Early Childhood Education Practice on the Edge: How Beginner Teachers from Migrant Backgrounds Negotiate and Understand Risk in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

As Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education (ECE) sector becomes increasingly shaped by transnational mobility, migrant teachers are required to negotiate culturally embedded understandings of childhood, learning, and risk within locally situated pedagogical and regulatory frameworks. This paper explores how beginner ECE teachers from migrant backgrounds understand and negotiate children’s engagement with risk, and what these negotiations reveal about professional identity formation and transnational pedagogical adaptation. Drawing on qualitative narrative inquiry with twelve recently graduated migrant teachers working in Aotearoa New Zealand, the study applies the concept of edgework to examine how teachers balance safety, accountability, and pedagogical responsibility. Findings indicate that participants’ early approaches to risk were strongly influenced by prior educational experiences that positioned children as vulnerable and in need of protection. Over time, engagement with sociocultural pedagogies that position children as competent and capable prompted changes in participants’ professional beliefs and practices. These changes required teachers to navigate tensions between regulation and autonomy, cultural expectations and local curriculum approaches, and relationship-building with children, families, and colleagues. By centring migrant teacher perspectives, the study highlights the importance of culturally responsive teacher education and inclusive ECE environments within Aotearoa New Zealand’s superdiverse context.