Unpacking Te Whāriki: Early childhood education in New Zealand

Five Curriculum Strands, Goals, and Learning Outcomes:

The Story of Te Whāriki

Figure 1: Te Whāriki (woven mat)

New Zealand has many types of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. Teacher-led services include kindergartens, education and care centres, and home-based education and care services. Parent-led services include playcentres, Kōhanga Reo, and playgroups. Although there are many types of ECEC services, all ECEC services are delivered through the implementation of a common early education curriculum called Te Whāriki.

Significantly, Te Whāriki was developed using a partnership approach of Māori and Pākehā as envisaged by Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi). The curriculum reflects increased guidance on what it means to weave a bicultural curriculum that cultivates a culturally competent child who is able to grow up strong in identity, language and culture, in keeping with the emerging nature of New Zealand as a bicultural country and in honoring Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi).

Firstly, the curriculum uses the metaphor of the woven mat (See Figure 1) that allows all actors – teachers, children, whānau (family) and community to be engaged in the process of weaving curriculum knowledges. As shown in the picture on the right, the curriculum is underpinned by four principles that describe four fundamental expectations of all ECE provision in New Zealand. The strands describe five areas of learning and development in which the focus is on supporting children to develop the capabilities they need as confident and competent learners.

Secondly, the metaphor describes a ‘spider web’ model of curriculum for children, in contrast to a step model. In keeping with the spider-web image of the woven mat, child development is seen in terms of cognitive (hinengaro), physical (tinana), emotional (whatumanawa), spiritual (wairua), and social and cultural dimensions, but these dimensions need to be viewed holistically, as closely interwoven and interdependent.

Implications for Teachers

Te Whāriki provided a model of an integrated curriculum that was to serve as a strong resistance to the international trend towards more structured and prescriptive curriculum documents. Unique in its bicultural framing, Te Whāriki recognizes the country’s Maori (the indigenous peoples of New Zealand) heritage. It reflects a philosophy of early learning unique to the nation’s historical, political and social contexts through the provision of a curriculum that was responsive to the language, culture and identity of Māori children. All ECEC settings are required to follow the guidelines of Te Whāriki to design their particular and local curriculum, but the way different schools implement some of the requirements will differ based on their unique cultural communities.

Te Whāriki recognizes the growing ethnic diversity in New Zealand and promotes a holistic curriculum which values children’s language, identity and culture and encourages teachers to develop their practice to ensure that their teaching reflects, acknowledges and incorporates these cultures. People in New Zealand are generally proud of Te Whāriki because of its democratic origin representing New Zealand's ideals that gives clear affirmation to the groups of users at all levels of the ECEC system on the implementation of the Te Whāriki. In order to create a culturally responsive classroom environment for these diverse children, teachers will be automatically required to engage in practices that reach out to diverse families and incorporate children's families into their teaching practices. Therefore, Te Whāriki places a strong emphasis on the important role a teacher shoulders in developing partnerships between families and the early childhood education settings.

In addition, the resistance inherent in Te Whāriki lies particularly in its language and non-prescriptive curriculum. The challenge, then, is in teachers' own understandings and competence in implementing bicultural practices in non-tokenistic and authentic ways. Further, Te Whāriki also expects all teachers to  weave their own local curriculum based on the principles, strands and goals, as it does not set any guidelines for content or methods. Evidence (Alvestad, Duncan, & Berge, 2009) shows that many teachers are still struggling to find the critical balance of how Te Whāriki can support in-depth teaching and learning for their children, while also seeking to maintain Māori language and culture and develop culturally appropriate pedagogies and assessment practices.

Figure 4: Professional Identity and Worth

Engaging with Te Whāriki allows teachers to have their own learning journey just as children have theirs. Te Whāriki differs from other curricula in that it does not prescribe content or methods, but leaves it to the teachers to design their own learning activities for children that reflect the curriculum guidelines from Te Whāriki. In this way, teachers can take ownership of their teaching practices. At the same time, Te Whāriki has provided clarity about a shared vision and a strong sense of collective purpose for all teachers within one national curriculum. With implementing Te Whāriki, teachers are increasingly seen as professional partners in the ECEC services with the government. It is for these reasons that many teachers expressed the worth of Te Whariki both in its contribution to their work and its perceived recognition in improving the status of their work, that is, contributing to a professional identity and adding both substance and meaning to their work. 

The attractiveness of such a non-prescriptive curriculum framework within the early childhood field and discipline is not without risks. On the one hand, teachers can maintain their own ‘ways of working’ with children and families, but on the other hand the open nature of Te Whāriki requires teachers who have the professional knowledge to implement it effectively. While there is widespread acceptance that shared vision with a moral purpose are essential in creating professional communities among teachers, their construction requires further investigation (Santoro, 2014). From the helicopter view, the Ministry of Education passes full responsibility for implementing Te Whāriki to principals in schools who in turn passed them on to the teachers. From this perspective, teachers have a crucial role to play here in the effective implementation of the Te Whāriki. Before the Ministry of Education pass the baton, however they first should make sure that teachers are trained and have adequate exposure to the bicultural content of Te Whāriki.

Figure 5: Parents, Participation, Partnership

Largely absent in discussions of implementing the Te Whāriki are the voices of parents and communities in creating a culture of collective responsibility for achieving a shared commitment to the success of all children. Te Whāriki identifies families from diverse social and cultural backgrounds as fundamental participants in children's learning. Findings revealed, however, that many parents did not view this as their role and have become passive clients and consumers, as opposed to being active contributing participants in assessment of their child's learning (Chan & Ritchie, 2016). Amongst other findings, Cooper et al. (2014) highlight the complexities of implementing Te Whāriki's sociocultural principle of involving diverse families in assessment through interactive two-way partnerships, with its foundation in the Māori concept of Mana Mokopuna, in which Guo (2005) found that teachers' attitudes and beliefs could influence the degree of parental involvement in supporting their children’s learning and development, and that ultimately benefits the children themselves.

Research by Urie Bronfenbrenner (2005) established the need for schools to integrate parental involvement in the professional communities for teachers. Based on professional communities for teachers, the idea is to provide parents with a better understanding of their role in their children’s learning and development, common goals to collaborate on with fellow parents, and deeper insight into school strategy. Attention is now turned to the position taken by the Te Whāriki that it is the professional responsibility of all teachers to promote and nurture quality reciprocal relationships with their children's families, while taking into account of perceived attitudinal barriers to partnership formation which can be further investigated.

Figure 6: Being a Reflective Practitioner