Recent Publications

Nuances and perceptions of home-based early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Gwen Davitt, Lakshmi Chellapan, Carla Keighron

Home-based early childhood education (HBECE) describes a type of early childhood education and care (ECE) that encompasses several widely recognised philosophies and pedagogical practices. Among psychologists, counsellors, therapists, and education professionals, there has been an increasing interest in researching HBECE. The aim of this research was to gain a broader view of the specific context, nuances, and perceptions of HBECE in Aotearoa New Zealand. Four focus group online interviews, with eighteen participants in total were held. The participants were service providers, visiting teachers, educators, and parents. From the interviews we identified benefits, challenges, and the overall perception of HBECE. Benefits focused on the family type environment, relationships, continuity of care, and small group size. Participants spoke of licensing and funding changes, namely: regulatory compliance, funding, and documentation. They perceived HBECE to be undervalued within the wider ECE sector and the community at large.

The benefits and challenges of using AI in learning and teaching for early childhood student kaiako and kaiako with learning disabilities.

Kerry Purdue, Fleur Hohaia-Rollinson, Jackie Solomon, Donna Williamson-Garner

In this article, we explore generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as a tool to support early childhood education (ECE) student kaiako (teachers) and kaiako with learning disabilities during their training and teaching careers. Although early childhood teaching is highly rewarding, the focus and commitment needed to qualify as an ECE kaiako can be stressful. Early childhood teaching is also demanding. Kaiako must have not only the range of knowledge and skills needed to provide positive, responsive and inclusive learning environments for all children but also the ability to manage numerous teaching and administrative tasks. These demands, as our own research, detailed in this article, shows, can be particularly challenging for ECE student kaiako and kaiako with learning disabilities. AI, with its capacity to assist with study, teaching and administrative tasks, offers potential in addressing these difficulties. We conclude our article with the provocation that the benefits of AI for ECE student kaiako and kaiako with learning disabilities far outweigh the challenges.

Ameliorating Infant Distress During Early Transitions to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): Teacher Practices Over Time and Place

E. Jayne White, Megan Gath, Laura Herold, Niina Rutanen, Elise Hunkin, Lynn McNair and Bridgette Redder

Despite widespread agreement that infants’ emotional well-being is contingent on adult practices, little is known about what these “look like” in ECEC contexts. Given the heightened emotional demands placed on infants during early transitions, this study set out to understand the practices of ECEC teachers to ameliorate infant distress in ECEC settings. Researchers across five countries generated coded observation data, video data and interview data over a twelve-month period concerning ten infant transitions from home into ECEC. Dialogic meta-ethnography, utilising quantitative sequential analysis in tandem with inductive qualitative analysis, was employed to examine the presence, events, probabilities and combinations of teacher practices across countries and their relationship to changes in infant emotional states from distress to non-distress. Findings highlight the selective practices deployed by ECEC teachers in and over time in their attempts to ameliorate infant distress according to infant age, phase/stage of their transition and teacher responsibilities. Teachers utilised pick up/place on lap practices most often in the first 7 months of transition, despite it being less likely to reduce distress than an invitation to play or an offering of food/bottle. Certain combinations of practices were more likely at different phases of transition, irrespective of age, while interpersonal strategies were more nuanced. Overall findings highlight the nuanced nature of ameliorating practices across the first year of transition to ECEC, and the need for teachers to adjust their responses to distressed infants accordingly.