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Narrative assessments are widely used in Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood services, especially in the form of ‘Learning Stories’. This sociocultural approach to assessment foregrounds the importance of identifying what is valued learning within a particular context. What does this look like within the context of the parent co-operative Playcentre? A small-scale qualitative study brought together focus groups of Playcentre parents to share what Learning Stories are being written, to explore their experiences in writing and using Learning Stories, and to consider what underlying values shape narrative assessment in Playcentres. A major finding is that adult learning and relationship building are key aspects of Learning Stories in Playcentres. The authors argue that because of the positioning of parents as both learners and Kaiako in Playcentre, assessment in Playcentre is fundamentally different to that in teacher-led services.

Geographically isolated in the south-west Pacific but intellectually and culturally connected to Western Europe, Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education sector is a unique mix of influences. The imprint of progressive education is evident in a legacy of “free play” programmes, yet its national curriculum is built on the construct of “mana”, reflecting the cosmology and aspirations of the indigenous Māori people. These influences are held in tension with contemporary economic drivers to expand the sector and to focus on politically approved “learning outcomes”. Within this dynamic tension, the place of play and of “free play” is paradoxically both visible and invisible both in the education of very young children, and also in teacher education. This study draws on oral history interviews that focused on “free play” across 60+ years. The analysis of these indicates a process of “educationalisation” evident across three “reform agendas”: Play, Unity, and Education.

WHAT HAPPENS TO CHILDREN'S free play when learning outcomes are required? What happens when safety is foregrounded over exploration? When does accountability become surveillance? When does visualising children as an investment opportunity make children ‘too precious’? Based on the analysis of oral history interviews with historic leaders of Aotearoa, New Zealand's early childhood sector, this paper examines some unintended consequences of the sector's professionalisation. It draws on contemporary, feminist and classical sociological theory (Bunkle, 1995; Foucault, 1970/2001; Merton, 1934; Moss, 2010) to support a discursive model that focuses on how ‘odd’ alliances can push the sector in unanticipated directions.

This paper adopts a Foucaldian analytical framework to identify emerging discourses that shape the play of under three-year-old children, as described by families, researchers-as-film editors, and children-as-protagonists in play Drawing on video footage, interviews and analysis from the Aotearoa New Zealand contribution to an International Play Project for Organisation Mondiale for l’Education Prescholaire (OMEP) (Samuelson-Pramling & Fleer, in press), the authors argue for a reconstructuralist view of play within the cultural and historical context of society, and suggest that for Aotearoa New Zealand, such a view must Incorporate the aspirations of family, culture and society — beyond the exclusive gaze of professionals.