Early Childhood Education as Sites for Children’s Citizenship: Tensions, challenges and possibilities in New Zealand’s policy framing

Abstract

This paper draws on recent research to examine the tensions and challenges inherent in the current market approach to provision of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services in Aotearoa New Zealand. We use selected United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) articles to evaluate what the market approach means and explore the implications for children and families. We argue that the market approach has led to duplications and gaps in service provision, and that it has produced inequities in access particularly for low income, ethnically diverse and rural families. We also argue that the market approach has not been able to realise the full potentials for what ECCE provision might look like as services that can offer the best possible support for children's learning and wellbeing, as well as family participation and support, social networks and community cohesion. We argue that we need to establish citizenry rights as a goal for policy development, especially policy about the nature and roles of ECCE provision. Our paper proposes how we might move to a new policy approach