Pedagogical strategies that support young children’s civic action: An example from Aotearoa

Abstract

Civic action in early childhood care and education Views of children, childhood, children’s roles and responsibilities, and children’s citizenship differ across different eras and cultures (Bath & Karlsson, 2016). In Western countries, developmentalist discourses have positioned the child as a “developing” individual with increasing capacities to contribute to family and community dependent on age and stage. These discourses have been “framed within an individualistic view of the young child (dominant in ‘the majority world’) that values separateness, self-sufficiency and self-confidence” (MacNaughton, Hughes, & Smith, 2007, p. 461). As Anne Smith has urged, “The dominant construction of children as vulnerable, problematic, or incomplete beings should be replaced by a view of children as competent and active participants in communities” (2010, p. 107). From a te ao Māori perspective, children have been viewed as integral and participating members of the collective. For example, Whaea Rose Rangimarie Pere has described how, as a child, her elders included her in all their activities (Pere, 1982/1994). Whilst New Zealand is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and early childhood teachers follow Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996, 2017), a curriculum which has a fundamental focus on empowering/upholding the mana of children, there is little research that identifies how teachers notice and support young children’s enactment in service of the collectives in which they participate; that is, their civic action. Civic action is a notion drawn from ideas of democracy and citizenship. It is underpinned by democratic values such as equal rights, freedom, solidarity, and social justice (Biesta, De Bie, & Wildemeersch, 2014). It also employs democratic dispositions such as “open mindedness, tolerance and understanding of different perspectives; and trust in others” (Flanagan, 2012, p. 4). Carol Mutch (2013) explains that citizenship can be viewed and defined from a range of perspectives including one’s status as a citizen; one’s identity as such; democratic ideals of citizenship; public practice; and as participation. We argue that, since young children should be viewed