Politics in the Playground: The World of Early Childhood in New Zealand

Front Cover
Title Page
Half Title
Copyright
Contents
Introduction: Investing in the Early Years
Part One / Growth and Expectation 1940s–1960s
	1. Psychology of Freedom
		Understanding children
		Benefits of play
		Free play at kindergarten
		‘I play and I grow’ at Playcentre
		Teaching mothers and motherly teachers
		Playway at school
		Permissive messages to mothers
		Parent campaigns
	2. Psychology of Disorder
		(Dys)functional families
		Working mothers and maternal deprivation
		The backyard growth of childcare
		Regulating childcare
		Blaming mothers
		Illegitimate solutions
	3. Getting Ahead
		The ‘problem’ with education for Maori children
		Sylvia Ashton-Warner: ‘the little ones’
		Maori children at preschool
		Combating disadvantage with a head start
		Revolution in learning
		Te Kohanga: a chance to be equal
Part Two / Challenge and Constraint 1960s–1980s
	4. Politics of Early Childhood
		The end of the feminine mystique
		Children have rights too
		Who gets to preschool?
		Liberating preschoolers
		National constituency for early childhood
		The year of the child – the world of the child
	5. Demanding Childcare
		Campaign tactics
		Attachment and separation
		Activism and advocacy
		Working women
		‘Story of a recommendation’
	6. Working with Children
		Rocking the cradle
		Career at Playcentre
		‘Brought to mind’ in family daycare
		To ‘teach’ in kindergarten
		To ‘work’ in childcare
	7. Indigenous Rights and Minority Issues
		Maori self-determination
		Te Kohanga Reo: outside the mainstream
		Kura Kaupapa: transition to school
		Early childhood responses
		Pacific Islands early childhood centres
Part Three / State Interest and Devolution 1980s–1990s 201
	8. Winds of Reform
		Political shifts
		Against the odds
		A foot in the door
		Implementing Before Five
		National directions
		Parents as First Teachers
		The kindergarten flagship
	9. Measures of Quality
		Quality discourses
		Who gets to preschool now?
		Weaving Te Whariki
		Qualified to teach
		After Before Five
Part Four / Strategic Directions 2000s–2010s
	10. ‘Blue Skies in the Playground’
		‘Pathways to the future’
		Pay parity resolutions
		ABC of private enterprise
		‘Nanny State’ divides
		Free early childhood education
		‘Travelling the pathways’
		The Plays of Childhood
	11. Agendas for Young Children
		Cutting the cost
		ECE Taskforce and An Agenda for Amazing Children
		Participation priorities and the vulnerable child
		A Treaty of Waitangi claim
		Refreshing Te Whariki
		An OECD drama
		Changing worlds of kindergarten and Playcentre
		‘Turning the tide’?
References
Abbreviations
Glossary
Index