Lessons from Kōwhiti Whakapae in Aotearoa New Zealand: Strengthening Practice to Support Progress or Strengthening Progress Through Practice, And Does it Matter?

• In Event: Teaching with Heart and Skill: Exploring Social-Emotional Learning in Teacher Preparation and Practice

Abstract

Kōwhiti Whakapae is an evidence-based curriculum resource designed to help early childhood teachers notice, recognise, and respond to children’s progress over time within the holistic, bicultural framework of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand. The online resource addresses three key areas of learning: 1) social and emotional, 2) oral language and literacy, and 3) maths. Development work on the resource took place between 2020 and 2023, with the complete resource being released in 2024.
In this paper, we examine the development of the Kōwhiti Whakapae framework and its associated social-emotional resource. This includes the background and context for why the resource was needed, as well as tensions and challenges with development, and competing interests and priorities among government, early childhood stakeholders, and early childhood teachers. Core expectations for development set by the government highlighted the following:
The purpose of these tools is to help early learning kaiako (teachers) attend to individual children’s progress in order to identify ways to deepen or strengthen children’s learning through effective teacher practice. In addition to being developed within the framework of Te Whāriki (2017) and being reflective of Te Ao Māori and diverse cultural views of learning and development, we anticipate that the final set of tools will take into account the areas of learning and development indicated by the government’s science advisors as being of most significance to positive educational and life outcomes for children.
Working within these expectations, the development team sought to blend Western and Indigenous worldviews of learning and development, and champion the principles and values of Te Whāriki. From this aim, a specific focus on the importance of culture, language, and identity was agreed as primary to all other teaching and learning. The team sought to provide a robust structure of foundational knowledge to focus on teacher practice, supporting children’s progress (including infants, toddlers, and young children), through the use of flexible and contextualised tools that support formative assessment and the enactment of local curriculum.
The Kōwhiti Whakapae framework emerged from the collective cultural, disciplinary, and professional knowledge and expertise of the development team and consulting partners, underpinned by a diverse research literature. The paper will explore the social-emotional content that was selected, prioritised, and how this content relates to the international research literature on social-emotional teaching and learning, including key areas of importance highlighted for early childhood (c.f., Denham, 2006, Denham & Brown, 2010) and the ‘big-five’ from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL; see Durlak et al, 2015).

Author

• Tara McLaughlin, Massey University