Bottling the Good Stuff: Stories of Hospitality and Yarnin' in a Multi-Racial Kindergarten.

DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLING sites in multiracial regional town contexts can often be quite challenging. This paper examines the work done in one such pre-schooling context in a medium-sized regional town where racial and ethnic tensions are high and where many families struggle with social/emotional/economic challenges. This pre-school setting has been identified in the community and within bureaucratic structures as being successful with regard to a high level of parental engagement and a positive management of racial tensions. In order to describe this success we identify a range of practices which distinguish this educational setting from others in the town. Primarily we focus on the notion of hospitality and the practice of yarnin'. This analysis arises out of ethnographic work at the preschool.