Active adult participation in ECE: Enhancing learning and community wellness

Project Description

In our qualitative research project (2010–2012), the team investigated how “ordinary” early childhood centres enacted extraordinary” pedagogy by including families, wider wha¯nau and communities in the “everyday” of early childhood programmes; that is, within this project, we explored both theoretical constructs and teaching and organisational strategies to increase parent participation and positive learning outcomes for children and community wellness. Our primary research question was:

How does active adult participation in early childhood education enhance positive outcomes for children and their whanāu?.

Our research included all four teaching teams, parent facilitators, and the management of the four early childhood centres, the 303 Parenting Resource Centre (hereafter referred to as 303), and the management and administrators at the Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergarten and Early Learning Centres (hereafter referred to as CBK). Judith Duncan and Sarah Te One1 worked alongside the CBK teams as researcher leaders over the two years of the project.

Adult participation included families, whanāu and, where appropriate, communities. Our research has led us to reconceptualise the roles “people, places and things”. The most significant change was to embed CBK early childhood education services within the wider community, in contrast to the traditional approach to an early childhood education centre sited within a community but distinct, and sometimes isolated, from the wider community.

Project Outputs

2012

Publications

Duncan, J., & Te One, S. (Eds.) (2012). Comparative early childhood education services: International perspectives (Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood). New York: Palgrave McMillan.

Duncan, J., & Te One, S. (2012). Early childhood education services: The heart and hearth of Communities. International perspectives. In J. Duncan & S. Te One (Eds.). Comparative early childhood education services: International perspectives (Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood) (pp. 1- 12). New York: Palgrave McMillan.

Duncan, J., Te One, S., & Thomas, M. (2012). Mapping parents’ movements and interaction: Reconceptualizing parent support. In J. Duncan & S. Te One (Eds.). Comparative early childhood education services: International perspectives (Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood) (pp. 13- 32). New York: Palgrave McMillan.

Te One, S., & Duncan, J. (2012). Conclusion: Reconceptualizing early education: Crossing borders to build community.  In J. Duncan & S. Te One (Eds.). Comparative early childhood education services: International perspectives (Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood) (pp. 213- 224). New Zealand

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Duncan, J., Dewe, R., & Te Punga-Jurgens, J., & Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergartens and Early Learning Centres (2012, July). Thinking outside the box! Researching outside the comfort zone.  Workshop presentation at the Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa New Zealand Childcare Association Annual Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Duncan, J., Eaton, S., & Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergartens and Early Learning Centres. (2012, May).  Adult participation and children’s learning: What is the golden thread? Paper presented at the Early Childhood Council Annual Conference, Auckland, New Zealand.

Website

Central Baptist Kindergarten

2011

Presentations, conferences and workshops

Duncan, J., Te One, S. & Eaton, S. (2011, July). Who are the teachers? Who are the learners?  Challenging the spaces in-between.  Workshop presentation at the annual conference of the New Zealand Childcare Association/Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa, Rotorua, New Zealand.

Duncan, J. (2011, October). Reconceptualising active adult participation in ECE: Enhancing child learning and community wellness.  Presentation at the 19th annual Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education Conference, London, UK.

Duncan, J. (2011, August).  Building communities: Begins in the early years with early childhood services and professional teachers. Presentation to the Pacific Early Childhood Research Association, Kobe, Japan.

Te One, S., Duncan, J., & Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergartens and Early Learning Centres. (2011, September). Getting to know each other: Adults in early education services. Workshop at the Victoria University's Faculty of Education Early Childhood Spring Research Seminar, Wellington, New Zealand

2010

Presentations, conferences and workshops

​Duncan, J., Te One, S., Thomas, M. (2010). Reconceptualising active adult participation in ECE: Enhancing child learning and community wellness – One Year On. Presentation at the New Zealand Association of Research in Education Conference, Auckland, 6-9 December 2010.