Policy and advocacy content in early childhood teacher education: Results of a national survey

Abstract

One important strategy for strengthening policy and advocacy in early childhood education is through the incorporation of specific course content in teacher education programs [New Perspectives in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Bringing Practitioners Into the Debate, Teachers College Press, NY, New York, 1994]. Yet, to date, little is known about the extent to which content relating to these two important issues are incorporated into teacher education programs. In response to this gap, an exploratory study of early childhood teacher education programs was conducted to determine the nature of policy and advocacy content included in undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States. Public and private institutions, ranging in size from small four‐year colleges to large public universities, participated in this national survey. Results indicated that advocacy and policy content is incorporated in most teacher education programs in a varied, yet unsystematic, manner. Respondents also identified a range of current and needed resources to support advocacy and policy education as well as a number of barriers that impede incorporation of such content in their programs.