on my journey so far, and knowing there is still much to do, I am grateful to be in a guardianship position to put philosophies, ideals, and theories into action in my centres. DO YOU HAVE ADVICE FOR EXPERIENCED ECE TEACHERS THINKING ABOUT ESTABLISHING OR OWNING AN ECE CENTRE IN THE FUTURE? The sector has become a very conservative, regulation driven, high risk, and evertightening “financial vice” place to be in and often it becomes hard to recognise the true reasons we all got into teaching when your entire day gets consumed by compliance or cashflow threats or reading / writing reports. But I got through that initial barrier to entry because of a supporting partner and shared vision to want to make a difference with an unwavering commitment to excelling. So (while I’m no expert) I would say to anyone in a similar waka to consider taking the risk and partner with like-minded, trusted people to help you get to your vision too. We have a supporting company called Gaia Education and Development (https:// gaiaeducation.co.nz/) that mentors teaching, management, governance layers of an ECE organisation and we have supported and partnered with our own leadership to take these next growth steps, because we know that with the right team of people ….. anything is possible. IF YOU HAD ONE THING YOU COULD CHANGE ABOUT TE WHĀRIKI, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I have always wondered about the nexus between Te Whāriki and other international approaches to ECE curriculum. There would no doubt be some common ground as well as differences that would be worth an in depth research or study to enrich all ECE curricula (in NZ and around the world). It’s so exciting when I imagine what this will all look like in 100 years time! September 2022 { 29 }
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