Culturally-Oriented Environmental Identity Transitions: Migrant Indian Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education

An increasingly multicultural Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) landscape that includes a growing number of migrant teachers forms the context for my doctoral study. In this country, respect for the natural world and kaitiakitanga are integral to the ECE bicultural curriculum framework Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017) which is grounded in Indigenous Māori worldviews that acknowledge strong spiritual connections to land and place. The natural environment is considered an integral part of the national identity and early childhood has been recognised as an important stage when Environmental and Sustainability Education should begin. Within the context of this superdiverse nation, a significant number of migrant teachers transfer their cultural and environmental knowledge, practice, and identity as they transition into the Aotearoa New Zealand context. This thesis explored migrant Indian teachers’ understandings of their culturally-oriented and negotiated environmental identities. I was keen to examine if the environment might hold different meanings and places in their home (Indian) and host (Aotearoa New Zealand) cultural systems. Through this study, insights were gained into migrant Indian teachers’ perceptions of the influence of cultural identity on their environmental identities in Aotearoa New Zealand ECE. A sociocultural theoretical perspective informed this study, drawing primarily on Sauvé’s (2009) model of personal and social development of the self in relation to other humans and the environment. Primary data for this interpretivist study were gathered through in-depth interviews with nine Indian ECE teacher participants. Interviews with their ECE setting managers/head teachers were conducted to support and supplement the teachers’ practices and experiences. The audio-recorded interview data were transcribed and examined using thematic analysis. Observations of teacher participants’ workplaces were used to provide a contextua