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Challenges for Policy and Practice for Young Children's Community Building Identified in a Study of Young Children's Civic Action
Book chapter

Challenges for Policy and Practice for Young Children's Community Building Identified in a Study of Young Children's Civic Action

Jenny Ritchie and Louise Phillips
International Perspectives on Educating for Democracy in Early Childhood, pp.34-55
Routledge, First Edition
2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003229568-4

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Abstract

This chapter explores the work of teachers, children, and families in two settings: Gundoo, an Indigenous early childhood center in a rural town in Queensland, Australia, and Katoa, a public kindergarten in Porirua, New Zealand. These settings were chosen because they were attended by Indigenous children and families and because the teachers were committed to honoring Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies. Drawing on citizenship education theory, critical early childhood studies, and kaupapa Māori and onto-epistemologies, and using an ethnographic research methodology, this study aims to enhance awareness of the ongoing impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples and of settler descendant responsibility in relation to these lived experiences by listening to and learning from Indigenous wisdom on negotiating coexistence. The chapter is structured as a series of provocations that challenge conceptualizations and practices of citizenship and citizenship education for young children. The study highlights young children's community building; we identify key cultural values and pedagogical practices that foster this. An emphasis of the chapter is implications for policy and practice.

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