Playhood’s Blueprint for Early Education: Part 6

Cultural Exchange — Learnings from Global Views on Childhood and Education.

This month’s blog post briefly surveys a range of approaches to early years’ education from around the world that we reflect upon at Playhood. We aim to ensure our pedagogical practice doesn’t stay within one limited viewpoint (or get stale!) by keeping curious about wonderful traditions from many cultures…

Let us start 19,000km away from London! Te Whāriki (meaning ‘woven mat’ in Maori language) is New Zealand’s bi-cultural model for early years education. A powerful image, the mat literally weaves together foundations and principles which bind the family and the setting; learning and development; potential and mastery. How wonderful is the notion that the strands are loose at the ends — each journey is a uniquely woven work-in-progress, and that each teacher is empowered to customise their version of the mat?

“Competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society.”

Early Childhood Education vision for children, New Zealand Ministry of Education

Cultural and developmental learning goals for the NZ ECE curriculum are descriptive (not prescriptive in delivery and content) so they dovetail well with the Montessori, Reggio-Emilia and Forest School practices we’ve discussed in previous blog posts:

Well-being: Nurture and protect the health and well-being of the child.

Belonging: Children and their families feel a sense of belonging.

Contribution: Opportunities for learning are equitable, and each child’s contribution is valued.

Communication: The languages and symbols of their own and other cultures are promoted and protected.

Exploration: The child learns through active exploration of the environment.

The principles that “weave” through these strands are: Holistic Development, Empowerment, Family & Community, and Relationships. These are, of course, all interconnected. Relationship to place and cultural history are respected as part of what the child brings with them from home. A viewpoint empowering all kinds of learning creates optimal conditions for the child’s own agency and control over their experiences to develop.

The importance of context is underlined in a philosophy shared across southern Africa. ‘Ubuntu’ is a moral attribute (with variation across the Bantu languages and groups) considering that “a person is a person through other persons”. This is surely a useful concept in Early Years pedagogy because it tempers the individualism of a lot of European approaches. Is it ever too early to inspire compassionate personhood? Children may unfold their unique potential and share the benefits and burdens of community.

“I am what I am because of who we all are”.

Zulu proverb/ J. S. Mbiti.

Relationships are critical to brain development, and learning to factor in the needs of others builds empathy skills as well as a sense of belonging and purpose, rights with responsibilities. In many countries, home-based learning is a powerful act of community nurture and Playhood advances the ‘childminder’ framework by welcoming flexible- and remote-working parents into the location of the early years education, all within a family home.

Close proximity to parents in the first years of life correlates to intrinsic motivation to participate in community in many societies: “An informal process of Learning by Observing and Pitching In appears to be especially prevalent in many Indigenous-heritage communities of the USA, Mexico, and Central America... It contrasts with an approach that involves adults attempting to control children's attention, motivation, and learning in Assembly-Line Instruction, which is a widespread way of organizing Western schooling.” (Rogoff, 2014). Education in these communities in the Americas is seen as a process of gaining independence and self-esteem by the child through trial and error, and via storytelling narratives and behviour-modelling by adults.

✨ UN Sustainable Development Goal 4.1 directs all nations to provide at least one year of quality free pre-primary education by 2030. The vital importance of the early years and the positive difference good preschool can make is internationally-recognised.

Looking deeper at the idea of inspiring giving to others, even of selflessness, Buddhist education seeks wisdom via deep meditation. It requires disciplined self-awareness. Freedom from desire is ‘true’ freedom. OK so, this line doesn’t go down particularly well when a toddler is asking for snacks or a new scooter unfortunately, we can but try and delay gratification and guide children towards more mindfulness!

As many of our member parents agree, travel is truly a wonderful ‘teacher.’ Perhaps the best way to appreciate the different experiences of childhood education around the world authentically is by exploring their roots in person. ‘Worldschooling’ and ‘roadschooling’ are movements where footloose families up sticks and take children on enriching adventures to maximise the horizons of childhood. Immersive experiences are the most profoundly educational, of course. The partnership model and progressive pedagogy expertise of the team at Playhood has recently been sought out by an organisation offering digital-nomad working parents the chance to take children to tropical locations, knowing they’ll be inspired and connected to local culture and ecology. We’re helping redesign what ‘kids clubs’ look like on extended working-holidays in an exciting new project, which we will report more on later.

To wrap-up, while we are a small group with one location currently, we are trying to be concierges to our entire planet to the children here; its histories and cultures as well as its living wonders and sensory thrills. Working in close partnership with families — particularly their heritage, their travels — benefits the whole community by opening all of our minds.