supporting tiriti-based curriculum delivery in mainstream early ...

knowledge beyond the research, which enabled effective and ongoing
implementation of Tiriti-based curriculum. The lesson for early childhood
education appears to be that zeroing in on a success factor, no matter how small,
can serve as a springboard for positive continuing professional development.
Within Case Study One, the philosophy of the centre, and the way in
which teachers thought about what they did with children appeared to be
instrumental in how they set about implementing Tiriti-based curriculum. When
teachers work within a child-initiated programme, the importance of environment
is demonstrated as are activities such as excursions into the community. These
teachers were mindful of imposing their agenda upon children‟s learning.
Furthermore, based on their own beliefs about teaching language/s, they reflected
about the appropriateness of role modelling te reo Māori when it was not their first
language. The approach used by Case Study One teachers involved developing
resources, skills, and confidence over a period of time.
5.3 Case Study Two
Case Study Two took place in a sessional, open-plan kindergarten in the
Northern Auckland region of the New Zealand Kindergartens Incorporated. It is
located in a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Auckland and was purpose-built in a
subdivision on land that had originally been a farm. As the kindergarten was new,
resources, particularly the garden and outdoor areas, were still being developed.
Nearby schools were Decile 10.
Case Study Two teachers reported that there were 30 children aged 4 in
the morning session and 30 children aged 3 in the afternoon session. The
children‟s ethnicity was defined by the staff as Pākehā, and Māori/Pacific Island,
but they did not specify the numbers of children in each grouping. Under the State
Sector Act kindergarten teachers must have a Diploma of Teaching (Early
Childhood Education) and have either full or provisional teacher registration (New
Zealand Kindergartens Incorporated, 2008). At the beginning of the research
project, Alison, who was the head teacher, was completing her final paper for a
Higher Diploma of Teaching. The ethnicity of both the teachers was Pākehā (see
Table 5.2). Brodie had lived all her life in the area but Alison had been there for
about 4 years. Earlier on in her career she had taught in a kindergarten in Rotorua,
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