Early childhood educators’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities in Ontario’s full day kindergarten program

Rabeya Hossain

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14664609

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand early childhood educators’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities based on their lived experiences in Ontario’s full day kindergarten (FDK) program. The theoretical framework that underpinned my study is post-colonial theory and Foucault’s post-structural concept of “power/knowledge” which offered different perspectives to understand how ECEs’ shaped their perceptions. Key messages from the findings suggest despite challenges within the FDK program, ECEs recognized and acknowledged their complementary roles within the teaching team, and identified the need for professional recognition of their work. The key messages further suggested that principals as the leaders of the school need to have a greater understanding about ECEs’ roles, and the relationship between the educators. The recognition of the role and knowledge that ECEs contribute to FDK programs is crucial in order to facilitate collaboration between the educators within the teaching team.

Highlights

Context September 2010 was a significant milestone in the history of education in Canada as the implementation of full day kindergarten (FDK) program moves early childhood education into the realm of education (Cantalini-Willams & Telfer, 2010)
The implementation of full day kindergarten introduced an important change in the history of education and care in Canada, bringing together the shared responsibility of teacher and early childhood educator to plan and deliver the full day program
The use of post-colonial theory and Foucault’s post-structural concept of “power/knowledge” as a guiding theoretical framework for this study required a selection of methods that enabled early childhood educators’ (ECEs)’ to voice their experience and their perceptions of their roles in FDK, and supported me to answer my research questions based on their shared experiences

Summary

Introduction

Context September 2010 was a significant milestone in the history of education in Canada as the implementation of full day kindergarten (FDK) program moves early childhood education into the realm of education (Cantalini-Willams & Telfer, 2010). The implementation of full day kindergarten introduced an important change in the history of education and care in Canada, bringing together the shared responsibility of teacher and early childhood educator to plan and deliver the full day program. Such a bold change affecting young children and early childhood professionals across the province has not been introduced since the initial implementation of the junior kindergarten in the middle of the twentieth century (Cantalini-Williams &Telfer, 2010).

Objectives

Methods

Results