This conceptual research study examines the discursive constructions of giftedness, infancy/toddlerhood, and economics/neoliberalism to consider their implications in gifted education. This analysis is undertaken from a Foucauldian perspective and draws from concepts such as power/knowledge, discourses, disciplines, and power relationships to…

Sustained shared thinking dialogues which focus on teacher talk with preschool learners have long been considered an important route to learning progression. Toddlers, however, seldom engage in dialogues through talk alone, and their encounters are often fleeting. As a consequence, they are often positioned on the periphery of learning dialogues…

This article draws from a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative research project that aimed to explore how three early childhood centres support children to experience and learn about their local area, including its stories, geology, biodiversity, and cultural meanings. The project helps children envision socioecological futures. This article…

In New Zealand, every child has the right to participate in inclusive, quality early childhood education (ECE), as outlined in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). However, research reveals both the struggles children with disabilities and their families experience to have their rights recognised and upheld, and…

The Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) landscape is becoming increasingly multicultural, in particular with a significant number of migrant Indian teachers working in the field. This paper explores the potential role of environmental identity as migrant Indian ECE teachers navigate between the Indian and New Zealand cultures,…

This paper presents research findings in relation to the multiple identities of students undertaking early childhood field-based initial teacher education (FBITE). The research draws on the understanding that social actors hold multiple identities based on membership across a myriad of social groups, or communities. Data was gathered using…

For more than 20 years, the New Zealand early childhood (EC) sector has had guidance about how to deal with situations of ethical difficulty in daily practice through the ECE Code of Ethics. This paper reports on three surveys undertaken at 10-year intervals that sought to understand EC educators' experiences of such situations, and how they…

In this article it is argued that notions of "quality" in early childhood education have been captured by neo-liberal discourses. These discourses perpetuate the western, individualistic, normativising and exploitative attitudes and practices that are contributing to the climate crisis currently imperilling our planet. Educators may…

Fairy tales play a substantial role in the shaping of childhoods. Developed into stories and played out in picture books, films and tales, they are powerful instruments that influence conceptions and treatments of the child and childhoods. This article argues that traditional fairy tales and contemporary stories derived from them use complex means…

In young children's worlds, gender and sexualities are constantly policed. Who children play with, where they play and how they play are often subject to regulation by others to perpetuate 'normativity'. This colloquium draws on 'telling examples' from an in-progress study in an early childhood education setting in Aotearoa New Zealand. Examples…

Children's bodies occupy a culturally contested space in the early childhood arena. In New Zealand, children's bodies have increasingly become the focus of regulation. The early childhood centre has become a site of constant surveillance, turning teachers into 'disciplinary individuals' who are internally controlled by their own behaviour. This…

Attachment theory is presented in this article as involving embodied relational processes within complex relational systems. Two narrative-like "events" are represented to illustrate very young children playfully relating -- connecting and communicating inter- and intrasubjectively. The ethnographic-inspired research methods included…

The impact of spoken language skills on the social inclusion of children with hearing loss is of interest for listening and spoken language early intervention providers. This study used spoken language assessments and a parent-report social inclusion survey to investigate this impact for 95 children with hearing loss (M = 5.1 years of age). The…

Concern has been raised about the under-achievement of Maori children in education. The problem has tended to be located with Maori children rather than with assessments. Clearly if one takes a sociocultural perspective achievement is situated. Although studies in early childhood education have examined and developed assessment tools and…

Data from two qualitative research projects indicated a relationship between the type of early childhood setting and children's independent collaborative play. The first research project involved 22 three and four-year-old children in a daylong setting and 47 children four-year-old children in a sessional kindergarten. The second project involved…