Responses to the Treaty of Waitangi in early childhood care and education

Abstract

This study focuses on the responses of several major early childhood care and education organisations to one aspect of the early childhood charter, the Treaty of Waitangi. The investigation was carried out at three levels: national, Wellington district and Wellington centre level. In relation to the Treaty, it explores the policies of these bodies and their modes of operation, the support and guidance given and received, the degree of confidence of staff and their needs in meeting the charter requirements, the barriers standing in the way of implementation, and the responses to the Minister of Education's decision to remove the obligation for centres to include the section on the Treaty of Waitangi in the charters. An account is included of the writer's 1990 study which was a precursor to this one. Information was obtained from the national and Wellington district organisations through questionnaire-based interviews with key office bearers. Centre responses were gathered by a postal questionnaire. A small sample of the centres were visited to flesh out the questionnaire responses and to see how these reflected the reality of life in the centres. The study showed that changes are happening in early childhood care and education and that some of the organisations are replacing paternalism with partnership and power sharing with Maori people while others have a long way to go. At all three levels respondents were strongly opposed to the Minister's decision on the Treaty requirement in the charter. Most centre staff had a positive attitude towards incorporating the requirements on the Treaty into their programmes and practices. All respondents, in some way, had made a start towards this although there were those who were scarcely past the first post. The major barriers were lack of knowledge and confidence. Staff desired more knowledge about the Treaty, Maori language, values, customs and practices and anti-bias strategies, as well as further training in these areas, more resources, support personnel and increased parent involvement and understanding about the Treaty. Some of the barriers can be dealt with by the centres themselves but others will require support, guidance and further training from the organisations and other bodies. Government funding must be provided to enable support provisions and inservice training to be effective.