Early Childhood Education in New Zealand: Bring back the teacher!

Abstract

The thesis examines the hypothesis that the range of responsibilities encompassed in the role of a qualified Early Childhood Teacher is causing tension within the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector. The tension is compounded by implementing the Te Whāriki curriculum, grounded in a constructivist child-centred approach, which sidelines the teacher's role to that of a facilitator rather than an educator using explicit instruction methods. Both issues, the ECE teacher's multi-faceted role and the teacher's repositioning as a facilitator, negatively affect children’s oral language and literacy required for later academic performance. The qualitative study consists of two stages: 1) an empirical study comprising an online questionnaire and document analysis of the policies, legislation, and curriculum documents that inform the entire ECE sector, and 2) using theoretical concepts to explain findings and build the thesis argument. The aim was to identify the nature and problems within the ECE teacher's role and which tasks are considered professional. The data findings support the hypothesis of tension within the ECE profession. Three significant findings emerged from the empirical study.

The wide range of educational responsibilities and ‘unskilled’ tasks and work that form part of these teachers' roles make their work complex and confusing for a qualified teacher working in the sector. Across all the policies analysed, the role of the teacher is defined in contradictory ways and gaps were identified between the intended ECE policies and their implementation in practice. The Te Whāriki curriculum with child-centred constructivist pedagogy is identified as the mechanism that promotes the teacher as a ‘facilitator’ and explicitly rejects the teacher as the instructor of formal knowledge. The abovementioned tension within the role and the sidelining of the teacher have resulted in children not receiving the teaching required to progress from primary to secondary abilities in oral language, literacy, and numeracy. The purpose of early childhood education, supported by constructivism, has become a place to socialise a child into his or her cultural identity instead of being a place where biologically secondary knowledge is taught.