Professor, Coordinator (Postgraduate)
DipTchg(ECE) BEd MA EdD
Dunedin Campus
Tel +64 3 479 4261
Email alex.gunn@otago.ac.nz
Biography
After teaching in urban and rural not-for-profit and community based early childhood settings with children aged between birth and school-age, I took a position in early childhood teacher education in Christchurch. I moved to my position at the University of Otago College of Education in 2011 where I teach and research in early childhood education, inclusive education, teacher education, and assessment. I am interested in teachers' beliefs and practices, and in how the things we do in education come to reflect and (re)produce certain norms. Furthermore, I am intrigued by how teachers take up normative understandings in ways that enable and constrain particular subjects, understandings, and ideas.
Teaching Areas
- Teacher education
- Inclusive education (difference, diversity, and social justice in early childhood education)
- Contemporary views on children as learners
- Gender and education
- Curriculum and pedagogy in early childhood education
- Professional practices of teaching
- Assessment education
- Qualitative research design and implementation
Research Interests
- Teacher education
- Early childhood education (various aspects, e.g., gender, assessment, inclusion, teachers' practices, policy)
- Inclusive education and social justice (particularly queer concerns and heteronormativity)
- Educational assessment (sociocultural and narrative approaches)
Key Methodologies and Methods
- Qualitative approaches (nVivo user)
- Ethnography and genealogy
- Queer theory
- Practitioner research
- Foucaultian discourse analysis
- Interview and focus group methods
- Cultural historical research and activity theory
- Questionnaire method
Currently supervising students in the areas of:
- Decolonising teaching
- Male teachers recruitment and retention
- Democratic early childhood education
- Inclusive early childhood education (Pasifika focus)
- Inclusive early childhood education (disability focus)
- Inclusive early childhood education (refugee/immigrant focus)
- Constructions of gifted and talented learners in New Zealand education
- Teacher talk, practice, and early childhood education
Publications
Gunn, A. C. (2023). Timely interventions: Queer activist early childhood teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand. In N. M. Rodriguez, R. C. Mizzi, L. Allen & R. Cover (Eds.), Queer studies and education: An international reader. (pp. 175-194). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780197687000.003.0010 Chapter in Book - Research
Gunn, A. C., Kelly, M., Offen, B., Ormond, A. P., & Sexton, S. (2023). He ara e rua he whāinga kotahi: Walking dual pathways toward shared goals in initial primary sector teacher education. In W. O. Lee, P. Brown, A. L. Goodwin & A. Green (Eds.), International handbook on education development in Asia-Pacific. (pp. 1603-1617). Singapore: Springer Nature. doi: 10.1007/978-981-19-6887-7_85 Chapter in Book - Research
Gunn, A. C. (2023). Advocacy perspectives of early childhood teachers of gender diverse children: Early insights for professional learning and policy development. Proceedings of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) Conference. 972. Retrieved from https://nzare.org.nz/ Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Gunn, A. C., White, E. J., & Williams, N. (2022). The status of the image in ECE assessment practice: Insights from the field. New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work, 19(1), 15-28. Journal - Research Article
Gunn, A. C. (2022). Young children's learning dispositions. In S. C. Faircloth (Ed.), Oxford bibliographies: Education. Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756810-0290 Chapter in Book - Research