Opportunities for learning are equitable and each child's contribution is valued.
Goals
Children experience an environment where:
- there are equitable opportunities for learning, irrespective of gender, ability, age, ethnicity, or background;
- they are affirmed as individuals;
- they are encouraged to learn with and alongside others.
Children’s development occurs through active participation in activities. Collaboration with adults and with other children plays a central role in this development.
The programme should recognise, acknowledge, and build on each child’s special strengths and allow each to make a contribution or to “make his or her mark”, acknowledging that each child has the right to active and equitable participation in the community. Making a contribution includes developing satisfying relationships with adults and peers. The early development of social confidence has long-term effects, and adults in early childhood education settings play a significant role in helping children to initiate and maintain relationships with peers. Through interactions with others, children learn to take another’s point of view, to empathise with others, to ask for help, to see themselves as a help for others, and to discuss or explain their ideas to adults or to other children.
There should be a commitment to, and opportunities for, a Māori contribution to the programme. Adults working in the early childhood education setting should recognise the significance of whakapapa, understand and respect the process of working as a whānau, and demonstrate respect for Māori elders. They should also respect the process of working as āiga and showing respect for Tagata Pasefika elders.
Relationships of the Strand of Contribution to the Curriculum Principles
This strand builds especially on the principles of Empowerment and Relationships. It draws on children’s abilities to contribute their own special strengths and interests, and it aims to empower children to find out what they want to know and to understand their own ways of learning and being creative. Experiences in this strand will be supported by adults who provide the “scaffolding” necessary for children to develop and who ensure active and interactive learning opportunities that are equitable for all children. The opportunities for social interaction also relate this strand to the principle of Family and Community as children’s special contributions are encouraged and valued. The Holistic Development principle underpins the way each child’s experiences and contributions are linked to the total learning environment.
Adults’ Responsibilities in Management, Organisation, and Practice
Adults working with children should establish programmes and strategies which actively promote equity of opportunity for children and counter actions or comments that categorise or stereotype people.
Support and encouragement should be provided for behaviour that is both socially and individually appropriate, particularly for that of children with special needs.
All people involved in the programme should be included in making significant decisions about the programme.
Adults should use strategies that encourage children’s social integration.
Adults should observe and value children as individuals, so that their interests, enthusiasms, preferences, temperaments, and abilities are the starting-points for everyday planning, and comparative approaches are avoided.
The environment and programme should be organised to reduce competition for resources and space.
Children’s cultural values, customs, and traditions from home should be nurtured and preserved to enable children to participate successfully in the early childhood setting and in their community.
The programme should encompass different cultural perspectives, recognising and affirming the primary importance of the child’s family and culture. Staff need to be aware of different attitudes within the community to values and behaviours, such as cooperation, physical contact, sharing food, crying, or feeling sorry, and deal positively with any inconsistencies.
The balance between communal, small-group, and individual activities should allow opportunities for interaction, co-operative activities, and privacy.
Continuity Between Early Childhood Education and School
Children moving from early childhood settings to the early years of school are likely to:
- need to perceive that their families are welcome and valued;
- respect, and enjoy working with, children who are different in some way;
- feel positive about their own gender and ethnicity, about the opposite gender, and about other ethnic groups;
- have some understanding of equity and some ability to identify and challenge bias, prejudice, and negative stereotyping;
- be confident that their interests, strengths, knowledge, abilities, and experiences will be recognised and built on in the learning programme;
- be familiar with working co-operatively;
- be able to see that others have different points of view and be able to understand, to some extent, others’ feelings and attitudes;
- express their own needs and feelings and recognise some needs of others.