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Welcome to the Office of Early Childhood Education
National and public adviser on ECE, the OECE is a sector body representing teachers and all types of licensed services driving safer, higher‑quality education for every child
View our positions
- Provides membership support to ECE services, teachers, researchers, and community partners
- Actively contributes to sector analysis, research, and policy development
- Advances evidence-based best practices that prioritise children’s interests and wellbeing
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Teacher Member Posts
Multi-Cultural Activities
Multi-Cultural Activities.
Most early childhood education services include bi-cultural elements in their teaching and learning, but with New Zealand becoming an increasingly multicultural country it can be interesting for children to learn about other cultures as well, particularly if there are children from these cultures within their communi
Early Childhood Teaching Theories – “Putting the Cog into Cognitive”
Early Childhood Teaching Theories.
During teacher education programmes, lecturers introduce students to the joys of studying a range of theorists. But many teachers appear to put theoretical perspectives of practice behind them immediately the essay-writing is over.
The purpose of this article is to breathe life into the work of t
Indoor Plant and Growing Activities
Children Indoor Plant Growing Activities.
Here are 7 ideas for how to do some fun growing activities and keep children busy. Activities include an onion person, a Humpty Dumpty potato or swede, an egg shell garden, wheat people and more.
Young children will be able to do many of these growing activities themselves – they ju
Supporting Boys’ Interests and Play in ECE
Ideas for activities and learning extensions are provided for teachers who are working with boys aged 3- 5 years.
There is a good chance you will see some gendered play and behaviour in any early childhood setting you enter. Our profession is female dominated and early childhood settings can be feminised environments.
Service Provider Member Posts
Establishing Good Internal Financial Control and Preventing Fraud
ECE Internal Financial Control Systems.
Why internal control?
Internal control systems are normal in business and society and will be expected of you by your staff, fellow owners, parents, board members, bankers and financiers.
They help establish a climate of good control which produces reliable financial records, good management
90-day Trial Period
All employers in New Zealand, no matter their size, are able to use 90-day trial periods. 90-day trials will not affect other aspects of employment relations, such as the requirement to act in good faith. It can be used for any staff – including and not limited to teachers, cleaners, cooks, administrators).
If you wish to put a new staff me
Flooding
Flooding – what to do and what not to do when there is flooding or a threat of flooding.
Be prepared for floods to occur wherever you are located, but particularly if located in a low-lying area, near the coast, rivers and water, or downstream from a dam.
If sustained and hard rain follows a period of drought, flooding can occur as the grou
Playground Risk Assessment
When the Health and Safety at Work Act was brought in concerns were expressed by the education sector. For example, does the Act mean children can’t climb trees in ECE anymore?
Then there’s NZS 5828: Playground Equipment and Surfacing to think about.
Well the good news is that it’s pretty much all good news.
In this article we’ll look at how risk assessment, the HSW Act and NZS 5828 can combine to develop safety approaches that recognise the goal of Te Whariki: To grow up as competent, confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit.
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Brooke’s Day: One Child’s Experience in ECE
What is a child’s everyday experience of attending a fulltime early childhood education and care centre? This case study focuses upon one child’s experience within a centre in New Zealand and proposes that meaningful learning can occur when a child attends an early childcare programme. The methods used to gather data were videotaping, an observ
Should We Consider Rhizomatic Thinking When Educating Young Minds?
FULL REFERENCE: Cliffe, J. and Solvason C. (2019). Should we consider rhizomatic thinking when educating young minds? NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 22(1), pp. 86 – 100.
Log-in to read the full research paper below. Or order a pdf copy of the article from the main NZIRECE Journal page.
ABSTRACT: There is a tacit understanding within early years education that children’s thinking should be understood and nurtured in order to produce adaptive and innovative learners. This article argues that traditional epistemological approaches do not go far enough in understanding, responding to and planning for children’s complexity of thought. We propose and justify that an awareness of rhizoanalysis could enable practitioners to engage with children’s knowledge differently, through asking questions such as: how does this work? And what new thought does this make it possible to think? Through exploring literature and previous research by one of the authors, this article proposes that not only does rhizomatic thinking occur naturally within children’s playful encounters but having an awareness of rhizoanalysis, provides educators with opportunities to understand and re-conceptualise children’s thinking and cognitive development.
Key words: Rhizoanalysis; thinking; cognitive development; early childhood education; Deleuze.
Introduction
“…the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in-between…” Juster (2012, no page)
Progressing Play
How to teach and not what to teach is the focus of ‘Progressing Play’.
The authors detail, discuss and throughout the book provide real-examples of children’s play and teacher action and responses – to support and inspire the reader to think about and extend the quality of her or his teaching in many different areas
Editorial: Parents as Partners in Early Childhood Education and Care
FULL REFERENCE: Jenkin, C. (2022). Editorial NZIRECE Special Issue on Parents as Partners in Early Childhood Education and Care. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 24, pp. 1-3.
Log-in to read the full research paper below. Or order a pdf copy of the article from the main NZIRECE Journal page.
EDITORIAL: NZIRECE Special Issue on Parents as Partners in Early Childhood Education and Care
I was delighted to be invited as guest editor of the special edition of The New Zealand International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal on parents as partners in early childhood education, because the importance of partnering with parents has been integral to my life and career.
Throughout my life and career, the importance of partnerships with parents has been evident. My parents both had challenging upbringings with my father in 1920 being abandoned by his mother at five years old, then ending up in an orphanage, and my mother as the daughter of divorced parents in 1927. Nevertheless, they took an active interest in my schooling, hobbies, and the intermittent and short-lasting dabbling into sport.
In my initial career as a primary teacher, in the late 1960s I started out in Kawakawa Primary School, where for the most part parents were evident and involved in the school community. The same was apparent in the small three teacher rural school in Maraetai where I later taught. It was less obvious at Avondale Intermediate in the early 1970s as mothers began to join the paid workforce. I recall going to students’ homes after school with the aim of sharing the children’s end of the year report when whanau were unable to attend the parent interview sessions. My lasting impression was reactions of uncertainty and discomfort and I felt as though I had intruded. In hindsight, I lacked the skill of building relations with cultures other than my own.
I had taken some months of maternity leave before returning to teaching, in 1974. With the rise of long day childcare around the 1970s and 1980s and the push for women to return to work, a sea change occurred throughout the sector. There were growing numbers of full day care and education centres, though ‘back yard’ or unregulated homecare was also available, especially early on. One of the key changes in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1986 was early childhood education and care centres moving from the Department of Social Welfare to the Department of Education. I felt at the time that there was recognition of the importance of education in the early years.
With my first child turning nearly 2 years old in 1976, and pregnant with my second, I discovered Playcentre – a parent cooperative where I also found my ‘educational home’. The free selection of activities and experiences were what I had been searching for (rather unsuccessfully) in my primary teaching. It matched my belief that children would learn better if they had some control in selecting what they wanted to learn.
During the 1990s and increasingly in the early 2000s, the sector was professionalised within nationally determined guidelines. By 1995, all early childhood teachers in kindergarten and childcare settings were only seen as ‘qualified’ by completing a 3-year diploma (with a short time later, a degree). In the meantime, Playcentre fought for government funding alongside kindergarten and long-day childcare and continued to refine the parent education programme. Parents in Playcentre must meet all government requirements in order to receive funding, but they continue to be the educators of their own children. It was those values of parent partnerships that were refined and shaped as I took them into my developing career as a lecturer in initial teacher education.
Currently, appreciation of parent partnerships is woven through the different courses I teach. The value of parent involvement in early childhood education cannot be underestimated. It was recognised in Aotearoa New Zealand in the national early childhood education curriculum Te Whāriki first published in 1996, and Principle 3 Whānau tangata/Family and community is described as “The wider world of family and community is an integral part of the early childhood curriculum” (Ministry of Education, 2017, p. 20).
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