Refugee children and families’ positioning within resettlement and early childhood education policies in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

This paper uses a framing derived from refugee and child rights conventions to analyse the positioning of young refugee children and their families in Aotearoa New Zealand’s resettlement policies, early childhood curriculum and early childhood education (ECE) funding policies. It also analyses data from interviews with participants from ECE settings who are working with refugee children and families, to discuss how policy is experienced in ECE practice, and makes recommendations about future policy directions. Main findings are that the Refugee Resettlement Strategy has critically important goals for refugee resettlement, but outcomes are narrowly defined and future-focused. While the ECE curriculum, Te Whariki, offers a strong basis for refugee families and children to come to belong and participate in Aotearoa New Zealand, and to have their own culture upheld, the rights of the young refugee child have no visibility within resettlement and ECE funding policies. We argue that a rights-based framework, focused on the young refugee child within their wider family, offers a productive lens through which to analyse refugee resettlement and ECE policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee
• refugee resettlement policy
• early childhood education
• early childhood education policy
• young children

Acknowledgements

We are immensely grateful for the contribution of Professor Lynn Ang from the UCL Institute of Education, University College London in the initial phase of the development of our conceptual and analysis framework. Our special thanks go to Robyn Gerrity, Director of the Carol White Family Centre; and Amanda Coulston, Chief Executive Officer, Glenda Rowe, Senior Teacher, and Hanaa Baroud, Community Navigator, from He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua for sharing their perceptions of the implementation of national and local education and resettlement policies relating to refugee children and families in their settings/organisations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a founding document intended to be a partnership between Māori and the British Crown, ensuring tino rangatiratanga (absolute sovereign authority) for Māori over their lands, villages and all their taonga (everything that they value), and all the rights and privileges of British subjects. Te Tiriti was soon breached through colonisation, the New Zealand wars, land confiscations, and assimilationist policies and practices that occurred.

 

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding, managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi; Royal Society of New Zealand [17 UOW047].