In young children's worlds, gender and sexualities are constantly policed. Who children play with, where they play and how they play are often subject to regulation by others to perpetuate 'normativity'. This colloquium draws on 'telling examples' from an in-progress study in an early childhood education setting in Aotearoa New Zealand. Examples of challenge and resistance show several children actively constructing and performing their gender in flexible and multiple ways, some of which contest/resist traditional and cultural norms and dominant discourses. The central argument is that 'doing gender' in relationship with others is complex work for children that can be better understood through the constructs of 'performativity' and 'working theories' jointly.

The Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) landscape is becoming increasingly multicultural, in particular with a significant number of migrant Indian teachers working in the field. This paper explores the potential role of environmental identity as migrant Indian ECE teachers navigate between the Indian and New Zealand cultures, wherein the environment may hold different meanings and place in these two cultural systems. The natural environment holds a special place in Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural systems and is an integral part of the national identity. It can be argued that early childhood environmental education is important, and is already playing a part, in developing children’s environmental identity across the country. In facilitating this, teachers’ environmental identities can be equally important, especially in the case of migrant teachers, whose identities are influenced by different cultural systems. Our interest is in the environmental identities of migrant Indian teachers’ given their growing numbers in Aotearoa New Zealand ECE.

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This is the accepted version of a paper published in Early years. This paper has been peerreviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.