Judith Loveridge

Everyday Spirituality: An Aspect of the Holistic Curriculum in Action:

Early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand includes different philosophical perspectives, may be part of the public or private sector and aims to be inclusive and holistic. The early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, supports these aims. Aspects of the curriculum that are holistic may be conceptualized in diverse ways and this qualitative research focused on the spiritual. Case studies were constructed in three different settings — a Montessori casa, a private preschool and a Rudolf Steiner kindergarten. This article concerns one of these settings and discusses the first day back at the Montessori casa after a two-week break. The concept of everyday spirituality is introduced and three narratives retell moments of everyday spirituality that occurred throughout the day. Three themes are addressed in some detail. The discussion is informed by Derridas notion of hospitality and by different perspectives about the role of spirituality in educational contexts.

Exploring informed consent and dissent through children's participation in educational research

Involving children and young people in educational research has been foundational in developing and understanding theories of learning, and understanding child development. Attempts to identify childrens perspectives on policies and practices that directly affect them in educational settings have resulted in an increase in the involvement of children to inform research. This means children are interviewed by researchers about matters of interest to their research agenda, and raise questions around the childrens experiences and benefits from such participation. This article explores the involvement of children in educational research with a specific focus on the two-sided images of consent: the dilemmas of negotiating and maintaining childrens informed consent and the related nature of informed dissent during the research process. The introduction of a Childrens Research Advisory Group to explore these issues provides a tier of analysis closer to the young people.

A sociocultural analysis of the ethics of involving children in educational research

ABSTRACT This article explores the ethical complexities of involving children in research in the contexts of their families, schools and communities. We argue for an approach that is dynamic, reflexive, responsive and informed by an understanding of how local cultures impact on and shape negotiations and practices around ethical issues and processes. We use different sociocultural lenses to analyse the complexities of ethical processes and practices at the beginning of a research project which explored children’s informal and everyday learning. The article contributes to ethical debates about involving children with research through foregrounding the multiplicities and complexities that emerge when researchers are attentive to the practices and values of the settings that children’s and researchers’ lives traverse.

The Ages of Consent: Re-Working Consensual Frameworks in Postmodern Times.

The processes of gaining consent for educational and social research with children and young people have become increasingly complex. A variety of influences contribute to this complexity. In this paper, we use post-structural concepts to focus on the influence of three co-existing and interweaving perspectives: protectionist, participatory and post-structural. Each of these foregrounds different issues in the process of gaining consent for research involving children or young people. We argue for the need to be cognisant of the interplay between the three different perspectives, and what is effected by each. We conclude by proposing a three-overlapping-points-of-entry approach to thinking about research involving children. Our hope is that by sharing the ideas that we have had, we will contribute to those ongoing conversations in which others are trying to re-think consent within the broader framework of why and how do we do research with children and young people.

Children’s conceptions of informal and everyday learning

Abstract Although informal learning is part of everyday life it is only recently that attempts have been made to more fully conceptualise its nature. This paper explores young children’s conceptions of their everyday and informal learning outside of school within the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Phenomenography is used to systematically analyse the variation and categories of descriptions in children’s conceptions of everyday informal learning. From in-depth interviews with 36 nine-year-old children about their everyday informal learning, five categories of description are identified, ranging from least to most sophisticated. Six dimensions are also identified across the categories: culture, relationships, identity, strategies, purpose, and affect/emotion. In combination these influence how children conceptualise and make meaning of their learning in the everyday. We argue that this empirical approach provides a complex understanding of informal learning, which attends to critiques of earlier conceptualisations and may also help teachers consider how to more meaningfully support all students’ learning in school.

Students’ Voice Shifting the Gaze from Measured Learning to the Point of Learning

National Standards were introduced in New Zealand primary schools in 2009 heralding a new focus for teachers on the assessment of year 4 and year 8 students’ achievements in reading, writing and mathematics with the potential to link these assessments to judgements about the performativity of schools. This research set out to explore year 4 and year 8 students’ views about their learning in the early mandatory introduction of National Standards in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the findings showed that after three years of its introduction, the students had little awareness and understanding of National Standards. However, the young participants attended to something more pertinent to them, and the research broadened to include their accounts of the point of learning rather than the assessment of their learning. Five inter-related themes emerged around the point of learning and combined, they highlight an important distinction made by the children between learning as it is assessed and learning as they experience it. The findings show that if National Standards focus on a narrow aspect of the curriculum, children will continue to see a gap between their perceived point of learning and the assessment of their learning, an important distinction for these children. However, if teachers focus on students’ perceptions of the point of learning and listen to student voice more intentionally, the assessment or “measurement” agenda that has less meaning to students may be countered and an achievement agenda supported.

Using Student Voice to Challenge Understandings of Educational Research, Policy and Practice

In this chapter, we argue for the need to move beyond the rhetoric of student voice. A focus on the acting on of advice and working with students is our “next steps” agenda for involving children and young people in educational research, educational policy and educational practice. We demonstrate that in order to take student voice seriously, the system (policy and practice) that children learn in must radically change through listening and acting on their views, and position student voice as political and educational imperatives. From the perspective of research and practice, this chapter outlines the promises and possibilities of including student voice in change agendas. We also caution against diluting voice, marginalising some voices, and unintentionally replicating current practice through drawing on the voice of students who typically thrive within the educational system. For equitable outcomes for all learners, listening to those identified as dis-engaged, or “othering” must be part of the radical agenda, including enacting radical collegiality between teachers and learners. This requires a reconceptualisation of the broader phenomenon of what it means “to learn” for all children. Student voice is our educational call to wake up, listen and act.

Journeys across educational and cultural borders: international postgraduate students with young children

Abstract There is substantial research about international postgraduate students but little research about their experiences as parents or their children’s experiences. We focus on four postgraduate international students with young children navigating early childhood education and care in New Zealand. A narrative analysis, informed by socio-cultural understandings of learning and post-structuralist understandings of identity, revealed emotional complexities, stress and transformation as parents and children made many transitions. Parents wanted their own culture respected and their host culture decoded. Families experienced tensions around the use of home and host languages as they juggled children’s present and future linguistic needs. Supporting international students in their family identity has positive effects for them, their children and their doctoral studies, and hence for universities. Further research about the experiences of international students who are parents and of their children could assist in the formulation of policies to effect such support.

Strengthening early childhood and school sector continuities in producing the lifelong learner in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract Recent education policy analysis has revealed the standardisation of education systems and an intensified focus on learners and learning to meet the requirements of the global economy and neo-liberalism. In this paper we analyse the way that early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand has become increasingly entangled with school sector priorities and international discourses of lifelong learning as it has encountered these requirements. We trace the shift from an explict rejecting and countering of school sector pedagogy to the promoting of increasing continuity with school sector priorities. We draw attention to dynamic, contrasting and competing interests and entities that have shaped the construction of learning and learners and curriculum and assessment priorities. We argue the need to attend to the complex mix of constitutive forces at work in the formulation and enactment of early childhood sector priorities, in particular to these crucial entanglements with school sector priorities, international discourses of lifelong learning and neo-liberal economic rationalities.

Exploring notions of community in a privately owned early childhood education and care centre in New Zealand

Abstract There has been increasing debate about the role early childhood education and care (ECEC) plays within local and wider communities. This article reports on a small-scale case study that explored the views of teachers, management and parents from a privately owned ECEC centre in New Zealand about the notion of community. Rogoff’s planes of sociocultural activity have been used as the theoretical framework for generating and analysing data. Findings highlight that while the business model of this centre shaped its orientation to community, the participants expressed diverse views about community, emphasising the importance of connections between people and place both within and beyond the centre. We argue that viewing the ECEC setting as an extended family rather than a community may afford greater recognition of broader emotional and social benefits of participating in ECEC for children, their families and society as a whole.