Providence talks: A citywide partnership to address early childhood language development

Early research has shown that there may be inconsistencies in how parents in different socioeconomic classes prepare their children to learn to read. Previous research has highlighted a “word gap” between children from low-income families and high-income families. Effects of this “word gap” are evident at the start of kindergarten and contribute to the current nationwide achievement gap in educational outcomes for low-income children. Providence Talks (PT) is a city-wide initiative launched in 2014 in an effort to close this gap. PT helps caretakers learn about the importance of speaking with their children at an early age and supports them in their ability to improve the language environments within their home. We uncover positive results for the efficacy of a citywide intervention dedicated to improving outcomes for vulnerable children across the urban landscape.     

Preservice teachers,caring communities,and parent partnerships: Challenges and possibilities for early childhood teacher education

Abstract

The creation of caring classroom communities and a heightened focus on the central importance of partnerships between teachers and parents are two significant features of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices [Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, revised ed., National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC]. This article reports findings from a study of preservice primary grade teachers’ understandings of caring in which participants developed negative, adversarial beliefs about parents during their initial field placement period. The findings in this study indicate that in order to prepare preservice teachers to meet our expectations for high quality early childhood teaching practices, we must create teacher education programs and coursework specifically aimed at developing commitments to caring community and to parent partnership.     

Creating and maintaining online communities of practice in Malaysian Smart Schools: challenging realities

Wenger describes an educational community of practice (CoP) as a group of professionals who share a passionate concern for practice‐based issues and who voluntarily choose to deepen their knowledge, understanding and skills through collaborative and critical dialogue. Peer collaboration of this kind, which involves social interaction, reflection and a critical engagement with practice issues, has been widely suggested to be effective for teacher learning and professional development. The online continuing professional development for teachers (e‐CPDelT) Vision 2020 model outlined here aims to bring about innovation in practice through an online or virtual CoP (VCoP). Twenty Malaysian teachers in five Smart Schools were invited to take part in a Higher Education (HE) project, funded by one of the main universities in Malaysia. By participating collaboratively in this CoP, it was anticipated that the teachers would form an active online CoP that would lead in turn to innovation in teaching and learning practices in the schools. An action research approach was used in tracing the developmental process of the three subject‐based CoPs (namely, Mathematics, Science and English) and identifying challenges faced by the higher education institution (HEI) project team in fostering the active participation and commitment of the teachers. Preliminary data generated from mentor forum discussion, focus groups and blogs suggested that low levels of participation in VCoP activities were a result of low levels of trust and social affiliation, performance anxiety, time pressure and failure to see the relevance of online interaction as directly related to their individual needs as practitioners. Approaches to remediating these challenges and promoting more authentic teacher engagement are outlined.     

The relationship between early childhood teachers' instructional quality and children's mathematics development

This study examined how early childhood (EC) teachers' instructional quality predicted children's development in mathematics across two measurement occasions. Therefore, EC teachers' (n = 25) instructional quality was assessed using one standardized observation instrument covering both domain-specific and general aspects of instructional quality. Additionally, data on children's (n = 208) outcome in early number skills was collected applying a standardized test. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used accounting for nested data. Children's age and the average size of preschool groups were controlled for. Results revealed that EC teachers' instructional quality predicted children's development but was not associated with their initial achievement. The findings suggest that instruments covering domain-specific and general aspects might be helpful in order to measure EC teachers' instructional quality in mathematics and predict children's learning growth. Understanding the mechanisms between instructional quality and children's development may help EC teachers to enhance their math teaching in practice.     

Continuing evolution: The Rhode Island early childhood summer institute

Abstract

This narrative chronicles the continued evolution and development of the Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute, an intensive 5‐day inservice professional development program designed for educational leaders from various sectors of the early care and education field. The goal is to review the continued use of successful practices implemented in the 1993 through 1997 programs and to highlight new programmatic features that were introduced in the most recent 2000 and 2001 programs. The Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute program may serve as a model to others responsible for designing inservice professional development experiences to enhance the capacity of the early childhood workforce.     

Diversity in New Zealand early childhood education: challenges and opportunities

The early childhood education (ECE) sector in New Zealand has long been recognised for the diversity of service types and range of organisations involved in delivering ECE. However, less attention has been paid to diversity within individual ECE services. This article draws on a national survey carried out as part of a larger project, The Diversity of Diversity in Early Childhood Education, focusing on teachers’ perceptions of challenges and successes encountered when working with children from diverse family backgrounds. Educators’ attitudes towards diversity clearly influence whether they perceive working with diverse children and families positively or as a challenge. We argue that possessing positive dispositions and attitudes that enable educators to truly welcome, acknowledge and embrace diversity, together with access to professional knowledge and support services, are critical. The implications of this for policy and practice are then considered.     

Models of supervision in early childhood programs: Implications for training

Many child care directors inherit their role of supervisor without having had adequate training or experience. Given the wide disparity in the field with respect to staff preparation, child care directors, in their role as supervisors, are called on to develop, train, evaluate, and appraise child care workers on a daily basis. The literature in the field suggests that there are common threads among supervisory models in early childhood and that directors of child care programs can benefit from in-service training that specifically addresses their supervisory functions. “The most difficult part of my job as Director is trying to get my staff to change certain practices.” Director, Church Preschool Program “I don't feel comfortable with my role as evaluator; I guess I don't like telling people they're doing something wrong.” Director, Day Care Center     

Learning with immigrant children,families and communities: the imperative of early childhood teacher education

Abstract

This article reports on a longitudinal study spanning over 5 years, involving the design and implementation of an early childhood teacher education program model that engages a critical-ecological theoretical approach, a funds of knowledge perspective, and design-based methodology. This project aimed to promote equitable education for all children, and especially for young immigrant children encountering situations of oppression within the national and local educational contexts in Arizona. In this teacher education program, families, community members, researchers, pre-service teachers and teachers worked together to develop new modes of curricular activity, new spaces, new relationships, and new forms of movement among participants, as well as new circulations of literacy artefacts.     

In good hands: Preparing research-skilled graduates for the early childhood profession

Recent developments in early childhood teacher education have seen the inclusion of curricula designed to serve the concept of continuous professional renewal through educating undergraduates in the interpretation, execution, and use of research. The challenge for educators is to “demystify” research and teach in ways that are professionally meaningful as well as intellectually acceptable. In this study, we follow three groups of early childhood students as they engage in a one-semester research subject. Focus groups and individual interviews showed considerable shifts in student attitudes about the value of research and in their development toward becoming active researchers who see research as a tool for answering questions in education.     

Reconceptualising professionalism in early childhood education: insights from a study carried out in Bologna

This paper explores the issue of early childhood professionalism from a socio-cultural perspective. In particular the article is concerned with how pre-school teachers conceptualise their professionalism by making sense of the work they carry out on an everyday basis in early childhood institutions. In analysing teachers’ perceptions special attention has been paid to the socio-political and historical conditions that have contributed to shaping them. Drawing on a recent empirical study conducted within Bologna province (Italy), contemporary issues in early childhood professionalism are analysed and insights for a possible re-conceptualisation are offered through a critical interpretation of teachers’ perspectives. The findings discussed in the article highlight how a complex conceptualisation of professionalism, building upon continuous learning in relational contexts, is currently challenged by recent neo-liberal influences. In facing these challenges a crucial role will be played by teachers’ collaborative practices in the workplace that, if reclaimed as a space for collective decision-making, could potentially become an arena for rethinking teachers’ professional development in dialogue with local communities.     

Education for sustainability within early childhood studies: collaboration and inquiry through projects with children

This paper considers an Action Research project which was implemented to establish a shared understanding of the term ‘Education for Sustainable development’ within the context of an Early Childhood Studies degree. Students engaged in projects with children and local early years’ providers, and the research aligns with previous work undertaken by Siraj-Blatchford, Smith, and Samuelsson (2010. Education for Sustainable Development in the Early Years. Organisation Mondiale Pour ?Education Prescolaire (OMEP)), which explored the role of education for sustainability in the field of Early Childhood Education. With the lingering and persistent preoccupation with testing, results and outcomes in early childhood education, compulsory school education and higher education the research aimed to capture the idea of the student as a change agent with opportunities to work with children as agents of change. The main findings lean towards participatory action research as an emancipatory reminder that research does not need to be a technical activity and the voices and actions of children, students and early childhood educators can be foregrounded in a way that validates authentic involvement by all participants.     

Understanding stories of professional formation during early childhood education and care practice placements

Narrative inquiry as a methodological approach enables us to examine how people represent their experiences and selves through storytelling (Chase, S. E. 2005. ‘Narrative Inquiry: Multiple Lenses, Approaches, Voices.’ In The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, 651–679. London: Sage). To understand these constructions, other kinds of knowledge are required. Theories of social life, for example, help to interpret areas which narrative inquiry is good at revealing about human experiences such as the animation of temporality, sociality and place (Clandinin, J., V. Caine, A. Estefan, J. Huber, M. S. Murphy, and P. Steeves. 2015. ‘Places of Practice: Learning to Think Narratively.’ Narrative Works 5 (1). Accessed November 30, 2017. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/issue/view/1799). Drawing on interviews with practice educators and final-year undergraduate early childhood education and care (ECEC) students in North-West Ireland, this paper considers how narrative inquiry and education theories work together to illuminate key learning experiences of ECEC undergraduate students during 12-week practice placements. In this paper I attempt to show how two education theories – ‘Threshold Concepts’ and ‘Communities of Practice’ – shed light on the nature of these key learning experiences. The paper suggests that narrative inquiry offers an emancipatory research approach by uncovering human and reflective elements of learning journeys made by ECEC students during their practice placements.     

What troubles early childhood educators in New Zealand: a 20-year cross-sectional study of ethical difficulties in early childhood practice

For more than 20 years, the New Zealand early childhood (EC) sector has had guidance about how to deal with situations of ethical difficulty in daily practice through the ECE Code of Ethics. This paper reports on three surveys undertaken at 10-year intervals that sought to understand EC educators’ experiences of such situations, and how they addressed them within their EC settings. An analysis of educators’ stories of ethically troubling situations from the three data-sets traced shifts and similarities in the content reported, and in how educators responded to these challenges over the two-decade period. We situate this analysis alongside changes in the New Zealand ECE policy context during the same time frame. We argue that a connection exists between the reported situations and teachers’ responses to them, and changes within the policy and professional context of daily EC practice.     

Service-learning in early childhood teacher education: Using service to put meaning back into learning

Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.     

The long-run impacts of early childhood education: Evidence from a failed policy experiment

We investigate short and long-term effects of early childhood education using variation created by a policy experiment in British Columbia, Canada. Our findings imply being in kindergarten longer increases the probability of repeating the third grade, and decreases tenth grade math and reading scores. Effects are highest for low income students and males. Estimates suggest that more time in kindergarten may have a detrimental effect on future outcomes.     

A model for portfolio assessment in early childhood education programs

It is necessary for teachers to consider alternative means of evaluating their students. One method proving to be effective for gathering and organizing student productivity, growth, and development is the portfolio approach. This article describes the Early Childhood Portfolio Assessment Preparation (ECPAP) Model that was used to facilitate the use of student portfolios in two different early childhood education programs. The goals of the model, the six steps followed and the participants' responses to this project are discussed. This article may serve early childhood directors and supervisors who are preparing teachers to implement student portfolios as a supplement or an alternative to the existing assessment and evaluation programs. Also early childhood teacher education students can benefit from the design and implementation of ECPAP.     

Creating a responsive curriculum for postgraduates: lessons from a case in Ghana

A responsive curriculum addresses the changing needs of students, bridging the gap between universal knowledge and theories on one hand and contextual, continuously changing realities of everyday life and the world of work, on the other. Though several higher education institutions appreciate the value of making curriculum responsive, how to do this remains a challenge. This paper first identified unique attributes of responsive curriculum development based on literature and assessed their manifestation in the creation of a new Masters curriculum in natural resource and environmental governance in Ghana. The role of actors within and outside academia and its implications, were also investigated. The study was designed as participatory action research. Key process attributes identified include, among others, iteration, built-in learning within the curriculum development process, and the contribution of actors from outside academia to curriculum design and implementation. The study also shows the important role of the so-called champion of the process and the expert facilitators. The paper does not seek to provide a blue-print but rather provides a valuable example for future initiatives at creating curriculum that better responds to current needs of students.     

Against the Unchallenged Discourse of Homelessness: Examining the Views of Early Childhood Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Because of the link between teacher training and higher‐quality classroom practice, early childhood researchers and professional organizations have placed an increasing emphasis on all early childhood teachers—including those in early care and education (ECE) settings—obtaining a minimum of a Bachelor's degree as part of their professional development. Given the differing licensure requirements for ECE teachers, the variety of settings early childhood teachers work in, and the creativity needed to respond to the changing roles teachers play in those settings, however, this paper offers an additional perspective that is sometimes left out of the discussion regarding what teachers need: that of the early childhood practitioner. Using conversations with both a certified, public school teacher and a non‐certified teacher in a private ECE setting in New Jersey, this article reports on these teachers’ professional development experiences, as well as the implications of their experiences for future considerations of what teachers need in order to enhance their growth as educators.