Abstract Recent policy developments in the early childhood (EC) care and education sector in Aotearoa-New Zealand have seen a shift in focus from children and play to learners and learning. While few would argue against learning as priority this article raises pressing questions about the ‘intended’ and ‘(un)intended’ consequences of this turn. We analyse national education policy reforms that have served to promote the construction of child-as-learner-subject, alongside moves internationally toward the learnerfication of EC services (Biesta, 2010). As a particular focus, we examine the legacy EC curriculum policy has drawn on from indigenous Māori discourses, as a complex entanglement of both possibility and risk. We focus also on how, in this policy context, an intermix of ‘old’ and ‘new’ curriculum priorities was playing out in one EC setting and how teachers sought to navigate the complex entanglement this effected in practice. On the basis of our analyses, we argue that the problem is not with learning as priority, but with the (school-referenced) narrowing of curriculum, the prioritising of homogenised predetermined outcomes and the ways in which children (parents and teachers) are being positioned in these particular constructions of learners and learning.

中文翻译：

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新西兰奥特阿罗阿（Aotearoa-New Zealand）幼儿课程优先重点的政策和实践转变：可能性与风险的纠缠

摘要新西兰奥特罗阿的幼儿保育和教育部门最近的政策发展已将重点从儿童和游戏转移到学习者和学习上。尽管很少有人会反对将学习作为优先事项，但本文提出了有关此回合的“预期”和“（非）预期”后果的紧迫问题。我们分析了国家教育政策改革，这些政策改革促进了以儿童为学习主体的建设，同时在国际上朝着学习EC服务的方向发展（Biesta，2010年）。作为一个特别的重点，我们研究了从土著毛利人的话语中汲取的传统的EC课程政策，将其既复杂又包含可能性和风险。我们还关注在这种政策背景下，在一个EC环境中，“旧”和“新”课程重点的混合正在发挥作用，以及教师如何设法解决这在实践中造成的复杂纠缠。根据我们的分析，我们认为问题不在于学习优先，而是随着（学校参考）课程的缩小，同质化预定结果的优先级以及儿童（父母和老师）的学习方式定位在学习者和学习的这些特定结构中。