The quality agenda: governance and regulation of preschool teachers’ work

The increased regulation of teachers’ work is a global phenomenon across education sectors. In Australia the governance of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) embeds international priorities for quality improvement in educational programmes. The implementation of a National Quality Framework (NQF) for the assessment of ECEC services has mobilised the production of a suite of regulatory texts. The regulation of teachers’ work is legitimised through the discourse of quality embedded in policy guidelines. Drawing on interview data from preschool teachers, this paper employs institutional ethnography (IE) to investigate teachers’ accounts of producing a Quality Improvement Plan. As teachers operationalise the expectations of quality assurance in the NQF, their work is oriented to gathering evidence of an approved quality of practice. The findings indicate a shift in professional focus to increased documentation of ‘quality of practice’, goal setting and evidence of the collaborative construction of Quality Improvement Plans.     

Profiles of teacher-child interaction quality in preschool classrooms and teachers’ professional competence features

This paper investigates early childhood education (ECE) teachers’ self-reported and observed teacher-child interaction quality (TIQ) and the associated teachers’ professional competence features using a latent profile analysis (LPA) approach to identify the variations in the quality of classroom experiences in Chinese preschools. A total of 164 female preschool teachers aged 20–58 participated in this study. The analysis and discussions focus on four identified profiles of teachers: low-quality teachers (n = 9) characterised by lowest scores in both observational and self-reported TIQ; self-overestimated teachers (n = 59) with relatively low observed CLASS scores but high self-reported TIQ; self-underestimated teachers (n = 76) scoring relatively high in observed TIQ but low in self-assessed TIQ and low-level self-efficacy; and genuine high-quality teachers (n = 20) rated highest in both observational and self-reported TIQ. Findings on specific educational and psychological characteristics of the four profiles of teachers that we have identified through an LPA provide insights into teacher training in China.     

The contributions of relationships with parents and teachers to Turkish children’s antisocial behaviour

The present study examined the concurrent contributions of parent–child and teacher–child relationship quality to Turkish children’s antisocial behaviour, with a specific focus on the moderating role of teacher–child relationships (closeness and conflict) on parent–child relationships when predicting antisocial behaviour. Participants were 94 children (56 boys) with mean age of 7.05 years (SD = .88) enrolled in 24 classrooms from five elementary schools in a suburban school district in Turkey. Mothers reported on their relationship with children and teachers reported on their relationships with children as well as children’s antisocial behaviour. SAS PROC MIXED was used to test hierarchical regression models of children nested within classrooms. Results showed that teacher–child conflict moderated the association between parent–child conflict and children’s antisocial behaviour. Such that, higher parent–child conflict was related to higher levels of antisocial behaviour at the context of higher levels of teacher–child conflict. In addition, teacher–child closeness also moderated the association between parent–child conflict and children’s antisocial behaviour. Such that when teacher–child closeness was at average or high levels, lower levels of parent–child conflict was related to lower levels of antisocial behaviour. Teacher–child conflict was positively associated with children’s antisocial behaviour. Limitations and future directions of the current study are discussed.     

Young children’s communication and expression of values during play sessions in preschool

The article explores how young children between one and three years old communicate and prioritise values in order to create and be a part of a community during play sessions in an Icelandic preschool. Furthermore, it aims to investigate the value conflicts that might occur and how the children resolve such conflicts. The study adopts the phenomenological approach of Merleau-Ponty emphasising human bodily existence. Data consist mainly of video recordings. The findings show three main categories that illustrate the values that the children prioritised and found meaningful to their interaction in their play: the value of ownership of toys, the value of others’ well-being and the value of belonging to the community. The values could also be in opposition to values that were either prioritised within the group of children or emphasised by the educators. The study implies that play situations are a valuable arena for children’s learning of values. The value conflicts appeared to be especially important, including children’s confrontations with each other’s perspectives and requiring the children to clarify their views. Thus, children’s positions and possibilities within the group became visible and influenced the resolution of the conflicts.     

Promoting children’s participation: the role of teachers in preschool and primary school learning sessions

The aim of this study is to provide insights into the social construction of participation in joint activities in Finnish preschool and primary school classrooms. The article deals with two issues: How do teachers promote participation in a preschool classroom as compared with a primary school classroom? What similarities and differences are found? It also considers the question of how the similarities contribute to the continuity from preschool to primary school in terms of participation. Based on observation data insights are provided into the interactions between teachers and children by using extracts from teacher‐led learning sessions. The teachers used a diversity of strategies to promote participation in both contexts. In the preschool the focus was on participation and interaction as such, whereas in the primary school the emphasis was more clearly on academic learning. The findings suggest that teacher support of active participation and friendly relationships, together with creative and playful activities in the preschool, enrich children’s curiosity, and nourish children’s motivation for and interests in academic learning.     

The perception problem: a comparison of teachers’ self-perceptions and students’ perceptions of instructional quality

Teachers’ self-perceptions and their students’ perceptions of the three basic dimensions of instructional quality were compared based on a sample of 171 classes and their teachers in German secondary education. Low to moderate correlations (r = .35 to .50) were found between the two perspectives. Differences in perceptions vary across teachers based on favorable and less favorable students’ assessments. Results from latent profile analyses based on perception combinations of teachers and their classes hint at four differential profiles, reflecting to a large extent patterns of under- and overestimation of people’s own competence identified in previous research. Significant differences in gender among individuals assigned to the four profiles could be found. Implications of identifying the divergence between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of instructional quality for reflective practice are discussed.

     

Stories of water: preschool children’s engagement with water purification

Cultural Studies of Science Education - This article aims to investigate environmental education in preschools by taking Donna Haraway’s call of staying with the trouble together with...     

The effect of preschool participation on intellectual and behavioral disorder diagnoses: Evidence from surveys on children’s health

This paper examines the effect of preschool participation on the probability of ever being diagnosed with certain intellectual and behavioral disorders in childhood. To study this relationship, I use two-sample two-stage least squares where I instrument for preschool participation using an indicator for the availability of universal preschool. Using data from the National Survey of Children’s Health and the Current Population Survey October Supplement, I find suggestive evidence that high-quality preschool participation disproportionately benefits children from low-education households. That is, for children from low-education households, I observe that preschool participation reduces the probability of ever having been diagnosed with behavioral or conduct problems, and requiring the use of special therapy. For children from high-education households, however, I observe that preschool participation increases the probability of ever having been diagnosed with behavioral or conduct problems, and requiring the use of special therapy.     

Investigation and comparison of Turkish and American preschool teacher candidates’ attitudes towards inclusion of young children with disabilities

Inclusion of young children with disabilities into general education classrooms is a common practice that has been implemented for many years in developed countries around the world and many developing countries have been creating and implementing laws and regulations to support inclusive education in early years. Although extant literature includes a commonly agreed definition for inclusion, the implementation of inclusive practices varies across countries. A critical factor for successful implementation of inclusive practices is teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to compare Turkish and American pre-service preschool teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of young children with disabilities and their willingness to work with children with severe behavioural, physical, and cognitive disabilities. A total of 123 pre-service teachers participated in the study. The results showed that pre-service teachers across two countries had similar attitudes towards inclusion and their attitudes were positive. Additionally, both groups of pre-service teachers reported more favourable attitudes towards working with children with severe physical disabilities than those who have severe cognitive and behavioural disabilities. Implications for future research and practices are discussed.     

Professional role and identity of Icelandic preschool teachers: effects of stakeholders’ views

In this article, we explore the reality of Icelandic preschool teachers who are, as in most other countries, predominantly female. The gendered nature of the role and the current identity adopted by preschool teachers appear to impact on their perceived status and professionalism. In this process, stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE), as well as the preschool teachers themselves, play important parts. The question that underlies the paper is: ‘How do the views of preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE affect the preschool teachers’ professional identity?’ The data used to answer the question are from focus group research carried out with preschool teachers and stakeholders in ECE in one community in Iceland. These stakeholders, besides preschool teachers and staff within the preschools, were parents, professionals at the municipal preschool office and politicians. The theoretical perspective informing the methodology of the research was ‘symbolic interactionism’ and the concept of ‘democratic professionalism’ was used as an aspirational framework to analyse the data. The findings reveal connections between the ideology relating to the preschool teachers’ educational role, their limited leadership and the gendered views of stakeholders. At the end of the paper, implications and recommendations for preschool teachers are suggested.     

The relation between preschool children’s false-belief understanding and domain-general experimentation skills

The focus of the present study is on the developmental antecedents of domain-general experimentation skills. We hypothesized that false-belief understanding would predict the ability to distinguish a conclusive from an inconclusive experiment. We conducted a longitudinal study with two assessment points (t1 and t2) to investigate this hypothesis. As language, executive functioning, working memory, and intelligence have been discussed as potential influencing factors in theory of mind and scientific reasoning development, we included measures of these abilities as control variables. We recruited 161 preschool children (73 girls and 88 boys); we administered a false-belief task, an experimentation task, and the control variables at t1 when the children were 4 years old. We repeated the false-belief and experimentation tasks at t2 when the children were 5 years old. Our results show that children who solved the false-belief task correctly at age 4 were more likely to solve the experimentation task correctly at age 5, but not vice versa, even after controlling for the influence of language, executive functioning, working memory, and intelligence. The implications of these results on theories about the development of scientific reasoning and for science education concepts for young children are briefly discussed.     

The roles of epistemology and ideology in teachers’ pedagogy with historical ‘media’

Within the field of social studies education, disciplinary models of teaching, such as approximating a historian in asking students to ‘think historically,’ have been the emphasis of countless professional development and teacher education programs. This movement, however, has focused largely on the use of traditional primary documents and generally does not include training for teachers or students on how other forms of media construct history. This collective case study examines how two US history teachers’ epistemological beliefs about historical media and ideology and overall goals for students as citizens impacts their pedagogy with different historical media, particularly film. Data were collected on a daily basis over the course of six months, and included observations, teacher interviews, and the media used as historical sources. Findings show that teachers’ beliefs about how sources represent history affect their pedagogy with the particular media, and that epistemic development and current notions of historical thinking may be limited when it comes to media that commonly serve as historical sources for the public at large (e.g., film, television, WWW, videogames). This limitation is caused in large part by the teachers’ larger goals for students that are informed by their ideology, and difficulty in identifying bias in media that aligned with their own beliefs. Therefore, a shift in teachers’ epistemic beliefs about how different forms of media serve as sources of history, essentially a form of critical media literacy, and coinciding recognition of ideological goals needs to occur in order to better instill students with skills in historical and media literacy for the twenty‐first century.     

Reading teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and English phonology

We investigated relationships among elementary teachers’ reading-related content knowledge (knowledge of literature and phonology), their philosophical orientation toward reading instruction, their classroom practice, and their students’ learning. Correlations showed little relationship between instructional philosophy and content knowledge, and little relationship between instructional philosophy and classroom practice. However, relationships emerged between content knowledge and instruction, and between kindergarten teachers’ phonological knowledge and their students’ reading achievement. We recommend that the recent focus on teacher’s disciplinary knowledge be broadened to include teachers of beginning reading and that teachers be afforded opportunities to develop the necessary knowledge base to teach reading effectively.     

Preservice teachers’ attitudes,attributions, and stereotypes: Exploring the disadvantages of students from families with low socioeconomic status

In many educational systems, students from families with low socioeconomic status (SES) often score lower in academic achievement than their high SES peers. Even though this effect is well-documented and research on teachers’ stereotypical beliefs and attitudes is steadily increasing, the studies so far did not specifically focus on students’ SES. In the current study, we explored preservice teachers’ implicit attitudes and their stereotypical and prejudiced beliefs toward low SES students as well as their causal attributions for the low educational success of low SES students. Results showed that teachers had negative implicit attitudes toward low SES students and that they more strongly associated competences and good learning and working habits with high SES students. The correlations highlighted the role that stereotypes play in causal attributions. Participants who more strongly associated low SES with competence and good working and learning behaviors were less likely to endorse internal attributions but were more likely to emphasize external attributions. Hence, when preservice teachers see low SES students as having high ability, they also strongly view the educational system as a source of the disadvantages that low SES students experience in school.     

The immediate impacts of preschool attendance on Turkish children’s mathematics achievement

This study was conducted to investigate the immediate impacts of preschool attendance on Turkish children’s mathematics achievement. The participants were 200 children who attended or did not attend preschool. The number and operation task and the geometric shapes sorting task were used as the data collection tools. The children who attended preschool performed significantly better on the number and operation task and the geometric shapes sorting task than the children who did not attend preschool. Indeed, the multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that preschool attendance is the most important predictor of the success of children in number and operation task and the geometric shapes sorting task.     

Inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream schools in Ghana: influence of teachers’ and children’s characteristics

The issue of where to teach children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities has been a great concern as countries respond to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Salamanca Statement on inclusion of 1994. In this study, the responses of 500 trained and untrained mainstream primary school teachers selected from three of the ten regions of Ghana were analysed to investigate their attitudes to including children with SEN and disabilities in mainstream schools in Ghana. These attitudes were examined alongside teachers’ characteristics such as gender, age, length and level of teaching experience, and knowledge of SEN, and also the type, nature and degree of children’s SEN. The results showed that teachers in Ghana were positive towards the inclusion of children with SEN and disabilities with a few reservations which are elaborated. On the basis of the findings, conclusions were drawn that the inclusion agenda should be subject to national and local interpretation, aimed at ensuring that policies and regulations on SEN are fashioned to meet local situations and standards.