Expressions of Wai in ECE: Te Wai Pounamu
An International Research Collaboration
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Ko te wai te ora o ngā mea katoa Water is the life giver of all things. |
Expressions of Wai is a four-country pilot study completed between 2022-2023, as part of a wider international project titled “Wash from the start”.
The pilot project arose out of our joint desire to respond to UNESCO goals concerning children’ health and wellbeing, access to safe and clean water, and understandings of climate change and its impacts on life above and below water Children across the world, who very rarely have a say in this, are the most affected group when it comes to climate change, with devasting impacts on the waterways that they need to thrive. We share the view of many that more sustainable and ecological frameworks are needed to alter this trajectory. Moreover, we collectively consider that children have much to offer us in broadening our understandings of water as a global concept and resource. Inviting them to contribute their experiences and perspectives – as world citizens - lies at the heart of our joint endeavours and it is here where this pilot project sits.
Inspired by our local environment in Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island), and its relationship to our Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) (Network Waitangi Ōtautahi, 2018) informed ECE curriculum, the Aotearoa New Zealand research team were informed by the notion of ‘walking with’ children through ethnographic engagement in the field over several days. The walking-as-method approach to this research was inspired by the Common Worlds research (see for instance Taylor & Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2018) and the immersion of the researchers in the complex ecology of the life of their ECE communities. In ‘walking with’ three ECE communities, we sought to engage with the ‘intra-actions’ of children and water. For this reason, we did not enter the fieldwork with pre-determined orientations concerning what children’s engagements or representations of water would look like, or mean, for that matter. However, we also recognised the futility of any claim that we could observe with an impartial eye, irrespective of the technologies at our disposal.
To download the full report, please click on the link below.
The pilot project arose out of our joint desire to respond to UNESCO goals concerning children’ health and wellbeing, access to safe and clean water, and understandings of climate change and its impacts on life above and below water Children across the world, who very rarely have a say in this, are the most affected group when it comes to climate change, with devasting impacts on the waterways that they need to thrive. We share the view of many that more sustainable and ecological frameworks are needed to alter this trajectory. Moreover, we collectively consider that children have much to offer us in broadening our understandings of water as a global concept and resource. Inviting them to contribute their experiences and perspectives – as world citizens - lies at the heart of our joint endeavours and it is here where this pilot project sits.
Inspired by our local environment in Te Wai Pounamu (the South Island), and its relationship to our Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) (Network Waitangi Ōtautahi, 2018) informed ECE curriculum, the Aotearoa New Zealand research team were informed by the notion of ‘walking with’ children through ethnographic engagement in the field over several days. The walking-as-method approach to this research was inspired by the Common Worlds research (see for instance Taylor & Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2018) and the immersion of the researchers in the complex ecology of the life of their ECE communities. In ‘walking with’ three ECE communities, we sought to engage with the ‘intra-actions’ of children and water. For this reason, we did not enter the fieldwork with pre-determined orientations concerning what children’s engagements or representations of water would look like, or mean, for that matter. However, we also recognised the futility of any claim that we could observe with an impartial eye, irrespective of the technologies at our disposal.
To download the full report, please click on the link below.
| expressions_of_wai_te_wai_pounamu_research_pilot.pdf |
Further Publications from the project:
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Ko Wai Au – Ko Wai Au: Expressions of Wai Visiblising Pedagogies In: Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy Authors: Andrew Denton, Andrew Gibbons, Jayne White, Ngaroma M. Williams, and Kaitlyn Martin Online Publication Date: 29 Jan 2024 |
Worrying with children and water in ECEC: Exploring the pedagogical framing effects of actions for climate change In: International Journal of Early Childhood Authors: Jayne White, Ngaroma Williams, Kaitlyn Martin |