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Professor Alex Gunn

Alex Gunn imageProfessor
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:

  • Culturally responsive teaching
  • Male teachers recruitment and retention
  • Democratic early childhood education
  • Home school partnerships for children in residential care
  • Inclusive early childhood education (disability focus)
  • Inclusive early childhood education (refugee/immigrant focus)
  • Constructions of gifted and talented learners in New Zealand education

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Publications

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. (Online ed.) Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-16-2327-1_85-1

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.

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

Reese, E., Gunn, A., Bateman, A., & Carr, M. (2021). Teacher-child talk about learning stories in New Zealand: A strategy for eliciting children’s complex language. Early Years, 41(5), 506-521. doi: 10.1080/09575146.2019.1621804

White, E. J., Rooney, T., Gunn, A. C., & Nuttall, J. (2021). Understanding how early childhood educators ‘see’ learning through digitally cast eyes: Some preliminary concepts concerning the use of digital documentation platforms. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 46(1), 6-18. doi: 10.1177/1836939120979066

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. (Online ed.) Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-16-2327-1_85-1

Chapter in Book - Research

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

Reese, E., Gunn, A., Bateman, A., & Carr, M. (2021). Teacher-child talk about learning stories in New Zealand: A strategy for eliciting children’s complex language. Early Years, 41(5), 506-521. doi: 10.1080/09575146.2019.1621804

Journal - Research Article

White, E. J., Rooney, T., Gunn, A. C., & Nuttall, J. (2021). Understanding how early childhood educators ‘see’ learning through digitally cast eyes: Some preliminary concepts concerning the use of digital documentation platforms. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 46(1), 6-18. doi: 10.1177/1836939120979066

Journal - Research Article

Gunn, A. (2022, October). "Why and how kaiako can foreground inclusion, social justice and equity as strengths of curriculum: Learning dispositions and teaching practices that count". Curriculum Te Marautanga Keynote, Me Ako Tonu, [Online]. [Professional Development Seminar].

Other Research Output

Gunn, A. C. (2021, April). Three decades weaving: Promise, practice and policy reflections on working with Te Whāriki in Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education [Plenary]. Verbal presentation at the ENNEA International Professional Interdisciplinary Community of Expert Learning Conference in Early & Preschool Education, [Hybrid].

Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Gunn, A. C., Bissenden, M., & Kroeger, J. (2020). Trans* affirmative practices in early childhood education: New gender questions for inclusion. In A. C. Gunn, N. Surtees, D. Gordon-Burns & K. Purdue (Eds.), Te aotūroa tātaki: Inclusive early childhood education: Perspectives on inclusion, social justice and equity from Aotearoa New Zealand. (2nd ed.) (pp. 196-213). Wellington, New Zealand: NZCER Press.

Chapter in Book - Research

Gunn, A. C., Hill, M. F., Berg, D. A. G., & Haigh, M. (2020). The promise and practice of university teacher education: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic, 208p. doi: 10.5040/9781350073517

Authored Book - Research

Gunn, A. C., Surtees, N., Gordon-Burns, D., & Purdue, K. (Eds.). (2020). Te aotūroa tātaki: Inclusive early childhood education: Perspectives on inclusion, social justice and equity from Aotearoa New Zealand (2nd ed.). Wellington, New Zealand: NZCER Press, 258p.

Edited Book - Research

Gunn, A. C., & Trevethan, H. (2020). Constructing the problem of initial teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand: Policy formation and risk, 2010-2018. New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 24, 5-20. doi: 10.26686/nzaroe.v24i0.6322

Journal - Research Article

More publications...