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Abstract
Since the 1980s in New Zealand, the kindergarten service, once called the ‘flagship’ within early childhood education, has changed in reaction to the need for ‘diversity’ and ‘responsiveness’ to its communities and restructured government requirements. This paper draws on life‐history interviews with a small group of New Zealand kindergarten teachers. The teachers’ stories demonstrate the tensions between teaching within a neoliberal context, while traditional values and philosophies of the kindergarten service remain the preferred discursive practices of the teachers.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to acknowledge the research funding sources that have enabled me to carry out this study: the Blair Trust Postgraduate Scholarship; the University of Otago Humanities Division Research Grant; the University of Otago Postgraduate Award; the Harriet Jenkins Award (New Zealand Federation of University Women); and the Rosemary Seymour Research and Archive Award (Women’s Studies Association, NZ). The author wishes to thank Dr Karen Nairn, Faculty of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand for her careful reading and considered suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.
Notes
1. At five years old children in New Zealand enter the compulsory school system.
2. Playcentres are also a sessional early childhood service, but differ from kindergartens as they are a parent based cooperative where parents manage and supervise the programme and the children’s learning and development.
3. The kindergarten service in New Zealand is staffed 99.9% by women, so it was appropriate that all the teachers in the study were women.
4. A kindergarten head teacher has the overall responsibility for the education and care of the children in the centre, and for supporting and supervising any other staff. While most kindergarten teachers see themselves as a ‘team’ the overall responsibility for the children resides with the head teacher.
5. Whänau is the Mäori term for family but incorporates a wider understanding of family and family relations than the Western definition of the nuclear family.
6. This quote is from a research project still in progress: Under Three‐year‐olds in Kindergartens: Children’s experiences and teachers’ practices. Funded by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research—Teaching and Learning Research Initiative Grant. Current publications from this research include: Duncan, J. (Citation2005). Two‐year‐olds in kindergarten: What are they doing there?, The First Years: New Zealand Journal of Infant and Toddler Education, 7(2), 4–8.
7. At this time, it was still five morning sessions (8.45 a.m.–11.45 a.m.) and three afternoon sessions (12.45 p.m.–3.15 p.m.) per week. There have been significant changes in session times since these interviews.
8. All names of teachers have been changed for reporting purposes. Each teacher chose her pseudonym for this study.
9. A high roll turnover means that children come in and out of the kindergarten at a higher than usual rate. This can be for several reasons—for example: large waiting list numbers so the children are closer to school age when they start their kindergarten experience, or the kindergarten may be in an area where the families are more prone to move often (transient population). This high turnover means that the children have less settling‐in time, the group of children is not stable, and the children may often have additional educational and social needs.
10. Traditional adult–child ratios in New Zealand kindergartens had been 1 adult to every 20 children (2 teachers and 40 children per session). With the change of ratio of 1 adult to 15 children, the group sizes increased to 45 children with three teachers.
11. ‘Getting my “knickers in a knot”’ is a New Zealand saying that means to get extremely upset or worried, trying too hard to make things better and getting more worried in the process.
12. Scones were popular in New Zealand and were home baked regularly for afternoon tea. They are defined as: ‘A small, thick biscuit, usually rich with cream and eggs, that is cut into diamond or stick‐like shapes and baked in an oven or cooked on a griddle. The flour used is usually wheat, barley or oatmeal, with baking powder acting as the leavening agent. Scones are believed to have originated in Scotland as a griddle‐baked flatbread. Traditional ‘English’ scones are very biscuit‐like with a minimum of extras like raisins in the batter. Therefore, they are ripe for topping with butter, jam or honey’ (available at: http://www.mrbreakfast.com/glossary_term.asp?glossaryID=129) (accessed 13 March 2007).
