Search

Critical pedagogy has the potential to create transformation experiences within early childhood settings, as educators open up children's worlds to explore fairness, equity, and democratic participation across issues of interest and relevance to young children. Using a critical inquiry framework, informed by the work of Paulo Freire, teachers from an Auckland kindergarten provided examples of what the critical pedagogy elements can look like in practice with young children. These illustrative glimpses demonstrate the workability and impact that critical pedagogy can have in an early childhood education setting.

As the COVID-19 virus has spread worldwide, much attention has been paid to its impact on the health and wellbeing of adults, with less attention to how the virus has impacted on young children. This article draws on documentation and video data from a kindergarten in Aotearoa New Zealand. It discusses the working theories of 4 year-old children whose teachers encouraged them to draw, construct images, explain and tell stories about their experiences, ideas and feelings about the virus. A main argument is that children's working theories about the virus, knowledge of the virus and sense of personal control over keeping themselves safe developed over time. Arts-based and storytelling pedagogy were central in enabling children to communicate with others, to be understood themselves and to extend their own understanding.

This article draws from a 2-year TLRI-funded research project looking at how four early childhood centres constructed positive outcomes for children from migrant families. The research questions focused on how the people, places, and practices in early childhood settings support a sense of bicultural belonging to Aotearoa New Zealand, sustain children's connections to homelands and people, and enable them to contribute important cultural aspects from their home country. This article focuses on one of the research settings that participated in this study, Pakuranga Baptist Kindergarten. Observations and staff reflections revealed the ways teachers used the visual arts, storytelling, and play to value children's and their families' cultural funds of knowledge and foster children's sense of belonging in New Zealand.