Teacher Knowledge,Child Interest and Parent Expectation: Factors Influencing Multicultural Programs in an Early Childhood Setting

Abstract

MULTICULTURAL CURRICULA/PROGRAMS assume an important role within a cultural approach to learning and teaching in early childhood education in New Zealand. Te Wh‘ariki, the national early childhood curriculum framework of New Zealand, is an emancipatory and socially constructive document that emphasises equity, social justice and the important position of culture in children's learning and development. In practice this means developing early childhood programs that are sensitive and responsive to the needs and interests of children and families of minority cultures. Drawing on a critical social constructivist framework, this study of one early childhood centre in New Zealand identifies the features of its multicultural curriculum. The paper argues that a devotion to supporting children of minority cultures has persisted in the curriculum, but there is a reliance on mainstream pedagogy focused on children's learning within the centre environment and teachers' subjective knowledge about children's needs.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barclay-Mclaughlin

, & Hatch

(2005). Studying across race: A conversation about the place of difference in qualitative research. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 6(3), 216–232.

Barron

(2009). Illegitimate participation. Pedagogy, culture and Society, 17(3), 341–354.

Bentley

(2012). ‘Rights are the words for being fair’: Multicultural practice in the early childhood classroom. Early Childhood Education, 40, 195–202.

Burman

(1994). Deconstructing developmental psychology. London: Routledge.

Carr

, & Lee

(2012). Learning stories: Constructing learner identities in early education. London: Sage.

Chan

(2011). Critical multiculturalism: Supporting early childhood teachers to work with diverse immigrant families. International Research in Early Childhood Education, 2(1), 63–74.

Corrie

(1995). Vertical investigation: Teachers' knowledge and teachers' voice. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 20(3), 1–5.

Devine

(2008). Stretching the IR theoretical spectrum on Irish neutrality: A critical social constructivist framework. International Political Science Review, 29(4), 461–488.

Gorski

(2006). The unintentional undermining of multicultural education: Educators at the crossroads. In Landsmen

& Lewis

(Eds.), White teachers in diverse classrooms: Building community, combating racism. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishers.

10.

Grant

, & Sleeter

(2006). Turning on learning: Five approaches to multicultural teaching plans for race, class, gender, and disability. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

11.

Guo

(2010). Chinese immigrant children in New Zealand early childhood centres. PhD thesis. Victoria University of New Zealand.

12.

Guo

(2014). Mono-cultural approach in multicultural education: Mapping the contours of multicultural early childhood education in New Zealand. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 8(1), 19–35.

13.

Hopf

(1998). The promise of constructivism in international relations theory. International Security, 23(1), 171–200.

14.

Keats

D. M.

(1997). Culture and the child: A guide for professionals in child care and development. England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

15.

King

(2004). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. In Ladson-Billings

& Gillborn

(Eds.), The Routledgefalmer reader in multicultural education (pp. 71–83). London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

16.

Lin

(2001). Towards a caring-centred multicultural education within the social justice context. Education, 122(1), 107–115.

17.

May

(2003). Critical multiculturalism. In Peters

, Lankshear

, Olssen

, & Kincheloe

(Eds.), Critical theory and the human condition: Founders and praxis, (pp. 199–212). New York: Peter Lang.

18.

Ministry of Education New Zealand (MoE NZ). (1996). Te Wh'ariki, He Wh'ariki Matauranga mo nga Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

19.

Pang

(2001). Multicultural education: A caring-centred, reflective approach. Columbus: McGraw-Hill.

20.

Ritchie

(2003). Whakawhanaungatanga: Dilemmas for mainstream New Zealand early childhood education of a commitment to bicultural pedagogy. Retrieved 27 September, 2013, from www.reconece.org/proceedings/ritchie_az2003.pdf.

21.

Surtees

(2008). Teachers following children?: Heteronormative responses within a discourse of child-centredness and the emergent curriculum. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 33(3), 10–17.

22.

Ullucci

(2010). What works in race-conscious teacher education? Reflections from educators in the field. Teacher Education Quarterly, 37(2), 13–156.

23.

White

(2009). Assessment in New Zealand early childhood education: A Bakhtinian analysis of toddler metaphoricity. PhD thesis. Monash University of Australia.