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Welcome to the Office of Early Childhood Education
The OECE is a national organisation for the ECE sector and public adviser, championing high-quality education and care 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

Teacher Education Staff Uncertain About Accepting Male Students
Accepting Males into Teaching Course.
Why should we continue to accept men into our teacher education programme when they have difficulty fitting in and so often have difficulty completing training? Our experience has been that that they either withdraw into themselves or do the opposite and become the joker in their class. Out o

Making Books and Reading Fun
Books and Reading Fun. By Barb Morris.
We learn best when we are playing and having fun especially if we are rewarded with smiles, positive comments and cuddles. Children are no exception! So how do they learn? When it comes to reading it is mainly by copying and you, as educators are the most powerful role models that children copy.

Teaching Literacy – An Early Childhood Educator’s Guide
Guide to Teaching Literacy. By Dr Sarah Alexander.
From their earliest speech experiences through to contact with written language and technologies, what happens in children’s homes and communities shapes their early literacy learning. How, and whether this early learning is taken up and extended through early childhood educational practic

Hearing Loss or Ringing or Buzzing in Your Ears?
Losing my Hearing – Signs of Hearing Loss for Early Childhood Teachers and What You Can Do.
Children are by nature noisy, and working in an early childhood setting can therefore be a noisy working environment -and especially during bad weather when children are stuck indoors all day. Children screaming can damage adult ears.
Employers do h
Service Provider Member Posts

Non-Contact Time Needs and Your Entitlement
Early Childhood Teacher Non-Contact Time.
At centres and home-based services, teachers or educators have a wide range of responsibilities in their roles and finding time to do everything can especially be a challenge depending on things like the number of other teachers, how many hours your service operates and the demands/ needs of caring of

Staff Meetings – Agenda and How to Conduct a Meeting
Staff meetings can work really well with the right Agenda and planning. Here’s how to achieve and cover what is important and make sure no meeting is a waste of valuable time.
Scroll to near the end of this page for a sample Agenda and sample planning docs.
There is no specific regulatory requirement to hold staff meetings. But services fi

Transforming Difficult Relationships with Senior Staff or Committee Members
Strong relationships are essential in ECE, especially when someone in a senior role begins to dominate, micromanage or undermine others. This piece helps leaders shift their focus to building healthy, respectful working relationships through clear boundaries, trust and effective communication.

Managing Staff Drug and Alcohol Impairment
Staff using controlled drugs or working while impaired by alcohol is a serious safety risk. While managers and employers may know their responsibilities, navigating what to do can be difficult.
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

Talking with Children in Prams and Supermarket Trolleys While Shopping
Abstract:
Children’s language development is influenced by the amount and quality of interactions that they are immersed in. This study investigated the parent-child interactions that occur when parents accompany young children in prams while moving between shops. Overall, minimal levels of interaction were observed between p

Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education
This book presents diverse viewpoints on critical issues in ECE, so that readers can discuss the positions and issues being interrogated and make their own evaluations

Observation: An Effective Research Tool or a Rude Intrusion?
Abstract:
This article discusses observation as a method of collecting data in early childhood research.
Observation has become a common mode of early childhood education practice, mostly to assess children’s learning, which has particularly become prevalent since the introduction of learning stories (Blaiklock, 2008; Carr et al., 2

Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2021, Vol 23, No. 1
This issue brings together research on critical reflection, emotional labour in early years practice, SENCo influences, equity‑focused policy work, toddlers’ emotional literacy, and teacher education during COVID‑19.
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