Abstract
As a result of rapid demographic changes in today’s globalised world, more student teachers come from different cultural backgrounds. New Zealand too has seen an influx of international students in the early childhood sector. In this article the author reports on a research study that explores the perspectives of a group of eight Indian student teachers. It explores their identity within New Zealand as Indian teachers and how they have enculturated themselves in the local context. This study focuses on the discourse of difference and diversity to understand the identity of global teachers in the local context. It critically analyses some assumptions and issues related to diversity and difference in early childhood education.
Introduction
As we approach the third decade of the 21st century, we also enter a stage of intensification of demographic transformations and cultural diversity. Globalisation has resulted in migration of people to different parts of the world. This has resulted in immigration of people from developing nations like India to Westernised societies (Sanagavarapu, 2010). As a result of immigration from Asia and other parts of the world, the ethnic composition of early childhood centres in New Zealand has changed tremendously (Shuker and Cherrington, 2016). The teachers, children, families and communities that engage in ECE comprise of a variety of cultures, languages and socio-economic backgrounds. Thus, understanding the discourse of diversity and difference, in relation to early childhood teachers is vital. This article is also an attempt to reflect on my position as a postcolonial migrant, locating my identity as an educator in a diverse world. The personal reflection adds to the perspectives of participants in this study who, like the author, have migrated from India to a developed world – New Zealand. This article reports on a research study that explores the discourse of Indian student teachers. Discourse here refers to subjectivities and perceptions of Indian student teachers as reflected in their narratives. The article explores their identity within New Zealand as Indian teachers and how they enculturate into the local context. Findings highlighted the following themes: cultural adjustment; importance of being an Indian; understandings of bi-culturalism and early childhood education in India and New Zealand.
I would like to mention here that I migrated to New Zealand in 2002 from India. Prior to that I also lived in Melbourne for four years, where I pursued my PhD. Many of the ideas expressed in this article are based on the research findings, however my personal experiences mirror some of the points discussed here. They also reflect my journey as a South Asian migrant raised in a postcolonial era in New Delhi, India which has since seen structural adjustment policies and become more globalised. This article is a conscious effort to deconstruct the discourse of diversity in the context of Indian student teachers in New Zealand.
Globalisation has resulted in migration of people to different parts of the world. As a result of this, more student teachers are coming to New Zealand as international students in the tertiary sector. Despite this rapid increase, few studies have been undertaken that focus on the teachers who come from ‘different’ cultural backgrounds. Leaupepe (2009) has written on the importance of understanding immigrant teachers’ perspectives on play and how culture influences their thinking. Research conducted in the United States by three Korean immigrant educators explored ‘the ways in which intersectional experiences influence’ their teaching practices (Kim et al., 2017: 22). Findings suggest that immigrant mothers and educators face challenges in relation to maintaining their home language and parental involvement in their children’s school. This study reveals what it means to be immigrant educators and mothers and how it developed their pedagogical practices. Cherrington and Shuker (2012) have explored the diversity within early childhood settings and how effectively the educators work with children and families from diverse background. More significantly they have focused on diversity of educators involved in New Zealand Early Childhood Education (ECE) services. The authors consider aspects of diversity that practitioners, children and families bring with them to the ECE setting. One of the implications of this study is that there is a need to include and hear the voices of all team members in order to improve teaching and learning in a diverse world.
Arndt (2018) raises the issue of early childhood teachers’ identity and their cultural otherness and encourages research and reflection on the significant issue of cultural identity and belonging in their teaching teams. The author emphasises the need to conceptualise understandings of teacher identity that look beyond universalising attitudes towards otherness. The author further reflects how teachers’ own experiences in turn reflect on their understandings of children’s otherness.
The issue of cultural diversity and concepts of social justice, equality and inclusion has become a major focus in early childhood as a result of globalisation and migration of people from one country to another. It is also a complex one as it includes notions of culture, race, ethnicity, further complicated by issues of equality and inequality. Culture is a difficult term to define. It has been explained as people’s way of doing things – ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular society. It has been widely defined as shared values, social practices, attitudes of people and shared behaviours (Rata et al., 2001; Varner and Beamer, 2005). These understandings of culture refer to everyday practices and values of groups of individuals and are used commonly today in sociological paradigm to define the notions of culture in an inclusive manner (Ang, 2010). Moreover, contemporary understandings of culture also celebrate complexity and diversity. Conversations and understandings of culture have moved from a ‘west versus rest mentality’ to concepts such as cultural flows (Hairston and Strickland, 2011: 353). However, the term ‘culture’ remains elusive and difficult to define. The cultures of individuals include identities that are continuously evolving and changing. Homi Bhabha refers to cultures in between to describe diverse identities. He points out that culture represents diverse values and practices that interact with each other to form different cultures (Homi Bhabha, cited in Ang, 2010). Thus in order to understand culture and diversity, one needs to recognise that cultures are not homogenous but heterogeneous. This article deconstructs the discourse of the migrant student teachers in the early childhood context of New Zealand to enhance our awareness of how difference and diversity impact on early childhood education. It also draws on the poststructuralist stance to critically reflect and question the dominant discourses that govern ways of thinking about diverse cultures in early childhood education.
The discourse of diversity
New Zealand today is characterised by a number of cultures and identities. New Zealand early childhood environment today is very diverse. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, Māori comprised 16.5% of the population and the Asian population was 15.1% of the total population (Statistics New Zealand, 2018). The early childhood sector in New Zealand is also very diverse. New migrant families bring diverse languages to the centres. There were more than 70 different languages spoken in teacher-led early childhood settings in 2019 (Education Counts, 2015). In early childhood education the issue of respecting diverse cultures equally is being discussed in the theoretical framework of inclusion, equity and participation (Ang, 2010; Chan 2011; Robinson and Diaz, 2006; and Shuker and Cherrington, 2016). Recent research by Chan and Ritchie (2016) highlights the ‘cultural distance’ (290) between teachers, who represent the dominant Western culture, and diverse cultures within early childhood communities. Findings of this research suggest that most of the teachers enact Western mono-cultural discourses. The authors further highlight how mono-cultural teachers from dominant cultures may not acknowledge the funds of knowledge that children and families from other cultures might bring with them to the early learning centre. The authors challenge the way many of these teachers engage with diversity, and advocate for diversity which is not just tokenistic but goes beyond that to understand diverse cultures more deeply.
Related to this, Pearson and Degotardi (2009) point out that world organisations such as the World Bank and UNESCO are encouraging globalisation of Early Childhood education influenced by the European American ideologies of child-centred individualistic notions of child development. However, these Western ideologies may not adopt values like traditional knowledge or learning from community elders (Pearson and Degotardi, 2009). There is a great deal of interest and evidence in literature that suggest Western ideologies cannot be applied to all contexts (Kennedy, 2006; Pearson and Degotardi, 2009; Sanagavarapu, 2010). For example, in many Asian cultures early years are greatly influenced by others in the community and children’s identity is construed in relationship and interactions with others (Kennedy, 2006; Pearson and Degotardi, 2009). Chan (2011) and Guo (2004) further explore the dominant social discourses as manifested in the New Zealand early childhood document, Te Whāriki. For example, the authors explore how the New Zealand early childhood curriculum document recognises the value of play for children’s learning. However, play and active exploration may not necessarily be acceptable to immigrant families from Asia.
Foucault, as cited in Ling Yin(2007), and other poststructuralists offer an understanding of early childhood education and highlight the need to explore and analyse the discourses and forms of knowledge that help us to deconstruct our understandings of childhood and education (Ling-Yin, 2007; MacNaughton, 2005) Poststructuralists deconstruct the dominant discourses and notions of truth and question the dominant assumptions about cultural diversity. According to Foucault, ‘all types of knowledge are the result or effect of a particular set of power relations which serves to construct our sense of reality’ (Ling-Yin, 2007: 185). Poststructuralists believe that the stories narrated by individuals about themselves or about societies are influenced by the politics of the time and some stories are given greater status than others. Poststructuralists, influenced by Foucault’s work that explores relationships between knowledge, truth and power, deepen their understanding of equity by reflecting on the play of power and knowledge in early childhood (MacNaughton, 2005). The author draws on these ideas to contextualise the issues of cultural diversity in early childhood and to analyse assumptions about culture and diversity in relation to the discourses of Indian student teachers.
The research
This qualitative study explores the perspectives of Indian early childhood student teachers. The article discusses the findings from a study undertaken in a private tertiary institute. Ethics approval was granted by the ethics committee of the institute concerned. The sample consisted of eight international Indian student teachers who were randomly selected from the tertiary institute. The students at the time of interview were enrolled in the Certificate in Early Childhood (Level 4) qualification and one student was enrolled in Bachelor of Teaching Early Childhood (Level 7) qualification. All the students were in the first year of studying early childhood education. For the purpose of this study the participating students are termed as student teachers (teachers-in-training) as all the students aspired to complete the Level 7 teaching qualification. Most of the students had lived in New Zealand for about two years. A semi-structured interview method was used to explore the Indian student teachers’ perspectives. Interview was seen as appropriate method for this study in order to gather the participants’ opinion about their culture, values and identity as ECE student teachers living and working in New Zealand. The questions to participants related to their experiences of living and working in early childhood education in New Zealand and how they had accommodated to life in New Zealand. This is a qualitative study as it aims to provide a rich description of participants’ values in relation to ECE in New Zealand. As Vulliamy, Lewin and Stephens (1990) point out, qualitative research attempts to understand the culture of those being studied and is a holistic approach which aims to provide a narrative of the “complex interrelationships of causes and consequences that affect human behaviour” (Vulliamy et al., 1990:11).
The data collected were analysed and classified according to the themes that emerged from the interviews. This was accomplished by examining the transcripts and searching for patterns or themes. Transcripts were first read closely and repeated concepts, recurring themes, comparison and contradictions were highlighted. These were then coded by writing the key words. Patterns that emerged were grouped together and labelled. The major themes that emerged were as follows: cultural adjustment; importance of being an Indian; understandings of biculturalism and early childhood education in India and New Zealand.
The discourse of Indian student teachers is analysed from a poststructuralist perspective, as discussed earlier. Foucault and other poststructuralists emphasise critical reflection in our discourses in relation to early childhood (Ling-Yin, 2007; MacNaughton, 2005). Poststructuralists are critically reflective about cultural diversity and childhood in order to create a more just and equitable knowledge of early childhood (Ling-Yin, 2007; MacNaughton, 2005). These ideas encouraged the researcher to be critically reflective of the discourses and deepen the understanding of Indian student teachers. The next section focuses on the findings from the study and discusses the discourses of Indian student teachers in relation to cultural adjustment and importance of being an Indian.
Cultural adjustment and importance of being an Indian
Globalisation has intensified the migration of people to different parts of the world. This has resulted in immigration of people from developing nations to Westernised societies. As a result of there has been a rapid increase in student teachers coming to New Zealand from different parts of the world like China, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and including India. Globalisation and movement of people has resulted in cultural globalisation that has many implications. Sanagavarapu (2010) has highlighted the implications of cultural globalisation and how there has been an influence of Western culture on the one hand and on the other side is the desire for the people to hold on to their own cultures (Sanagavarapu, 2010). Most of the student participants responded that they are very keen to maintain their own ethnic language and culture in New Zealand. Participant comments on this aspect and how they have adjusted to the New Zealand culture were: We are Indians so we are not allowed to use Western culture at home. We speak in Punjabi at home and every morning we do ‘path’ (prayers). We respect our own culture at home first and outside we follow Western culture. So that is how we have accommodated into life in New Zealand. (Participant A) I have changed myself a lot. I never even spoke in English before while studying in India. Now I wear jeans and Western clothes. But I still maintain my culture. I do not talk in English at home even though I need to improve my English. I want my child to talk in Punjabi at home. We do not watch English television channel at home, only Hindi and Punjabi. (Participant C)
As a result of the migration of population from the third to the first world one can see the dominant discourse of English monolinguals being constructed as an expression of social justice and inclusion. This stance is based on the view that proficiency in one language (English) for all will bring ‘social justice, inclusion and social cohesion’ (Piller and Takahashi, 2011: 375). However, the reality is that immigrants feel that in this process of assimilation they are losing their language and identity. Most of the participants responded that they encourage their children to speak in their native language at home.
A number of studies recognise the importance of home language in empowering children and adults. Literature recognising the multilingual nature of early childhood community, emphasises the importance of home language and the need for policy makers and teachers to consider ways of enhancing children’s identities. This can be done by drawing on funds of knowledge within the community (Nemeth, 2009; Padmore et al., 2015). Funds of knowledge is a credit-based notion that acknowledges people as being competent, having knowledge and with life experiences that have given them that knowledge. Funds of knowledge are diverse knowledge and experiences found in families that include skills, languages, ways of raising families, and other skills and knowledge (González et al., 2006).
Participants also discussed their perspectives of the bicultural nature of New Zealand and commented on being an Indian in New Zealand. One participant commented: In India I was not independent, my mother looked after me. Here I am independent and make my own decisions. I never travelled alone in a bus or rickshaw in India. Here I travel on my own by bus or train. Now I wear jeans. I do not want to wear Indian dress everyday as I do not want everyone to think I am different. I wear Indian dress during festivals or when I am visiting a temple. (Participant E) Biculturalism goes everywhere. If you go anywhere you take your language with you. Then there is the language of the country you are migrating to. Everyone should know two languages to settle well in a new country and the culture of the country where you have been brought up and what is the culture here in the new country. But it all depends upon the individual person how easily you are able to is good. It reflects your ideas and how to bring up children. Here teachers take care of children. In India families take care of children. (Participant B) It has to have a bit of India as well as New Zealand. Curriculum should encourage child’s mother language, otherwise the child does not feel that he/she belongs. (Participant D) For me, biculturalism means two cultures working together. Preference should be given to both. It is important to teach children their own language. We must teach them about their own culture and language. New Zealand used to be a bicultural country but now there are so many cultures: Russian, Indian… New Zealand is now a multicultural country. Just recognising some festivals is not enough. There is a need to move beyond biculturalism to multiculturalism for example a piece of cloth can be tied in any way like a Sari, like the Chinese do or as a Maori skirt. (Participant F)
The principles and practices of biculturalism are foregrounded in Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document – the Treaty of Waitangi. In New Zealand, bicultural refers to Māori and non-Māori. The treaty of Waitangi put in place the partnership between Māori and the British Crown. Biculturalism means treating both Treaty of Waitangi partners as being equal. Within the early childhood education sector, many teachers (both pre-service and in-service), along with educators in teacher-training facilities, recognise and discuss the importance of biculturalism (Gordon-Burns and Campbell, 2014; Williams et al., 2012).
In New Zealand, Māori are recognised as the tangata whenua (original people of the land); however, the demographics of New Zealand have changed as a result of immigration from the Pacific Islands and recently from Asian countries like China and India. This has provided a more ‘diverse overlap within the crown component’ of the treaty (Chan and Ritchie, 2016: 291).
The participants in this study reflected on the bicultural nature of New Zealand and early childhood. According to the participants, recognition of other cultures besides Maori culture was important for them. At the same time, the participants also pointed out that ‘we need to learn Maori language as New Zealand is a bicultural nation’. However, their responses indicate that there is a need to celebrate the existence of more cultures beyond the two prominent founding cultures of New Zealand. As Ling-Yin (2007) puts it ‘Part of offering an inclusive curriculum is to move beyond a mono- or even bi-cultural positioning, and to look towards one which engages with multiple positionings: multiple identities, multilingualism and multiple belongings’ (191). Te Whāriki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2017) acknowledges that all children have equitable access to learning. It recognises diverse languages, cultures and identities of families and children. It emphasises the home language of children and recognises children’s ability to become multilingual and bi or multi-literate when their home language is encouraged. However, to be able to do this one needs to have an open attitude towards diversity and look beyond the surface. As Arndt (2018) suggests there is a need to ‘support an ongoing sense of enquiry and curiosity, paying attention to early childhood teachers’ meaning making of their cultural realities, their transformations…’. Commenting on the complexity of early childhood educators working with diverse children and families, Shuker and Cherrington (2016) emphasise dispositions and ability that welcome and ‘embrace diversity’ (183). They further emphasise the need for teacher education programmes to embrace the diversity of teacher education workforce. This would benefit all the teachers and families and children from diverse backgrounds.
Early childhood education in India and New Zealand
This section gives a brief overview of the state of early childhood education in India before discussing the views of participants. Historically formal education in ancient India started at the age of 6 years. Before the start of formal education in the early years, it was the parents and extended family that cared for the children’s development. At present in India, early childhood education sector is catered to by the government, the private sector and non-government organisations. (Rao, 2005; Sharma et al., 2008).
Indian education incorporates a child-centred and play-based curriculum into early childhood education. However, kindergarten classrooms in India are still primarily very formal and teachers use didactic approaches in their teaching (Hegde and Cassidy, 2009). Literature points out that the beliefs held by the teachers influence their practices (Shuker and Cherrington, 2016). Moreover, the cultural and educational background of the teachers also influences their practices in the classroom. Most of the participants in this study have also experienced a very formal and didactic approach to education in their student life. All of the respondents when discussing their experiences of early childhood education in New Zealand pointed out that early childhood education in India is not very regulated and not as popular as in New Zealand. Though with more women entering the work force and family structures becoming more nuclear, the number of early childhood centres have mushroomed in the urban centres of India. The respondents primarily emphasised how the early childhood sector is different in India compared to New Zealand. In India we worry about literacy. Children should learn alphabets. It is more studies oriented. Here it is play-way method, there [in India] it is not so. In New Zealand child is given freedom of expression and choice… In India it is not like New Zealand day care centres, here it is more Kindergarten system where children go for 2–3 hours and come back to parents or grandparents. (Participant B) ECE sector is different from India. India is more focused on study, reading and writing. Here children learn by play-way method. At first when I came to New Zealand and entered early childhood sector, my personal philosophy was children should learn to read and write first. (Participant C)
Similar to the comments of the participants, I grew up in a culture where families put a lot of emphasis on education. It was very important for the family to provide the best of education to children. I went to a private convent school and later to a prestigious college to complete my first degree. My parents believed education was the best gift they could give their children. The cultures of individuals include identities that are continuously evolving and changing (Ang, 2010). In this context my values and identity further evolved as I continued with my further education in India and overseas at an Australian university where I completed a doctorate program. As I reflect on my experiences of studying and migrating to the Western world, the differences in approaches between Western and traditional Indian ideologies become very apparent. And this has influenced my identity and experience as a migrant educator. Today I identify myself as an Indian migrant academic in a multicultural society dominated by white European discourses.
This gives me an opportunity to share my indigenous values and also encourage students to question neoliberal ideology of standardised tests and achievement levels prescribed by the corporate industries. I have grown up with values of respecting the elders, humility and tolerance. Education is not an individual effort but involves the whole family. If my students are not able to come to my class due to circumstances in the family, I do not judge them for it. I understand, as I can relate to them and how they value their families. However, the dominant ideology that prevails among the academics find it difficult to understand how education, which is an individual pursuit, is affected by family and its wellbeing. Ling-Yin (2007) points out in this context that it is important to critically reflect and question the dominant discourses that govern our ways of thinking about diverse cultures.
One of the participants commenting upon the changes in her life style since coming to New Zealand said ‘I feel that I need to change my language, that is, the way I speak English, need to change my style, cannot apply my own Indian style… inside the house it is okay but out of home I have to be very conscious that I am in New Zealand’. Another participant (Indian Muslim) commented that in her class where she is studying an early childhood course, students ‘do not know what is Ramadan [the Islamic month of fasting]’. She continued, ‘so when I start teaching children, I will teach them so that in future [if] they have Muslim friends they will not offer them food during Ramadan (fasting). I will explain to them about Eid [Muslim celebration to mark the end of fasting[, Ramadan and even Diwali [Hindu festival]’.
This narrative shows she is keen to celebrate the diversity and her culture with others. Educators need to also understand that we cannot assume that the rhetoric of policies and curriculum that value cultural diversity and inclusion are adequate provision for an equal and just society. There is a need to critically reflect on these discourses and forms of knowledge in order to question dominant discourses about cultural diversity that accepts multiple realities but do not really understand them. In the case mentioned above, the participant was from India; however, one cannot assume that she would be celebrating the same festival as others from India. It is important that policy makers and educators are aware of these complexities and multiple identities when working with young children. As Ling-Yin (2007) points out one should not assume that all individuals or children have a ‘homogenous experience with others just because they belong to the same ethnic group’ (191). Moffat et al. (2016) similarly propose that children and communities need to ‘be supported and encouraged to share information about their culture and help others avoid making assumptions about specific cultural groups’(47).
Discussion
Globalisation has resulted in the movement of people from developing world to the developed world. As a result of this we see diverse cultures and identities. It is important to understand the discourse of the migrant teachers in the early childhood context of New Zealand. It is also important not to dismiss the languages of the people who are marginalised as a part of homogenisation and plurality that is a response to globalisation (Hall, 1991). Farell’s (2005) study of teacher education emphasises the need for communities to understand student aspirations and changing expectations of early childhood practice in the context of globalisation. She also cautions against standardised pedagogical approaches to understand diversity.
The participants in this study have expressed how they have enculturated into the New Zealand culture. They also expressed how they are holding on to their own culture that is different from the existing Westernised understandings dominated by the neo-liberal ideologies of present-day globalised society. They highlight how the Western ideology of child centred learning and play as a framework of learning is different from their indigenous understandings of early childhood teaching and learning. The participants’ understanding of bi-culturalism includes the languages and culture of the country they have migrated from. Thus there is a need to look at the early childhood sector that includes other cultures and different perspectives. We also need to be aware that cultural identities are never fixed but are continuously evolving and changing. It is important to include the postcolonial migrant identities into the early childhood context of New Zealand.
As discussed earlier as a result of globalisation and migration of people the ethnic composition of early childhood centres in New Zealand has changed tremendously. Policy makers and our curriculum document Te Whāriki acknowledge the importance of cultural diversity. However, they need to look beyond superficial understandings of diversity. There is a need to pay attention to early childhood teachers’ cultural realities and teacher education programmes need to embrace the diversity of its work force. It is important to recognise the diverse experiences and knowledge that migrant teachers bring with them. Their funds of knowledge should be included into the existing curriculum. Despite the emphasis on cultural diversity there are subtle racial divisions within early childhood and some voices are more heard than others. These divisions and differences will continue unless we move beyond mono cultural positioning and look at multiple identities, cultures and belonging. Educators, policy makers and even children need to be aware of multiple and shifting identities so that children and others are able to engage effectively with diversity.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
