Connecting ‘snippets of knowledge’: teachers’ understandings of the concept of working theories

New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, has two learning outcomes, dispositions and working theories. While a sociocultural perspective of dispositions has received significant attention in research and teaching, ‘working theories’ as a concept has remained somewhat nebulous. This paper describes ways teachers in two settings interpreted this construct during a qualitative study designed to explore teachers’ understandings of working theories. During group interviews, teachers initially demonstrated intuitive knowledge of the concept as children’s snippets of knowledge and children making connections between different information, experiences and concepts. As a result of the increased focus on the concept stimulated by the research, some teachers’ pedagogic practices shifted in richness and depth. However, the realities of daily teaching practices thwarted theoretical understandings from developing within the timeframe of the project and remain a work-in-progress in collaborative attempts to merge theory and practice. Implications for teacher knowledge, learning and policy are offered.