and turns the music up. Stays close to the girls still clapping] Good! [positions the boy away from the girls]. See, you can, they’re dancing [points to the girls]. Dance! [claps hands].
[stands still and watches the girls dance]
[movements slowing with less hand movements]
Come on [looks atthe boy and smiles]. You can do it too.
[starts dancing]
Yay!! [The boy] can do it. Like this [moves her body from side to side still clapping in tune to the music]. And your hands go [returns to making the dance hand gestures again].
[make larger hand movements again]
The children initiate this interaction with Htwe Htwe by asking for music to be put on. Htwe Htwe demonstrates her noticing of their interests and recognising that the situation is an opportunity for teaching and learning as she puts a specific type of music on that is from their homeland and from Burmese culture. The transcription shows how Htwe Htwe then responds to this cultural learning opportunity, joining in with the activity of dancing and guiding specific dance moves. Through this sequence of actions, Htwe Htwe can be observed noticing, recognising and responding to the children’s interests and providing a culturally rich learning experience, as encouraged in Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996, 2017).
Within the unfolding of this interaction, Htwe Htwe scaffolds their knowledge of how to do a culturally relevant dance, celebrating the funds of cultural knowledge that the children bring with them to the centre. At the start of the dance before incorporating the hand movements into the dance, Htwe Htwe claps her hands to the rhythm of the music, securing the attention of the children and marking the ‘start’ of the interaction around dancing in a particular way. The hand gestures that Htwe Htwe demonstrates here include a flat-hand, open gesture, and the body moves from side to side in tune with the music. Htwe Htwe offers further learning by giving a commentary throughout. As the children become more and more confident in engaging with the music through performing the scaffolded dance moves by Htwe Htwe, Htwe Htwe begins to minimise her movements and claps as she hands the floor over to the children. Through responding to the children’s interests in a way which attends to their home culture, the teachers facilitate the types of learning prioritised by the family of the child.
Conclusion
Values and interactions that supported connectedness within an Aotearoa New Zealand context, and connectedness to family and homelands, were found to contribute to a sense of belonging for the children and families from refugee backgrounds who were attending the centre. These are global human values: welcoming, kindness, respect, taking care of others, responsibility for others and hospitality. Children and families experience an environment where these global and human values are visible and reinforced on a daily basis.
This is an environment where teachers show understanding of the refugee experience and listen carefully to the ideas and perspectives of families and children. They make adaptations to the programme in response, such as the renaming of ‘birthday parties’ to ‘celebrations of life’ following family comments of the significance for them that their child is alive. The extended family are comfortable to sit and talk with each other in this centre, and participate in the programme if they wish. In this way, the curriculum is permeable and ‘open to contribution’ – a term used by Carr et al. (2001: 29) in describing the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki as affording opportunities to build democratic communities of teaching and learning.
Multimodal ways were found to greet and welcome each child and family as they came to the centre each day. Not only were verbal greetings made in the home languages of the family and in English, but these verbal greetings were deepened by gesture and touch that held special cultural significance for those specific families. The teachers were able to join in, understand and encourage expressive modes of dance that reinforced culturally valued forms. Further, in many of their interactions and written communications, the teachers used Te Reo Māori, thereby highlighting the value of both family home languages and the languages of New Zealand.
In support of the ‘belonging’ strand, Te Whāriki states that adults’ responsibilities include that: Children’s confidence in, and identity with, the cultures of both their country of origin and of New Zealand should be fostered. Appreciation of and respect for children’s social and cultural connections should be embodied in the programme. (Ministry of Education, 1996: 55)
A main argument is that pedagogy which incorporates key cultural constructs that refugee families bring with them and which makes bridging connections to New Zealand strengthens a sense of belonging.
Prior theoretical work investigating belonging (Sumsion and Wong, 2011) suggests that research exploring belonging has tended to focus on those excluded from belonging, rather than the ways in which belonging is supported. Our research has provided details of the latter by taking an inductive approach to reveal the functions of belonging and how belonging is supported in systematic and orderly ways through sequences of conversation and gesture between teachers and children as a collaborative project. In doing so, this article offers insight into the role of the teacher, unpacking how children’s ‘emotional’, ‘social’, ‘cultural’, ‘spatial’, ‘temporal’, ‘physical’, ‘spiritual’, ‘moral/ethical’, ‘political’ and ‘legal’ belonging (Sumsion and Wong, 2011) can be supported through noticing, recognising and responding. The transcriptions demonstrate the systematic way that the teacher noticed an opportunity to initiate an interaction with a child in culturally nuanced ways, recognised the child’s interest in aligning with the culturally specific displays through gesture (Transcriptions 1, 2 and 4) and talk (Transcription 3), and responded by progressing the interaction in ways that aligned to the child’s culture. The recognition of these detailed turns of interaction that co-constructed culturally significant ways of being reveals how an important philosophical concept such as ‘belonging’ can be practically implemented in everyday activity when the participants share these values as a priority. An important message here is the need to include adults who prioritise these values and hold the essential cultural knowledge to engage in such bilingual and multilingual interactions so that belonging is supported as part of everyday practice across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Footnotes
Funding
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded through a University of Waikato Faculty of Education research grant.