It is vital that early childhood settings are rights-focused, mana-enhancing spaces for all children and their families, especially those who have specific and complex needs. In a webinar, Kate McAnelly shares the findings of her research into disability and inclusion, and how early childhood centres can create a culture of inclusion that supports the wellbeing, learning, and engagement of all children.
Te Whāriki provides a substantive framework for inclusive practice. It describes intentions and aspirations for all children, regardless of their culture, gender, ability/disability, and family background, to be welcomed and supported to participate and learn in equitable and inclusive ways. Kaiako have an ethical, moral, and practice-driven responsibility to support all children to learn in whatever way suits them best. However, there are some significant barriers to the realisation of Te Whāriki’s intent for inclusive education, and research suggests that various tamariki and their whānau struggle to realise their right to an inclusive education, and are therefore marginalised. Barriers can be attitudinal, physical, conceptual, or policy-driven.
Attitudinal barriers are the behaviours, perceptions, and assumptions of kaiako and leaders that marginalise, disempower, and exclude diverse children and their whānau. Attitudinal barriers are usually a result of a lack of knowledge and misconceptions (and are therefore linked to conceptual barriers). Examples include assuming a non-speaking child can’t understand you or that a disabled child is incapable of learning, dismissing whānau expertise in favour of professional knowledge, or ‘charitable theorising’, such as seeing allowing a family to enrol as doing them a favour.
Physical barriers are those created when the built elements of the early childhood setting constrain the active learning and participation of tamariki and their whānau. Examples include a lack of disabled car parking or disabled toilets, narrow and/or lipped doorways, or insufficient room for the big meaning-making body movements that some diverse tamariki may need to engage in.
Conceptual barriers are primarily grounded in a lack of understanding. They include working with Education Support Workers (ESWs) in ways that set diverse tamariki apart from their peers, by having the ESW withdraw the child from the everyday learning opportunities in the programme. They might also include kaiako devolving or failing to recognise their expertise and submitting to that of other professionals. Other conceptual barriers that occur are related to a deficit-based image of the child, where children are labelled as special or different, with those terms loaded to mean ‘bad’, ‘wrong’, or ‘broken’, and when particular activities within the setting are viewed as inappropriate for them or outside their capacity. A lack of understanding of differentiating pedagogy and curriculum for diverse children is another conceptual barrier.
Policy-driven barriers occur when policies are embedded in a discourse of conditionality that limits children’s right to an inclusive education. For example, early childhood settings may have policies that deny families the right to enrol their child, using conditions such as the existence of a formal diagnosis, or of resourcing for MoE learning support funding. Policies may be created to limit the hours that a child attends, or to insist that whānau provide extra support for their child, either during daily sessions or field trips, or to set limits on the number of tamariki with additional needs attending. Policies create the overarching tone for early childhood communities and influence how diverse tamariki and their whānau are perceived and received.
Some children and whānau are at greater risk of being marginalised. These include those who are disabled or who have additional learning needs, who come from an economically disadvantaged background, who are of Māori or Pasifika heritage, those who are migrants or refugees, those who speak a first language other than English, and those with diverse gender identities. Sometimes two or more of these backgrounds intersect and create further marginalisation. Kaiako should pay greater attention to these children at greater risk of being excluded as they are likely to experience more barriers to equitable education opportunities than other children. Identifying and removing barriers to participation promotes children and whānau’s safety, security, and belonging, which are the foundations of active participation and learning.
Kaiako need to know children well in order to be able to spot and remove barriers to their full participation and learning and enable inclusive education. Getting to know families and children well involves being able to go at the pace of whānau, finding ways to work together that recognise and honour different modes of communication. This means differentiating practice for partnership rather than expecting families to collaborate in pre-determined ways. Kaiako should take care to check their biases and assumptions about tamariki and their whānau. They should develop a powerful image of each and every child, and see diversity as an asset and a strength. This may include high appreciation for and understanding of the child’s ‘hundred languages’ for communicating, without privileging verbal communication. Instead of charity or pity-laden theorising, kaiako should employ strengths-based approaches, and reflect on the power of the language used to describe and justify potential. In particular, kaiako should look to contest the discourse of ‘normal’ and ‘special’ within the discourse of inclusion.
Whānau have a wealth of funds of knowledge and expertise about their children. Te Whāriki highlights the contribution and active participation of whānau as crucial to the development of effective programmes, while te ao Māori perspectives suggest that the learning and wellbeing of tamariki is interdependent with that of their whānau. Kaiako should develop genuine and strong partnerships with whānau, who are likely to be extremely keen to share what they know and help kaiako to conceive and actualise their right to an inclusive and equitable education. It can also be helpful for kaiako to tap into the expertise that exists in their local community to support them in relationship-building.
A rights-oriented approach to practice is a critical tool for kaiako in developing cultures of inclusion. Aoteraoa New Zealand is a state party to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, which means that these rights are ratified in New Zealand law. All children have rights, regardless of their race, colour, sex, disability, national, social, or ethnic origin, property or any other status, language, religion, or political opinion. These rights include the right to express pride in their identity, to play in whatever way makes sense to them, to speak up and be heard about the things that interest and affect them, and to be protected against all forms of discrimination. They include rights for children’s families to actively participate in their education, and for the best interests of the child to be at the centre of all decision-making about the child. Te ao Māori scholarship argues that where rights are being upheld, children’s mana is also being upheld and affirmed.
The role of the kaiako in creating and sustaining cultures of inclusion is paramount. Kaiako need to understand inclusive education as an enduring right of all tamariki, with the rights of the child central to all pedagogical decision-making. Kaiako set the pace for inclusion in what they do and how, and their lack of understanding and ability to enact inclusive practices can constrain the equitable participation of tamariki and their whānau. Kaiako also play an important role in advocating for the right of all tamariki to an inclusive education.
