"They are individuals, they can make choices": ECE teachers from migrant backgrounds understandings of children's rights in Aotearoa New Zealand
Abstract
This article explores how beginner early childhood education (ECE) teachers from migrant backgrounds in Aotearoa New Zealand understand and enact children’s rights. Drawing on narrative inquiry with twelve newly qualified teachers, the study examines how participants’ culturally shaped “images of the child” influence their pedagogical choices and professional identities. Findings highlight the tensions between culturally familiar models of childhood, often grounded in authoritarian or protectionist traditions, and the participatory rights-based ethos embedded in Te Whāriki and the United National Convention on the Rights of the Child. Three themes emerged: the impact of cultural and political contexts on teachers’ understandings of children’s rights, shifts from control-oriented to agency-focused disciplinary practices, and recognition of children as individual rights holders. By foregrounding the voices of migrant teachers, the article contributes to wider conversations about diversity and the enactment of children’s rights in ECE.
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