Teacher educators as researchers: Crossing boundaries, developing bi-cultural habits of mind

Heta-Lensen, Y., Wrightson, H., Probine, S., Perry, J., Burke, R., Alderson, J., & McAlevey, F. (2024, February 8-9). Teacher-educators as researchers: Crossing boundaries, developing bicultural habits of mind [Paper presentation]. 2024 Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) Research Symposium Listening, empowering and innovating, Australia. https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6568

Abstract

Recent research by Smith and Assunção-Flores (2021) argued that specialised professional development for teacher–educators rarely occurs. Therefore, teacher–educators’ professional knowledge is mainly acquired through experience. This presentation reports on our experiences and the knowledge we are acquiring working as a cross-cultural research team in diverse early childhood education settings. In the words of Karen Barad (2003), ‘We are not outside observers of the world. Nor are we simply located at particular places in the world; rather, we are part of the world in its ongoing intra-activity’ (p. 29). Similarly, as teacher–educators we remain located within the context of early childhood education. Not only are we researching within the bicultural context of the early childhood education curriculum Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum (Ministry of Education New Zealand, 2017), we are maintaining professional relationships with teams of teachers who are allies in initial teacher education preparation and potentially fostering wider community relationships between centres and whānau. As early childhood education teachers, it is our experience that we draw on to understand the complexities of the research terrain. This qualitative study employs an interpretivist paradigm underpinned by bioecological and sociocultural theories, including Kaupapa Māori theory. These theories recognise that knowledge is constructed and is influenced by a complex web of contextual influences including relationships and interactions, cultural values, and beliefs and history. The methodological framework for this study included narrative inquiry to seek the stories of early childhood teachers and communities and their experiences with inquiry-based work with children. Narrative inquiry was selected for its potential to support understanding of how peoples’ experiences are shaped by and within the social, cultural, familial, linguistic and institutional narratives surrounding them (Clandinin & Connelly, 2014). To gather data, various methods including observations, interviews and focus groups have been employed in centres. During the analysis of the data, a team of seven early childhood education teacher educators-as-researchers met to wānanga, reflect on, discuss and interpret their observations of the data gathered. Leavy (2015) argued that the process of storying and re-storying can ‘reveal multidimensional meanings and present an authentic and compelling rendering of the data’ (p. 46). In this project, storying and re-storying occurs through the wānanga process. As teacher–educators, we have found that this research is engaging us more deeply in the Māori concepts contained within Te Whāriki as we work to rethink our initial assumptions and interpretations of our observations. The bicultural context of Te Whāriki is creating opportunities to develop bicultural habits of mind within our research team, which we are interested in exploring further.

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