IAM MANE EST, NAM GALLUS CANIT

When asked to choose from a list, many committee members and parents indicated that they got benefits for themselves and their child from volunteering. A higher percentage of committee members marked benefits, probably because they were more involved. The exception was playcentre where both parents and committee members were extremely involved, and all gave high responses to the positive benefits.

The highest percentage rating was for enjoyment (committee members, 71 percent; parents, 46 percent). Many committee members and a sizeable minority of parents marked benefits from volunteering for their child. They also gained better understanding of the child’s progress and of the education programme, and companionship and sense of belonging.

Table 49 Benefits from volunteer activities Benefits Committee members (n=171) % Parents (n=455) % Enjoyment 71 46

Benefit for child 50 41

Companionship/support/friends 67 36

Better understanding of child and his/her progress 56 35 Better understanding of ECE service programme 66 29

Sense of belonging 51 29 Sense of achievement 56 20 Confidence in abilities/skills 54 20 Training/qualifications/skills 29 17 Financial reward 2 2 Decreased confidence/frustration 1 1 Nothing overall 2 1

A majority of playcentre parents and parent office holders marked that they gained every positive benefit listed, with higher percentages of office holders (over 79 percent) marking benefits in every category compared with over 59 percent of playcentre parents.

Summary

High levels of volunteer work were supporting and sustaining community-based ECE services, especially playcentre and kindergarten. Most volunteer work was in the education programme, fundraising, maintenance, working bees, and management. Parent committee members reported the longest hours of volunteering. At the high end, some parents were working voluntarily for more than 15 hours per fortnight.

All playcentres and kindergartens had committees or office holding positions, but only community-based education and care centres and few home-based services had committees. Most parents in private education and care centres and home-based services did not volunteer. The main reason for not volunteering was parents not having such an opportunity because the ECE service did not use volunteer help. Other reasons were that the parent was in paid employment, did not have time, or was not asked.

Most playcentres and over half the kindergartens provided training for volunteers, but few education and care centres did.

Volunteering is placing some pressure on services where volunteer levels are high, especially playcentres. A substantial minority of playcentre participants thought their volunteer workload was too great, there was too much responsibility, and that volunteers were struggling. A sizeable minority reported difficulties in recruiting parents, mainly because the workload fell on too few parents or parents were in paid employment.

A third of committee members were not satisfied with levels of parent involvement in their service, especially in fundraising and committee work. They also thought the volunteer workload fell on a small group of parents.

Yet many parents gained an array of benefits for themselves and their child through involvement as a volunteer, with more committee members reporting gains. Benefits for parents were primarily from the enjoyment, companionship, and sense of belonging that involvement engendered. Many committee members also gained heightened confidence in their abilities and a sense of achievement. Parents reported overall benefits for children, better understanding of their child’s progress, and better understanding of the education programme. Most playcentre parents and committee members gained benefits in every aspect asked about, as well as in training and qualifications. These benefits for parents from voluntary involvement and the sense of community engendered from working alongside each other and teachers for a common cause are not possible in those services (mainly private) which do not use volunteers.

12.

Assessment, planning, evaluation, and

curriculum matters

New Zealand’s ECE curriculum Te Whāriki, published in 1996, is a bicultural curriculum for all children from birth to school starting age. It is founded on aspirations for children to:

. . . grow up as 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 (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 9).

The emphasis is on children’s competencies, dispositions, and theory building, and the child as a participant within a social world. It is a framework, rather than a prescriptive curriculum, and defines curriculum broadly as “the sum total of the experiences, activities and events, whether direct or indirect, which occur within an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 10). It “requires attention to every aspect of every child’s experience within the early childhood setting” (Nuttall, 2003, p. 162), and may therefore be difficult to operationalise. It rejects more traditional notions of curriculum that prescribe aims and content, and expects services to create their curriculum in a culturally situated way. The word whäriki in the name is a “woven mat” reflecting the view of curriculum as “distinctive patterns” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 11).

The early childhood curriculum is not mandatory. Recently, however, the Education Amendment Act 2006 was passed, allowing the Minister of Education to prescribe a curriculum framework for licensed services after consultation. The desire to make Te Whäriki mandatory came from the consultation on the strategic plan for early childhood education.

Currently, the mandatory document is the Desirable Objectives and Practices (DOPs) (Crown, 1996) which sets out national objectives for early childhood education, and is used by the Education Review Office in their three-yearly review of each ECE service.