Strengthening belonging – research insights

Professor Linda Mitchell discusses the collaborative outcomes from research initiatives that explored belonging and identity for refugee and immigrant families through early childhood education.

Linda and other researchers from the University of Waikato partnered with educators from four early childhood centres to produce a package of professional resources and tools for use in multicultural ECE settings.

Transcript

Professor Linda Mitchell

The project is about the idea of belonging and how early childhood education centres can strengthen belonging for immigrant and refugee children and their families in this country, Aotearoa New Zealand.

The idea of belonging is a really important concept. I think it’s a basis for feeling good about yourself, it’s a basis for being able to participate in society. And we were very interested in immigrant and refugee families because, for them, they come to New Zealand, it’s a new country, they need to establish that strong sense of belonging in this country but also remain connected to their own countries.

And I think in Aotearoa New Zealand, it’s more complex than that because we are aspiring to be a bicultural society. So we’re not talking about belonging in any new country. We’re talking about belonging in this country and how can bicultural belonging as well as the sense of belonging to homelands be strengthened.

That idea of belonging also is about what refugee and immigrant families bring themselves to the early childhood centre, so they bring their cultural knowledge and their understanding. It’s a two-way process, it’s not a matter of integration.

It’s been an amazing process that’s been happening over 2 years. I was deeply affected by the depth of thought that the teachers put in to their work – their willingness to hear the voices of children and families. I expected that to happen, but it was done on a very deep level.

Acknowledgements

Professor Linda Mitchell, University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
Gail Megaffin, Crawshaw Kindergarten
Amanda Cloke, Christine McKean, Rajam Walter, Louise Treweek and Vicky Huang, Hillcrest Kindergarten 
Sophia Ali, Maria Sammons, Leena Noorzai and Melanie Glover, Iqra Educare
Jacqui Lees, Olivia Ng, Nilma Abeyratne, Andrea Du and Terina Johns, Pakuranga Baptist Kindergarten
Waikato Kindergarten Association

Supported by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative Fund from government funding, managed by the New Zealand Council for Education Research, and the Marsden Fund Council from government funding, managed by Royal Society Te Apārangi.