3.5.1 Survey Participants
Phase one began with an invitation being extended to teachers from ECE services and schools in the Bay of Plenty region to participate in an online survey. The invitation was later extended to the Waikato region to increase the number of respondents and thus the meaningfulness of the findings and to enable correlations to be identified within the data (Onwuegbuzie & Collins, 2007). The Ministry of Education databases of ECE services and schools were used to source email addresses to which the
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invitation was sent. The data base was cleansed to remove duplicated email addresses which occurred where one organisation was the contact point for several ECE settings.
Invitations were sent to email addresses linked to 433 ECE services and 367 schools. As the email addresses were for the contact point for the ECE service or school, the covering email requested that the survey invitation be forwarded to teachers within the organisation. This meant that the person responsible for clearing emails had a gate keeping role and it is possible that some invitations were not passed on to teachers. In total 136 people commenced the survey, however, only 130 of these proceeded past the demographic data collection point to answer the first question about the research topic, a response rate of 16.25%. A low response rate is not uncommon in online surveys (Minnaar &
Heystek, 2013), however the number of responses were sufficient for statistical analysis (Onwuegbuzie & Collins, 2007). As the survey progressed the number of participants decreased indicating that some participants did not answer all survey questions, a common difficulty with online surveys (Cohen et al., 2007).
Participants included ECE and NE teachers from a range of contexts. Not all participants identified their sector or context, likely because some had dropped out of the survey before this question was asked as it was not asked until part way through the survey where the survey branched depending on their reply to this question. This accounts for what looks like discrepancies in the data where the total number of participants does not equal the number of ECE teachers added to the number of NE teachers. From the 107 participants who answered this question about their sector, 29 (27.1%) identified themselves as ECE teachers and 78 (72.9%) as NE teachers. Tables 1 and 2 provide a breakdown of information about the different contexts teachers indicated that they taught in.
Table 1
ECE Teacher Contexts
Context Kindergarten Kohanga Reo
Pasifika Private Not for Profit
Playcentre Other
Number of teachers
5 0 2 11 7 1 3
Percentage 17% 0% 6.9% 37.93% 24.14% 3.45% 10.34%
82 Table 2
NE Teacher Contexts
Context Traditional Modern/
Innovative
Kura Kaupapa
Bilingual Mainstream Other
Number of teachers
31 35 4 0 21 13
Percentage 29.81% 33.65% 3.85% 0% 20.19% 12.5%
NE teachers were able to select more than one descriptor for this question to enable them, for example, to choose both a modern learning environment and a kura kaupapa. On reflection it may have been better to have a separate question for whether the environment was modern or traditional and force teachers to choose the descriptor which best described their environment and then another question asking whether it was mainstream, bilingual or kura kaupapa, as some teachers selected both traditional and modern. This meant that further analysis to identify whether teachers who taught in different types of contexts held different views was not possible.
All respondents recorded that they had a tertiary qualification of some kind. The qualifications identified ranged from Diploma level to Masters. Almost all respondents were fully registered (88.97%) or provisionally registered (7.35%), but a few were not registered (3.68%). Teachers had a range of service lengths; as shown in Table 3. The greatest proportion of respondents (60.29%) had been teaching for more than 15 years. This could be because the person who forwarded the email invitation sent it to the person responsible for the junior school or the head teacher of the ECE service who is likely to have greater length of teaching service and they responded without forwarding to other teachers.
Table 3
Teacher Length of Service
Length of service 0-5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years 15+ years
Number of
participants
14 24 16 82
Percentage of participants
10.29% 17.65% 11.76% 60.29%
Ethnicity included 10.37% (14) Māori, 78.52% (106) Pakeha/NZ European, 2.96 (4) Pacifika, and 8.15%
(11) Other. Those who selected other were asked to specify their ethnicity and answers included the
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following: both NZ European and Māori, Australian, Swiss, NZ Māori, Irish, New Zealander, Dutch, European, Kiwi and Canadian.
3.5.2 Case Study One Setting and Participants
Case Study One took place in an integrated Catholic primary school with a roll of 160 students in a regional North Island town. The school was rated as decile four; decile being a measure of the extent to which the roll of the school is drawn from low socioeconomic communities (Ministry of Education, 2021c). Schools with lower decile ratings draw more students from lower socioeconomic communities. Data collection took place in term two 2018 and at that time the latest Education Review Office (ERO) report from 2015 showed the school as having the following demographic makeup:
Table 4
Case Study One Demographics
NZ European/ Pakeha 55%
Māori 35%
Asian 3%
Pacific 3%
Indian 2%
Other European 2%
The school had a flexible transition process at the time of data collection, whereby parents/caregivers met the Principal and a teacher prior to entry and had the opportunity to discuss the child’s needs.
The school encouraged pre-entry visits to the classroom and was flexible in planning these, allowing families to decide how many visits might be needed. Children in this school generally started on or close to their fifth birthday, as is traditional practice in New Zealand.
Children transitioned into a modern learning space shared by new entrant and year two children. The learning space included a large open space with tables of varying height for children and teachers to work at, couches in a library area, iPads, and a small room with computers in it. Children experienced a programme which included both traditional teaching methods including whole class and small group structured teaching, independent work at tables and plenty of opportunities for play. Opportunities for play tended to occur once the children had completed ‘learning tasks’ (the term used by teachers)
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or while teachers were working with other children, rather than as part of the planned learning.
Children had access to a range of play equipment including the outdoors sandpit.
Two teachers worked in this space. S1T1 was an experienced junior primary school teacher. S1T2 usually worked with older children in the school but was covering the secondment of the other usual teacher to the acting principal role. The teachers agreed to be interviewed together.
There were 32 children in the class when the data collection took place. Children were very keen to participate in the research, with nearly all the children expressing the desire to ‘help Joanne understand what starting school is like’. As only 15 consent forms were received from parents, it was decided to allow all those children to participate rather than to include 12 and exclude only three children. This meant that there were seven paired and one single child led tours. Children ranged in age from five to seven years old. Table 5 records the codes, gender, and age in years for each child participant.
85 Table 5
Case Study One Child Participant Details
Tour Child identity Sex Age
1 S1C1 female 6
S1C2 female 5
2 S1C3 female 5
S1C4 female 7
3 S1C5 female 7
S1C6 female 5
4 S1C7 female 7
S1C8 female 6
5 S1C9 female 6
S1C10 male 5
6 S1C11 female 5
S1C12 male 5
7 S1C13 male 6
8 S1C14 female 7
S1 C15 male 6
Five questionnaires were completed by family members. It was found that many parents dropped children off at the school gates and did not come to the classroom, hence the low number of participants. One parent requested the questionnaire via email and emailed her responses back. One questionnaire was conducted with a grandmother who is guardian to a child and another with both parents. The remaining participants were mothers.
86 3.5.3 Case Study Two Setting and Participants
Case study two was located in a decile seven, Catholic character primary school in a regional town in the North Island. Data was collected in term three 2018 and the latest ERO report from 2015 showed the school roll as including 426 children at that time and recorded the school demographic makeup as:
Table 6
Case Study Two Demographics
NZ European/ Pakeha 43%
Māori 20%
Asian 20%
Pacific 4%
Other 13%
Prior to school entry parents were invited to bring their children on Wednesday mornings to visit the classroom and participate in classroom activity. Multiple visits were encouraged with most children visiting between four and six times. As is customary in New Zealand, most children started school on the day they turned five or the first school day after that date.
New entrants transitioned into a large learning environment which, at the time of data collection, included 96 new entrant children and five teachers. This space had recently been designed and built to enable play-based learning to be part of the curriculum. Children were divided into groups with a
‘whānau’ teacher for organisational purposes, but mostly were able to move throughout the large area as they chose, unless they were working with a teacher on planned academic learning tasks.
Provocations were set out to stimulate play-based learning while teachers worked with small groups, usually in more structured activities related to literacy or maths. These provocations were resources or activities for which teachers had specific learning outcomes in mind. Children were also able to self- select play materials to engage with. Children could access an outdoor area during class time, which included sand and water play. The classroom was a big open area with breakout rooms which could be used to work with small groups or for specific purposes, such as art or cooking. The children and teachers had moved into this teaching space eight weeks before data collection commenced so
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routines and practices were still being refined. Previously the children had been in single cell classrooms with their individual teacher.
Data was collected from 12 parents. Ten questionnaires were conducted verbally and two were received via email due to parent preference.
All five teachers agreed to be interviewed as a group. The team consisted of a group of experienced female teachers, two of whom had recently taught in ECE contexts. Teaching in a large, shared space was a new experience for this group of teachers.
Children were very interested in the study when it was discussed with them. Although children had been told that the first 12 children who returned signed permission forms would be selected to participate, it was decided to extend the number to 14 children. This was because only two extra children returned the signed forms, and it seemed unkind to exclude only two children. Table 7 records the details of child participants.
88 Table 7
Case Study Two Child Participant Details
Child led tour Child identity Sex Age
1 S2C1 female 5
S2C2 male 6
2 S2C3 female 5
S2C4 male 5
3 S2C5 female 6
S2C6 male 5
4 S2C7 male 5
S2C8 female 5
5 S2C9 female 5
S2C10 male 5
6 S2C11 female 5
S2C12 female 6
7 S2C13 male 6
S2C14 female 5
3.5.4 Case Study Three Setting and Participants
Data for Case Study Three was collected in term one 2019 from a decile nine primary school situated in a regional North Island town. At the time of data collection, the most recent ERO report from 2016 recorded the school as having 701 children enrolled made up from the following groups:
89 Table 8
Case Study Three Demographics
NZ European/ Pakeha 64%
Māori 20%
Asian 5%
Pacific 2%
Other 9%
The school had recently instated a form of cohort entry where small groups of children started school together. Prior to their first day children visited the classroom they would be placed in once a week in the group they would start with. The group then started school on the same day.
Data was collected from two adjoining classrooms where two experienced teachers taught 44 children evenly divided between the classrooms. Each teacher planned for their own class and ran their own classroom programme. The classrooms were connected across a cloakroom and when not involved in formal, structured learning experiences children were able to move between the classrooms. They also had access to the outdoor play area for most of the day. Teachers planned for learning both through more traditional structured methods and also during some play experiences. Additionally, resources were provided for children to develop and follow their own interests in play. Both teachers regarded the daily visits to an adjoining “bush” area as an important part of the programme where children were able to explore the environment, play and learn following their own agenda and direction. The teachers also based a portion of their teaching on following the children’s interests.
While a larger number of children verbally expressed interest in helping with the research only 11 permission slips were returned by children. Consent was gained for a twelfth child to participate when his parent agreed to participate in answering the questionnaire and stated she had meant to return the form but thought it was too late. Thus, six child led tours took place in this school.
90 Table 9
Case Study Three Child Participant Details
Child led tour Child identity Sex Age
1 S3C1 female 5
S3C2 male 5
2 S3C3 male 5
S3C4 male 5
3 S3C5 female 5
S3C6 female 5
4 S3C7 male 5
S3C8 female 5
5 S3C9 female 5
S3C10 female 5
6 S3C11 male 5
S3C12 male 5
The parent questionnaire was completed verbally with 13 parents, exceeding the number that the research aimed to include. This is because when the twelfth parent was answering the questionnaire another parent was present and expressed interest in participating.
Both teachers were experienced teachers. Each teacher was interviewed on her own due to the difficulty of establishing a time which suited all parties for them to be interviewed together.
Chapter Summary
This chapter has described the epistemological and theoretical underpinnings of this research. The methodology and associated data collection and analysis methods have been presented and the
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settings and participants for each phase of the study were described. The following chapter presents and discusses the findings from the first phase of the study; the survey of ECE and NE teachers.
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