A curriculum of open possibilities: a New Zealand kindergarten teacher’s view of professional practice

Abstract

Thematic analysis of a continuous video record of a day in the life of a New Zealand kindergarten teacher, and of a narrative reconstruction of the day during a follow-up interview, yielded a view of early childhood professional practice as focused on a ‘curriculum of open possibilities’. This paper discusses elements of the teacher’s professional practice that contributed to her curriculum: her understanding that curriculum planning required relational involvement and being part of the children’s life within the kindergarten community; that professional practice required teamwork and attunement to one’s colleagues; and that acting professionally was about being fully present and ‘bringing everything together’. It argues that behind the apparent ‘trivia’ of the teacher’s day there were layers of activity that maintained a fabric of connections that sustained the open possibilities. In this way, the teacher’s role as a curriculum planner emerges as a finely balanced role that is creative and agentic rather than prescribed by narrow curriculum goals. The findings of the study are located within the emergent New Zealand literature on what it means to be a professional early childhood teacher in the contemporary early childhood sector, and research on New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki.

Keywords:

• curriculum
• professionalism
• professional practice
• relationships
• teacher role

Notes

1. The 10-year strategic plan for early childhood education, Pathways to the future – Ngā Huarahi Arataki, introduced under a Labour-led government in 2002, had a target of achieving a 100% qualified workforce in teacher-led services by 2012. A National-led government elected in November 2008 subsequently removed the 100% target and established a new target of 80% qualified by 2012.

2. The four principles in Te Whāriki are: well-being/mana atua; holistic development/kotahitanga; empowerment/whakamana; belonging/mana whenua.

3. It is worth noting that this argument does rather presuppose that everything that pre-dated Te Whāriki needed to change – and this is by no means a demonstrable proposition.

4. Dinniss (1974) gave an address in which he considered whether early childhood work could be called a profession on the basis of criteria of a profession proposed by M. Lieberman in the 1956 publication of Education as a Profession, by Prentice Hall.

5. Pukana is a verb meaning to stare wildly, dilate the eyes – done by both genders when performing haka and waiata to emphasise particular words.

6. A haka is a Māori traditional dance form performed by men, most famously at the start of national rugby games.

7. Most New Zealand schools have Māori Performing Arts groups called kapa haka groups; kapa means line or row and refers to the way that haka are performed by groups of people arranged in lines.