Practitioners' perspectives on the preschool curriculum

Abstract

This study examines perspectives of the preschool curriculum held by selected teachers in Queensland State preschools.A review of the philosophical, theoretical and research literature on preschool curriculum was conducted to identify current conceptions and expectations of the preschool curriculum. A substantial body of evidence confirming the benefits of high quality preschool curriculum was found and characteristics of high quality were identified.The study was conducted by means of an interview administered to 15 teachers in State preschools in the two metropolitan area regions of the Queensland Department of Education. The aim was to make explicit the teachers' tacit knowledge, understanding and beliefs about what preschool curriculum should be.The significance of the study relates to the atypical role in preschool curriculum creation traditionally afforded teachers and, as a consequence, the important relationship between individual practitioner capacity to create curriculum and the quality of preschool education.Teachers’ responses were analysed to identify their perspectives of preschool curriculum. Seven main beliefs are uncovered and the perspectives represented are discussed in the contexts of the scholarly literature.A major finding of the study is that although early childhood teachers' beliefs about preschool curriculum are well aligned with the literature, they diverge in several significant ways.This study indicates the nature of the challenges facing teachers in the Queensland State preschool system and signifies the issues for preschool curriculum in the 1990s.The study comes at a timely juncture for Queensland’s systemic preschools. The Queensland Department of Education is committed to introducing preschool curriculum guidelines for preschool teachers developed by the Queensland School Curriculum Council even though the study suggests that experienced teachers believe that they don’t need them.