Why don’t you Ask Someone who Cares? Teacher Identity, Intersubjectivity, and Curriculum Negotiation in a New Zealand Childcare Centre

Abstract

This thesis investigates the construct of 'curriculum' as it was intersubjectively defined and enacted by a group of early childhood teachers in one New Zealand childcare centre, from mid-2000 to early 2001. Participant observations were conducted of the seven teachers and one centre licensee participating in the study, during teaching episodes, staff meetings, professional development meetings, and at a parent evening. Each participant was also interviewed, and a wide range of curriculum-related documentation in the centre was examined. A traditional symbolic interactionist approach was employed in the design of the research, including fieldwork, data analysis, and presentation of findings. The thesis argues that the teachers had aligned themselves around an 'official definition of the situation with regard to curriculum' that relied upon shared understandings about four constructs: the use of Te Whāriki (New Zealand's early childhood curriculum framework document), the concept of a 'core curriculum', the 'planned programme', and ideas about 'emergent curriculum'. It was found, however, that the teachers' enactment of the day-to-day curriculum did not reflect these constructs but relied, instead, upon close adherence to the centre's daily routines, maintenance of compliant behaviour amongst the children, and compliance with the staff duty rosters. In considering this theory/practice divide, the thesis turns to an investigation of how the participants in the study were able to negotiate the resulting tensions between their 'official' curriculum and the day-to-day reality of 'doing childcare'. The author argues that the participants had developed a range of shared cognitive strategies that allowed them to maintain social cohesion and deflect challenges to their shared 'official' understandings about the centre's curriculum. Central to these strategies were the conduct of 'identity work' (Blumstein, 1991/2001), as the participants sought to construct professionalised images of themselves, and the strategy of 'myth-making' (cornbleth, 1987) about the childcare centre. These strategies supported social cohesion in the centre but simultaneously created professional isolation between the teachers. It is argued that this situation is likely to persist until structural changes are made to the nature of work in childcare settings in New Zealand, particularly grater provision of time for staff to meet together to conduct shared, systematic investigations of their thinking and practice. A case is also made for further research into teachers' accounts of their lives and their work, and how these accounts inform their practice. The thesis concludes by arguing that until such developments take place, the promises of Te Whāriki for children, families, and for teachers are unlikely to be realised.