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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. (2025). Economics trumps child rights: How the 2024 E&E Regulations Review frames teacher qualification issues and why we should be worried. Early Childhood Folio. Advance online publication. doi: 10.18296/ecf.1156 Journal - Research Article

Curtis, A., & Gunn, A. C. (2025). Early childhood education and learning. In J. Abbiss, T. Wendt Samu & M. Thrupp (Eds.), The professional practice of teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand. (7th ed.) (pp. 129-148). Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning. Chapter in Book - Research

Gaches, S., Gunn, A., Gaffney, M., & Carvalho, R. (2024). Refocusing care as central to teaching within ECE. Early Childhood Folio, 28(1), 13-17. doi: 10.18296/ecf.1137 Journal - Research Article

Gaches, S., Gaffney, M., Carvalho, R., Curtis, A., & Gunn, A. (2024, February). The care-FULL work of early childhood professionals. Verbal presentation at the Performance of the Real Research Theme Interdisciplinary Conference: Performing Care and Carelessness, Dunedin, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs

Gunn, A. C. (2024). Gender expansive teaching in early childhood education: Learning from parents and children to grow responsive and respectful institutions for every-body. Proceedings of the 32nd European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Annual Conference. [Abstract] Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

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