Restructuring lives: kindergarten teachers and the education reforms 1984-1996

Abstract

This research examines how eight New Zealand women kindergarten teachers experienced their lives, personally and professionally, in relation to the restructuring of education that took place in New Zealand between 1984 to 1996. Drawing on life history interviews with the teachers, and using the theoretical ideas of Foucault as a 'tool kit' - an aid to analysis - the teachers' stories highlight how their lives were restructured as the kindergarten service was reformed. Not only were their day-to-day teaching experiences reshaped, but their personal lives and their subjectivities became reshaped and reformed. This study has examined the macro- factors at work on the micro experiences of the kindergarten teachers, and in so doing the governing of teachers from both within the system and from without become clear. The teachers' stories enable a view of the early childhood education restructuring to be reconceptualised addressing the philosophies of the kindergarten service and the professional and personal commitment to early childhood education which the eight teachers shared.