Complex Possibilities: ‘Working Theories’ as an Outcome for the Early Childhood Curriculum

Abstract

Working theories' are described as one of the two principal outcomes of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand. Despite its prominence as a curricular outcome, the theoretical positioning of the concept of working theory remains relatively undebated, with researchers readily attributing the term to a constructivist approach to children's cognitive development, or, in line with the current emphasis in New Zealand, to sociocultural theory. Drawing on a small scale study of children's working theories, this article will argue that constructivist and sociocultural theories do not adequately account for the sophistication of this concept in practice and that complexity theory and Deleuzian imagery would be more helpful for describing children's theory creation. Complexity theory and Deleuzian concepts are introduced as potential resources for enhancing our understanding of working theories and, further, for developing pedagogies that address contemporary ethical and political concerns.

Navigating the risky terrain of children’s working theories

“…This body of research provides important insights into theories of knowledge, cognition and dialogic teaching approaches important to extend children's thinking. Though we draw on Hedges' (2008) description herein, we recognise that contemporary thinking about working theories is in transition, due to the body of recent publications employing a wide range of theoretical perspectives and concepts drawn from constructivist (Hedges, 2008), sociocultural (Davis and Peters, 2012;Hedges and Jones, 2012;Peters and Davis, 2015), complexity theories and the work of Deleuze (Hargraves, 2013(Hargraves, , 2014, Piaget (Lovatt and Hedges, 2015), and Vygotsky (Hedges, 2012). Hence, any shared understandings of working theories are elusive given that they are shaped by the different perspectives employed.…”

The role of emotions in building new knowledge and developing young children’s understanding

“…There emerges a right way to think, teach and learn and right ways to express thinking and learning, with right answers founded and reflecting the (neo-liberal) values priorities of these governing bodies. Anything that sits outside of these parameters, is undervalued, off-task or simply wrong, otherness is funneled into the same, and learning is reduced to re-treading preexisting, predetermined pathways (Hargraves, 2014).…”