From protecting to empowering tamariki: How beginner teachers from migrant backgrounds embody culture in New Zealand early learning settings
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Authors
Burke, Rachael
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Date
2024-04-01
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Journal Article
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Teaching culture - New Zealand
Early learning settings
Migrant teachers
Teaching education programmes
Early learning settings
Migrant teachers
Teaching education programmes
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
He Kupu: The Word, 8 (1), 29-42. https://www.hekupu.ac.nz/article/protecting-empowering-tamariki-how-beginner-teachers-migrant-backgrounds-embody-culture-new
Abstract
Aotearoa New Zealand is now recognised as a superdiverse nation (Chan, 2019) and initial teacher education (ITE) programmes reflect this change with increasing numbers of early childhood education (ECE) students coming from migrant backgrounds. This paper is based on qualitative research carried out with 12 recent ECE graduates from migrant backgrounds, who are working as beginner teachers in early learning centres across Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on a narrative inquiry approach (Clandinin, 2023), the purpose of the study was to interrogate the image of the child held by these beginner teachers and explore how this might impact on their practice as emerging ECE kaiako. A key finding of this study was the significant role cultural beliefs and practices play in shaping participants’ image of the child,
their practice as teachers and the ways in which they engage with tamariki, colleagues and whānau. Early childhood teachers play a vital role in supporting children’s agency (Tong, 2023) and this study found that by engaging with sociocultural theories that portray children as competent and capable (Ministry of Education, 2017), participants transformed their perceptions of tamariki from passive to empowered.
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He Kupu: The Word
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He Kupu: The Word
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This paper is the copyright of He Kupu. The author shall sign over the worldwide copyright to He Kupu.