Invertergating Issues in Curriculum Essay Example
Invertergating Issues in Curriculum Essay Example

Invertergating Issues in Curriculum Essay Example

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  • Pages: 6 (1489 words)
  • Published: May 31, 2018
  • Type: Essay
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Te Whariki is 20 years old and has to date stood the test of time. There have been no reviews non any attempt to make changers to the original document. If Te Whariki was revolutionary when it was written then it is with interest that I looked at the very new and recently introduced New Zealand Curriculum.

Would it have the fundamentals that Te Whariki has and would it to hold at its core family and community at its core. Background: For most of the 25 years of my teaching career I have had the benefit of working with the early childhood curriculum Te Whariki. I consider that I know the document thoroughly and can articulate the principles, goals and strands confidently with the families and interested community members. I am very aware that the fami

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lies, whanau and the community are a very integral part of Te Whariki in making it a living curriculum.

In 2007 the New Zealand Curriculum was introduced into the primary sector as the new curriculum, it took several years to develop this curriculum and the riters had the benefit of seeing how a New Zealand developed curriculum worked in the early childhood sector with the curriculum Te Whariki. I am curious to know if this new curriculum would also have the requirement to have parent and community input to give it the balance and depth that is found in Te Whariki.

I wonder if in 20 years time this curriculum would stand up to the riggers and scrutiny that Te Whariki has and would it still be as valued and as relevant as Te Whariki is when it is

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20 years old. Te Whariki was developed from a growing need to bring together the many ifferent elements that made up early childhood care and education, which had been developing over many decades and combine them under a common curriculum. The need for childcare starting in the 1800 when woman had to help establish a new country and this lead to the growth of baby farming which had some very unpleasant outcomes for children.

As New Zealand moved into the 20th century, two world wars and a depression had a major effect on the need for childcare as mothers needed to return to the work force. "Since the war days many young mothers and wives of serviceman who are invalids or slightly imbalanced in mind, have to attend to usiness affaires a themselves. Imagine going into an office and dragging two or three young children along" (Women's Weekly Nov 28 1946) (As seen in course reader EDTL746).

With all this history, it is therefore astonishing that it was not until 1991 when the government realised that as it increased its funding to early childhood service i t develop an interest in the need tor a quality curriculum across all services and settings. The guidelines were developed and the draft document was submitted in 1992 with the new early childhood curriculum taking effect in 1996. Throughout his time and development one of the main components that has always been included is the need to have families and the community totally involved for the benefit of the children that come into any early childhood centre or setting.

Aim: Te Whariki, the early childhood curriculum is a document

that has had 20 years to deeply embed into the childhood services and settings and supplys the direction needed to provide quality care and education to the very young children of New Zealand. I have been made aware of Just how robust and responsive this curriculum is and I was interested in why this might be. I held discussions with the other teachers within my kindergarten and it became clear that one of the most profound elements that keeps Te Whariki up with the times is the constant requirement by the curriculum its self to have parent and community input.

This exchange between children and their environments is the influence of the communities to which children belong. Each community that children belong to makes its own specific curriculum demands: the community of learners who will be able to respond to challenges and change; the community who have individual needs and rights; and he community of New Zealand's who are gaining knowledge of the nations languages and developing skills in using cultural tools such as art, dance, mathematics, music, reading, science, technology and writing.

Te Whariki 1996 pg19). I wanted to know if the new New Zealand Curriculum would have the same level of family, whanau and community involvement as Te Whariki. Would the writers of the new curriculum see the importance of families, whanau, and the community and incorporate them into their design for the curriculum? Would the new curriculum reflect this need as Te Whariki does? My inquiry is this, would the family, whanau and community involvement that is an important feature of the Te Whaariki also be built into the new New Zealand Curriculum.

align="justify">Methodology: To find out if my enquire question has any foundation I planned use a content analysis form of investigation to gather data that would support or disprove my question. Content analysis has been called "the scientific study of messages" and is a quantitative method of gathering data. The "classic" definition, "content analysis is a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the anifest content of communication" (Berelson 1952: pg14 -15). Through this method it may help us gauge the intensity of the interest in a subject or preoccupations that the producer ofa document may have. (Funnell, B. 997).

By using content analysis I was able to use a larger sample of both curriculums section C in Te Whariki and the section on Learning areas in the New Curriculum. Within both curriculums these two areas look specifically at children's learning. Content analysis is not looking for the "hidden meanings" of communication; it can provide an analysis of the frequency ith which certain words, themes, concepts, etc appear as a gauge of their importance. (Funnell et al. l 7) As I was not looking in depth at the meaning ot the words but trying to ascertain how often the words that I have chosen have been used within both curriculums.

The number of time the words are used will be indicators of the writers need to add the essence of the words into the documents, a quantitative analysis would give the data I would need to support or dismiss my hypotheses. I decided on the words that would carry the most information and these words were ithin my hypotheses, family, whanau and community. These

words would give me the data that would show by their frequency and how important they were to the writers of the two curriculums that were being investigated.

I went through selected sections of both curriculum books, counting how many times each word was used and at the end of each section I made a tally for each word. Once I had gathered the raw data I processed it on to an excel spread sheet this gave me the data in a numerical form and from there converted the information into a bar graph this gave e a visual form. I then had a very clear picture of the data gathered and this then allowed me to make some interesting conclusions to my hypotheses.

The word community was used 11 times in Te Whaariki and slightly highter on 13 for the New Zealand curriculum making a 2 point difference. The word family was clearly the word that was most used within Te wharriki while it was the word used least in the New Zealand curriculum. The word whanau was used in both curriculums but the use was limited, it was used twice in Te Whariki and 3 times in the New Curriculum. This data shows hat while both curriculums have used all three words, Te Whariki was a larger user of the word family and the New Curriculum used the word community more.

So my hypothises that TeWharriki would have a higher level of community and family involvement was not as clear cut as I had supposed. The writers of both curriculums obverously felt that the community was a valued factor that needed to be

added into the curriculums, however Te Whariki place far more emphasis on families as an important factor that they felt needed to have reused to emphasis its importance in he curriculum while in the New Curriculum families were not seen as a factor of any importantance with the word family used only once in the intire section . Whanau was also used in both curriculum however in a limited way and this was not a factor that I had forseen when selecting the words to be studies.

I Discussions ot Issues and Implications: As I was working through my hypotheses I had some predetermined ideas about the New Curriculum. I was sure that the primary sector curriculum would not value families and community as much as the early childhood curriculum did.

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