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In this article, we examine how teachers in two kindergartens, one in New Zealand and one in China, used the stimulus of a fictional story combining mythical creatures from Maori and Chinese culture to enhance young children's sense of place and cultural identity. Sociocultural understandings about the role of collaboration and cultural tools in meaning-making informed the research design. Teachers' documentation about the children's learning throughout the project was analysed and focus group interviews were conducted with teachers and parents. Findings demonstrated that story-telling provided an effective stimulus for children's learning using a range of multi-literacies. It was also helpful for exploring and connecting children, teachers and families with significant aspects of the cultural backgrounds of the children. The research also revealed that teachers engaged in intentional teaching practices to achieve these outcomes but experienced challenges (pedagogical knots) as they used the story. Nonetheless, we argue that the use of storytelling can be a powerful tool for fostering greater understanding for children, teachers and families of their own and others' cultures.

Leadership within the New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) sector is both positionally assigned and a practice required of all teachers. Within this context, distributed leadership, where all team members have the potential to lead through intentional practice, is increasingly seen as an effective leadership model. This article focuses on the perceptions and practices of teachers and leaders regarding distributed leadership. ECE teachers and positional leaders' perceptions of distributed leadership and leadership practice were gathered through surveys, and explored through individual and group interviews in three previously identified high-quality ECE services. Data analysis revealed some differences in the perceptions of teachers and leaders surveyed, whereas in the interviews, the teachers and leaders had similar perceptions. Differences in perceptions about leadership create the potential for positional leaders to be unaware of areas requiring improvement either in their leadership practice or in the service as a whole. Effective leaders supported distributed leadership through building relational trust, mentoring and coaching teachers, and providing opportunities for teachers to enact leadership. The findings of this study may provide guidance for positional leaders wishing to support distributed leadership practice.

Networked approaches to professional learning have been shown to offer broad influence and unique benefits to teachers' continuing development. However, despite decades of research into the professional learning community (PLC) approach within single schools, there is a paucity of research about network PLCs and a lack of models for effective practice in facilitating networks. The mixed methods study reported in this article involved a case study about a network PLC focused on visual arts in early childhood education (ECE) in New Zealand. The case study explored what elements of a network PLC were effective and found that the nexus between reflective and practical learning improved teacher efficacy. Both individual and collective learning were shown to be influential on pedagogy in the member ECE settings. Leadership practices supported participants to apply new learning in practice with children, and to share learning with colleagues for further effect and embedded change in pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]