The Context of Early Childhood Curriculum

A child’s learning environment extends far beyond the immediate setting of the home or early childhood programmes outside the home. Bronfenbrenner, in The Ecology of Human Development (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard, 1979) described it as a set of nested Russian dolls. The learner and their immediate environment are at the centre, the first level. Other levels have a powerful influence on the child’s well-being and capacity to learn. The second level contains the major settings experienced by the learner: the child’s own home, the service or setting beyond their home, and the relationships between these environments. The third level, which also influences the quality of children’s experiences, encompasses the world of work, the neighbourhood, the mass media, and informal social networks. It also includes the conditions that influence the well-being and support of the adults in the children’s lives: the demands, the stresses, and the opportunities for development experienced by significant adults in each child’s life. There is a further national level – the nation’s beliefs about the value of early childhood care and education and about the rights and responsibilities of children. Although Te Whāriki is mainly concerned with the first two levels, the others are important influences on the quality of the curriculum.

The first two levels – the learner and the learning environment – are closely connected, and the curriculum applies to both. A child learns to talk in a setting where adults talk to children and to each other. A child learns to explore in a setting where exploration is valued and possible. Learning is about the way in which children perceive and deal with their environment.

Another aspect of 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 challenge and change; the community of children who have individual needs and rights; and the community of New Zealanders who are gaining knowledge of the nation’s languages and are developing skills in using cultural tools such as art, dance, mathematics, music, reading, science, technology, and writing.

Levels of Learning

Level One

The learner engaged with the learning environment:

learning to respond to challenge and change;
gaining knowledge of language and cultural tools;
having individual needs and rights met, and developing associated responsibilities;
responsive and reciprocal relationships.

Level Two

The immediate learning environments and relationships between them:

home and family;
early childhood education settings and the people in them.

Level Three

The adults’ environment as it influences their capacity to care and educate:

professionalism of all adults;
professional support;
collegial development and opportunities for further learning;
kinship networks;
friendship networks.

Level Four

The nation’s beliefs and values about children and early childhood care and education.

Based on pp. 22 – 27 of The Ecology of Human Development by Urie Bronfenbrenner.