DEERESHA: Kia ora koutou katoa, and welc...

Audio by Paper2Audio

Deresha: Kia ora koutou katoa, and welcome to Beyond the Floor: Deconstructing Quality in Aotearoa Early Childhood Education. I'm Deeresha, a senior qualified kaiako, and I'm joined by Tao and Raman.

Today we're unpacking our role-play and looking at two aspects of quality: child-to-teacher ratios, and teamwork, communication, and reliever induction.

The main question we're asking is: does meeting the minimum regulations automatically mean we're providing quality care, or is compliance just the starting point?

Deresha: Thank you both. To analyse our role-play, we're using Lilian Katz's (1992) Multiple Perspectives on Quality.

Katz explains that quality can be viewed through four lenses.

The top-down perspective looks at things like ratios and regulations.

The inside perspective looks at the staff experience, including teamwork and induction.

The outside-inside perspective considers the whanau experience and their trust in the service.

And the bottom-up perspective asks what quality actually feels like for the child.

Deresha: Let's look at our first aspect: child-to-teacher ratios.

Under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, the minimum ratio for children aged two and over in centre-based services is 1 adult to 10 children.

The Early Learning Action Plan also aims to improve ratios for two-year-olds, but 1:10 remains the legal minimum for over-twos.

Now, what similarities do we see between the different perspectives?

Deresha: I agree with you, Raman. From a kaiako perspective, we also want enough adults to provide responsive care.

Mason Durie's (1998) Te Whare Tapa Wha reminds us that children's physical and emotional wellbeing both need active and responsive care. Ratios should help create the space for that.

But there's a tension between what looks acceptable on paper and what actually happens on the floor.

Deresha: This brings us to an important criticism of ratio rules.

As Sollars (2022) explains, structural ratios are necessary, but they don't automatically guarantee quality interactions between teachers and children.

Ritchie (2016) also discusses how focusing too much on minimum ratios can increase teacher workload and stress.

Deresha: Exactly. And when ratios are stretched to the legal limit, care can become rushed and task-focused instead of warm and responsive.

This connects with Garboden Murray's (2021) idea of Professional Love and Page's (2018) work on Ethics of Care.

Deresha: Now let's look at our second aspect: teamwork, communication, and induction.

E.R.O's Te Ara Poutama highlights the importance of collaborative practice, clear induction, and shared communication systems.

Let's start with the similarities between the different perspectives.

Deresha: The main tension is between the whanau expectation of seamless care and what actually happens when relievers aren't properly inducted.

In our role-play, Tao was new and didn't know where the medical log was or exactly how the medication procedure worked. When I asked her to cover the block area, the verbal message was lost because we didn't have a clear written handover system.

This led to a breach of the medication requirements under E.C.E Licensing Criterion H.S.122 and H.S.128.

Deresha: To critique teamwork and communication, we need to challenge two assumptions.

First, that a verbal handover during a busy morning is always enough.

And second, that relievers should automatically know how to follow unfamiliar centre procedures.

Under E.R.O's Te Ara Poutama, leadership and stewardship require centres to have clear induction processes and communication systems.

If everything depends on informal verbal communication, relievers can easily end up being blamed when the real problem is the system.

Deresha: Exactly. And under Our Code, Our Standards (2017) and Tataiako, particularly Whanaungatanga, teachers have an ethical responsibility to maintain respectful and reliable relationships with whanau.

Deresha: Our role-play shows that ratios and communication are actually connected.

We technically met the 1:10 ratio, but because staff were occupied with other responsibilities, communication on the floor broke down.

That allowed the medication message to be missed.

Deresha: This connects with E.R.O's Te Ara Poutama, particularly Nga Aronga Whai Hua – Evaluation for Improvement.

High-quality centres need to learn from mistakes and ask: How are our systems supporting or getting in the way of children's wellbeing?

Deresha: So, to wrap up, our analysis shows that minimum ratios and staffing requirements are really the floor, not the ceiling, for quality.

Deresha: The question isn't only, “Did we meet the legal minimum today?”

We also need to ask, “What did our tamariki and whanau actually experience because of how we communicated and worked?”

Kia ora, nga mihi nui, and thank you for listening.