As a passionate advocate of early childhood education (ECE) in New Zealand, Wendy Lee has developed a deep interest in curriculum, advocacy and leadership issues in ECE and is a strong advocate for the power of documentation to strengthen learner identity of children. Wendy also has a strong interest in the importance of the outdoors for children. Over the past 45 years, her career has focused on building strong, reflective and robust learning communities through the roles of teacher, tutor, lecturer, manager, professional development facilitator and researcher. Today, as director of ELP (Educational Leadership Project Ltd) Wendy is involved in providing training and advice to ECE centres throughout New Zealand and around the world. This enables wide practical experience to be combined with a strong interest in the application of current research to providing quality ECE.
Over the past 15 years, she has had the privilege of collaborating with Professor Margaret Carr on a number of research projects, including co-directing the National Early Childhood Assessment and Learning Exemplar Project. This produced the Kei Tua o te Pae books on assessment for improving learning in the NZ ECE sector.
As the influence of research in the area of Learning Stories and Assessment in New Zealand grows and extends more into ECE practice,she has been increasingly requested to present its influence to a wider international audience including ECE groups in the UK, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Belgium, the USA, the United Arab Emirates, Norway, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia, the Cook Islands and Sweden. This reflects the wide international interest in how ECE research is applied in New Zealand.