(En)tangling anger and equity dreams: RECE promises and pantomimes

Abstract

This response to the question about what we are angry about and what we dream of for young children reflects our work of over 30 years in Australasia. For Kylie in Australia and for Sonja in Aotearoa New Zealand and now also Australia. We direct the RECE common call, for an elevation of children’s rights, to a voice, to a ‘good’ education, and to a ‘good’ life, to the children, families, teachers, educators and communities with whom we live and work. As two RECE scholars, teachers of young children and of their teachers, and as researchers who are concerned with social justice and equity, we focus specifically on what good might mean in relation to education, life and community, through the lens of the current state of early childhood education in Australasia, now and in the future. We highlight some of the critical concerns with the current state of the sector, arguing that there is much to be fighting for, much, as the call for this special edition asks, to be angry about – still. With a specific focus on the crucial connections between early childhood education and teachers’ understandings and experiences of their own gendered and cultural wellbeing, we draw on our prior and current research to urge an ongoing questioning as we and the sector traverse these precarious areas that undoubtedly affect the inclusiveness and ‘goodness’ of teachers’ and children’s lives and learning.