Amy Thynne-Polglase has been in the early childhood field for over 30 years. She has worked in various settings with all age groups and roles as a relief teacher, permanent teacher, head teacher/team leader and centre manager. She has also been involved in the home-based care sector as an educator, coordinator and manager. She has been a tertiary lecturer teaching Levels 5, 6 and 7 in the Early Childhood ITE field since 2019, and is currently one of the Associate Teacher Support lecturers at New Zealand Tertiary College. Amy is interested in all areas of ECE, and is particularly passionate about environments that are inclusive and respectful, with free play, loose parts and all that is natural and sustainable.

Dr Devika Rathore is a lecturer at the New Zealand Tertiary College. She has worked in the area of tertiary education and early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand since 2019. Prior to joining NZTC, she was a Teaching Fellow at The University of Waikato, where she recently completed her doctoral studies. Her PhD research explored the culturally-oriented environmental identity transitions of migrant Indian teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education. Her research interests include environmental/sustainability/nature-based education, environmental identity, teacher identity, cultural identity, picture books and children’s identity, and visual dissemination of research.

Joy McLelland has 15 years’ experience in the early childhood sector, starting off as a kaiako, entering leadership positions and has now been with New Zealand Tertiary College for over five years. She is passionate about encouraging teachers to find their unique identities within their own professional values and beliefs. Joy has a dual role at NZTC, where she is a lecturer and is also part of the Pastoral Support Team. Her Pastoral Support role includes supporting students with any issues that arise during their studies, supporting their overall wellbeing. Her belief is that as a college, NZTC provides wraparound support for its students as they navigate the vital, yet sometimes challenging roles they are pursuing.

Marjolein Whyte came to New Zealand from the Netherlands over 30 years ago as a social worker, working for Barnardos foster care. She retrained as a primary school teacher and early childhood teacher through the University of Auckland. Marjolein has worked in the early childhood sector as a head teacher for over ten years and has been a lecturer with New Zealand Tertiary College since 2011. She has completed postgraduate papers with the University of Auckland in the areas of leadership, early development, literacy and research, followed by her master’s thesis on parent involvement in assessment for learning in early childhood education. Marjolein is currently studying for her PhD at the University of Auckland.

Phoebe Tong is the Postgraduate Program Leader at New Zealand Tertiary College and a doctoral candidate at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on Chinese immigrants’ perspectives of becoming and being a teacher in Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education and how they bring their life stories into teaching. In her master’s thesis, Phoebe explored different understandings and constructions of childhood by engaging in stories in Chinese children’s literature. She is interested in childhood studies, children’s literature, child agency, discourse analysis, Initial Teacher Education and cultural diversity.

Rachael Burke is a lecturer in Early Childhood Education at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in Tauranga. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from Massey University and her research interests include cross-cultural education, social justice, and implicit cultural practices in early childhood education settings. Rachael has conducted ethnographic research in New Zealand, Japan and the Pacific, and she is currently conducting collaborative research with colleagues from several tertiary institutes into inquiry-based learning in early childhood education and on how safe and inclusive campuses are for rainbow students. She is also working on an individual project which examines how the ‘image of a child’ held by beginner teachers from migrant backgrounds influences their practice.

Dr Sean Dolan is the Academic Dean of New Zealand Tertiary College and one of the editors of He Kupu (The Word). Sean has been involved in education as a teacher and leader for over two decades. His professional interests and passions lie in the professional development of student teachers, which was also the focus of the thesis for his PhD.