In 2002, Ngᾱ Huarahi Arataki
released a 10 year strategic plan that would be implemented through the years
2002-2012. Within this strategic plan targets for 100% qualified and registered
teachers in teacher-led services were to be carried out.
Ngᾱ Huarahi Arataki released
this plan under the recommendation of future directions. Although the strategy
was never written into legislation, Labour’s education ministers, Trevor Mallard and
Steve Maharey, signed off the strategy. Therefore, whilst the strategy was
signed off by the then government ministers, it is still a strategy only, as it
was never a policy and has not been adopted into the legislation of New Zealand
under the Ministry of Education (mcguinnessinstitute.org).
Research conducted by Dalli et al. (2011) shows that
quality in early childhood education and care facilities require:
· Teachers who have knowledge about contemporary
developmental theories of learning
· Teaching staff who have undergone specialised
teacher education or professional learning
· Or teachers who have undertaken professional
teacher education programmed in conjunction with practicum courses to integrate
theory into practice.
Here I have found some graphs, showing what New Zealand’s
statistics look like in terms of qualified teaching staff, in all different
types of services provided for children under the age of 5 years old.
Figure 1: Percentage of qualified
teachers and percentage of registered teachers (2002-2013)
As you can see from
the graph above, in the latest research from 2013, New Zealand as a whole is
sitting below the 80% mark.
Figure 3: Percentage of
registered teachers by service type (2002 to 2013)
Depending on the level of training needed to become a ‘registered’
or ‘qualified’ teacher. New Zealand as a whole is still falling behind 80%.
I believe that children have
the right to be taken seriously. Children should have the right to an environment
where learning, care, equality and love are nurtured. To do so correctly, I
believe that children deserve quality care and education. Dalli et al. (2011)
describe the main component to quality as being teachers. The New Zealand Early
Childhood Curriculum: Te Whᾱriki, states
that the care of young children is a “specialised” field (Ministry of
Education,1996, p.17).
As a third year student, I
have carried out my studies in Early Childhood Education at both Victoria
University of Wellington and the Eastern Institute of Technology. Through both
institutions I have undertaken professional education programmes and practical
learning. Early childhood education is described as multi-disciplinary by Dalli
et al. (2011). This means, as practitioners, teachers draw on research and
knowledge from all types of domains within our society. As students studying
early childhood education, or teachers undergoing professional development,
teachers are accustomed to constantly learning new theories, reading and analysing
new research that impact on children and their lives. Therefore, teachers become
best educated for the job. This idea aligns with Barnett (2003) who stated
that, “new research finds that young children’s learning and development
clearly depends on the educational qualifications of their teachers”.
Howes (1997) examined the
effects that teacher education has on teacher quality and child development.
Howes found the higher the teacher’s education the better the teaching and more
engagement by children. Barnett (2003) and Howes (1997) agreed, finding that
teachers with the most advanced education and training appear to be the most
effective, as they provide more positive, sensitive and responsive interactions
with children. Therefore, children have better cognitive development, and social
and emotional competency (Barnett, 2003; Howes, 1997). Berk (2014),
states that according to Vygotsky, social interaction in particular,
cooperative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society is necessary for children to acquire the of thinking and behaving that make up a community’s culture. Vygotsky describes this as, cognitive development; a socially mediated
process in which children depend on assistance from adults and more expert peers
as they tackle new challenges.
Vygotsky suggests that children are in the zone of proximal development;
therefore need help from skilled peer (teachers), to complete tasks. This
theory outlines the basis as to how vital the role of the teacher is for
quality learning in young children in early childhood education.
Barnett,
S. W. (2003). Better teachers, better
preschools: Student achievement linked to teacher qualifications.
Philadelphia, PA: Rutgers National Institute for Early Educational Research.
Berk,
L. (2014). Development through the
lifespan. (6th ed).. Boston: Pearson Education.
Dalli,
C., White, E.J., Rockel, J., Duhn, I., Bunchanan, E., Davidson, S., … Wang, B.
(2011). Quality early childhood education
for under-two-year-olds: What should it look like? Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ECE/Quality_ECE_for_under-two-year-olds/965_QualityECE_Web-22032011.pdf
Howes,
M. J. A. (1997). Beyond psychobiography: Towards more effective synthesis of
psychology and biography. British Journal
of psychology, 1997 (88) 235-248.
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te Whᾱriki: He
Whᾱriki mᾱtauranga mᾱ ngᾱ mokopuna o Aotearoa – Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning
Media.
