Nga tikanga a nga mokopuna : crises in early childhood education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In this paper I propose the existence of a multi-faceted crisis in early childhood care and education in Aotearoa, comprising: -privatisation of the sector (in 2009 40% were privately owned, as opposed to 26% in the year 2000) (ECE Taskforce Secretariat, 2010) -low expectations for qualifications of staff -concerns regarding capacity of ECCE staff to demonstrate engagement with and responsiveness to whānau Māori (only 23% of services in a recent ERO review valued the language, culture and identity of Māori children) (Education Review Office, 2012), and only 9.3% of ECCE staff are Māori (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2013b) - ongoing in-service professional learning for ECCE staff is not available to all services but to those ‘targetted’ by the Ministry (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2013f) Copious research has shown that ‘quality’ early childhood education is most advantageous to those children most ‘disadvantaged’ (Children's Commissioner, 2013). The Ministry of Education’s ‘Amazing Children’ Taskforce report (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2011) has been critiqued for its capture by neoliberal discourses of mistrust of educators and their pedagogies (Nuttall, 2013): - Silent on children’s human rights - Instead we see increasingly language of ‘vulnerability’ of ‘children at risk’ - Children as human capital, ECCE as economic benefit - Ideological shift away from common good, social well-being to individualising/corporatizing profit-orientation The view of early childhood education as an economic good is seen in the languaging of the research summary which underpinned the Taskforce’s work: Most of the economic evaluations of ECE programmes have shown that benefits of public spending exceed the costs. Gains are not realised, or are not as great, if the ECE is of poor quality. (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2010, p.13)