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

was anxious to avoid both the preparation for school and the “push down” of
primary curriculum when their national curriculum was being devised (May, 2003).
It was May and Carr who with support from the sector responded to the Ministry of
Education tender to develop curriculum guidelines for early childhood education
(Te One, 2003).
Traditionally, early childhood curriculum has included some notion of
play. However, internationally there has also been the perception that curriculum
is designed to ensure some kind of universal standard. This is apparent in
UNESCO‟s stated purpose of an early childhood curriculum, that is, to “ensure that
staff cover important learning areas, adopt a common pedagogical approach and
reach for a certain level of quality across age groups and regions of a country”
(UNESCO, 2004, para 1). There are, however, some disadvantages in having
prescriptive curriculum models, as Goffin notes:
Some experts, however, believe that by their design, curriculum models
lower expectations for early childhood educators and diminish the
professional responsibilities of early childhood teachers… Teachers
function less as reflective practitioners and more as technicians who
implement others‟ educational ideas. (Goffin, 2000, para 13)
Duhn (2006) would agree with this in regards to Te Whāriki as “with its
highly flexible structure and non-prescriptive approach, Te Whāriki does not
challenge teachers to develop teaching practices from a critical perspective” (p.
196). The questions which emerge, however, are to what extent teachers are meant
to implement content, and if there is a highly flexible and non-prescriptive
approach what precisely is the content meant to be whenever they are introducing
Tiriti-based curriculum.
This question is also consistent with the comment already attributed to
Broström (2003), who was also concerned that Te Whāriki may prevent many
teachers from developing critical perspectives, because in his view it lacks clear
links between aims and content. While Te Whāriki does not specifically propose
content, it does, nevertheless, encourage teachers to think about what they are
teaching. It does so by including within each strand a section of reflective
questions that are intended to encourage teachers to be thoughtful about what they
are doing.
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