Ahead of her inaugural professorial lecture on Wednesday 17 September, Professor Ritchie from the School of Education reflects on a career that was not planned, but given her academic pedigree, may have been partly pre-ordained.
Professor Ritchie’s father James was the founding Professor of Psychology at Waikato University in 1965 and worked closely in the Centre for Maori Studies and Research with Sir Robert Mahuta, supporting Waikato Tainui. James wrote the book Becoming Bicultural. Her mother Jane had completed a post-doctoral research project, Te Kohanga, an education focused preschool for Māori children— documented in her book Chance to be Equal. Jane also became a Professor of Psychology at Waikato
While it was “obvious” her parents chosen profession had an influence on her own educational choices, it was another family member’s experience which led Professor Ritchie to pursue early childhood education.
“The reason I trained in early childhood was my mother’s sister Ruth Beaglehole who became a kindergarten teacher here, then went to live in Los Angeles where she went on to have a major career doing really progressive innovative political things including setting up an early childhood centre near downtown LA that was designed to meet the needs of working people. After I left school I went and worked there and that’s what inspired me to become a kindergarten teacher.”
Professor Ritchie is currently writing a biography of her aunt Ruth who died in April this year. Ruth had also started a teen parenting programme followed by a Centre for Nonviolent Education and Parenting to help Mums and Dads better support their children with empathy rather than punishment.
Professor Ritchie’s maternal grandfather, Ernest Beaglehole, was Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s first Professor of Pyschology. Ernest, also initially a teacher, had beenmentored by Professor Thomas Hunter, after whom the Hunter building was named.
Professor Ritchie joined Te Herenga Waka in 2014, after a 17 year stint at Waikato University followed by seven years at Unitec, and is widely considered to be Aotearoa’s leading bicultural early childhood scholar, with her writings found in early childhood education reading lists across the country.
She is also an ardent enthusiast of providing indigenous rights-based early education, distant echoes of her grandfather’s advocacy as a UNESCO consultant in the aftermath of World War II, and lead writer of a document highlighting the dangers of racism calling campaigns against it, “a crusade to be carried out in common by all educators”.
“That’s another thread, because that Treaty education work I do, and anti-racism research comes through from there as well.”
The importance of strengthening biculturalism, supporting Te Tiriti obligations and celebrating the value of working relationships with colleagues are all themes of Professor Ritchie’s inaugural professorial lecture.
Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, Professor Marek Tesar recently commented that Professor Ritchie’s work “has inspired a generation of young scholars to see with new eyes the field of early childhood education.” Her championing of Te Tiriti and advocacy regarding the implementation of Te Whāriki, New Zealand’s bicultural early childhood curriculum, epitomises the inclusive ethos of her approach to her chosen discipline.
It’s one she has been enchanted by, working in childcare even before training as a kindergarten teacher, then completing a Master’s in counselling before becoming a lecturer in early childhood education.
“The main thing about early childhood education is that you are providing that extremely important support of children ‘s most dynamic growth phase in their entire lives,” Professor Ritchie says.
“It sets those foundational dispositions for life and it’s actually very very joyful being with young children and supporting their families.”
In fact, she says, it is the interaction with whānau where early childhood educators have so much more engagement than other teachers and academic researchers.
“If you’re working in early childhood education, you have so much more engagement with families. The supportive learning you’re doing with that child is also being enhanced when you have that relationship with families. Likewise, you learn from the families which means you can better support the children, and that’s a really dynamic relational space.”
Through her involvement with Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education (RECE), Professor Ritchie has been part of a group challenging universal assumptions about children and childhoods, how they have changed compared to previous generations, and opening up alternative ways of knowing, researching, and teaching.
“We see early the childhood sector as preparing children for life NOT just school.”