refers to teachers who are new to the centres, and‘beginning teachers’to those who
are at the start of their teaching career).
In addition, the chapter proposes further research into the development of a col-
laborative teaching, learning and researching model in teacher education, based on
sharing knowledge/professional practices between new and beginning, and experi-
enced teachers. It draws upon current scholarship on pedagogy, professionalism and
leadership in ECE which advocates for effective models of development to emanate
from within the profession, grounded in the local contexts and aspirations of Aotearoa
New Zealand teachers, and critically attuned to the complexities of communities
(Dalli et al. 2012 ). Building on existing scholarship, the chapter further develops
knowledge of the effectiveness of teaching teams in supporting beginning and new
teachers, through responsive communities of support as outlined in the Education
Council website, the governing and regulatory body of New Zealand teachers. This
knowledge is strategically important for centre staff, management and the profession,
in terms of promoting the best ways to embrace the new knowledge and practices that
beginning and new teachers bring to the teaching and learning community, and for
teacher education alike. Data from a recent study of the experiences of newly qualified
early childhood teachers, and their relationship with‘knowledge’, is woven through
the chapter. The teachers’experiences are explored in relation to the concept of‘flows
of knowledge’. This concept is developed out of the literature on‘future-focused’
education (Bolstadet al. 2012 ). We argue that the study offlows of knowledge is a vital
contribution to the study of education in teacher education programmes.
53.1 Teacher Knowledge and Knowledge Environments
in the Twenty First Century
Relationships among adults have a significant impact on the learning and devel-
opment of the child. One of the theories employed by the New Zealand early
childhood curriculumTe Whārikiis Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory,
which raises and guides a critical awareness of the impact of adult relationships on
the curriculum (Ministry of Education 1996 ). This chapter has an interest in one
element of the relationships among adults: the knowledge relationship. It is con-
cerned with what happens to a teaching team when beginning teachers arrive at
their centre with the knowledge that they have gained through their studies. How
does knowledge develop as the team grows and/or changes? How does the teaching
team adapt to this new knowledge that originates from the experiences of teacher
education? How do the beginning and new teachers share (or perhaps keep silent
about) these knowledge encounters? And, importantly, how does this process of
adaptation impact on the early childhood curriculum?
These questions and concerns interest us as teacher educators and researchers
because very little is known about such knowledge relationships, and yet they are
786 M. Tesar et al.