Education Of Young Children Research Articles

Tracing Diverse Pathways to Teaching: Tales of Nontraditional Immigrant Women of Color Becoming Teachers of Young Children

Situated in New York City, this qualitative case study investigates nontraditional teachers, particularly immigrant women of color, and their diverse pathways into early childhood classrooms. Against the backdrop of the city’s expansion of public preschool programs and its efforts to ensure high quality through narrowly defined measures of professionalization for the early childhood workforce, I traced the lived experiences of nontraditional immigrant women of color, their becoming teachers of young children, and the ways in which their funds of knowledge shape their teaching practice. Findings reveal that although nontraditional immigrant women of color enter teaching with unique and valuable life experiences, they face many challenges in the changing landscape of early childhood education. Implications point towards the importance of cultivating a more diverse teaching force and supporting teachers’ development through culturally responsive and sustaining ways that honor the wealth of knowledge they bring to the benefit of young children and their families, especially those with diverse cultural backgrounds.

특수교육대상영유아 가족지원 프로그램에 대한 장애아전문어린이집 부모와 교사의 인식

특수교육대상영유아 가족지원 프로그램에 대한 장애아전문어린이집 부모와 교사의 인식

Multi Perspectives on Play Based Curriculum Quality Standards in the Center Learning Model

Multi Perspectives on Play Based Curriculum Quality Standards in the Center Learning Model

Integrating family content in teacher preparation programs using intentional reflection and planning

ABSTRACTStrong family involvement in children’s education supports positive academic and social-emotional outcomes. Therefore, developing early childhood (EC) professionals’ competence in engaging and involving families in their children’s education is emphasized across state licensure requirements, personnel preparation standards, and professional recommendations (e.g., Division for Early Childhood, Council for Exceptional Children, InTASC, National Association for the Education of Young Children). Although many states have begun to require family course content as part of their licensure for educators, higher education faculty and instructors may struggle to integrate family-related content into their coursework and field experiences while also covering state standards in instructional strategies, assessment, and other content areas. In order to effectively and comprehensively include family content across university programs and courses, faculty need to evaluate their current content and systematically plan to include current and research-based family material. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for faculty to evaluate, reflect, and plan their use of family content in university courses aligned with the Division for Early Childhood’s Recommended Practices: Family (2014). This article shares self-assessment and action plan tools for integrating family content into course materials, activities, and assignments.

Reflections on practice: providing authentic experiences with families in early childhood teacher education

ABSTRACT Teachers’ positive relationships with families contribute to the social, emotional, and intellectual development of children in early childhood education programs. Effectively involving, communicating, and partnering with families requires a unique set of professional abilities. Teachers must hold a deep understanding of the cultural and socioeconomic needs and characteristics of families and possess social skills and dispositions that allow them to effectively engage the adults in children’s lives in sensitive and supportive ways. Are preservice teachers of young children well prepared to carry out this important role in their teacher education programs? Although 60% of teacher education programs require a course on families, few include authentic experiences in which candidates interact with families face-to-face. In the present article, the four authors – a teacher educator, a supervising teachers, and two early childhood teacher education candidates – reflect on a project which included seven elaborate experiences with families in lieu of a traditional, required course. We share our diverse perspectives on the impact of each experience, presenting excerpts from candidates’ reflective journal entries and from the field notes of the teacher educator and supervising teacher. Implications of our experiences for teacher education are presented.

신체움직임을 활용한 순환학습기반 유아과학교육 프로그램이 유아의 과학적 탐구능력, 과학적 태도, 물체조작능력 및 공간능력에 미치는 효과

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of a learning cycle model-based early childhood education program using physical motion on young children’s scientific inquiry ability, scientific attitude, object manipulation ability and spatial ability. Methods: The subjects of this study were 60 five-year-old children who were attending K-G City Childcare Center. The SPSS Window 21.0 program and content analysis method were used, and post-validation Tukey was conducted to examine the differences between the one-way ANOVA and the group. Results: Activities using body movement were practiced systematically based on the circle learning. Children could revise their pre-concept and concept of error by interacting with other children, teachers and the environment. Furthermore ,children were attaining new knowledge while they were doing body movement activities, assessing and applying them to actual activities. Conclusion/Implications: This study is investigated a cyclic learning-based early childhood science education program using physical motion, which has significance in systematic and practical early childhood centered education for young children.

Analysis on Research Trend in Language Education for Young Children utilizing Picture-books

Analysis on Research Trend in Language Education for Young Children utilizing Picture-books

Translating the Implementation Gap: Three Versions of Early Childhood Curriculum Leadership

Few matters are of more significance to the shaping of young children’s experiences in early childhood classrooms than the content of curriculum and how it is mediated. However, few studies examine teachers of young children as mediators of curriculum. Instead, policies intending to improve the outcomes of early education have generally addressed teachers prescriptively, providing standards and protocol. In response, this study utilized interviews with four K-3 public school teachers to narrate stories of early childhood curriculum leadership. The findings indicate that early childhood curriculum leadership varies based upon people and context. The presented cases describe four distinct versions of curriculum leadership: obedient realism, adaptive conversation, nomadic noncompliance, and ethical fidelity.

It’s not fair, I don’t want to share: When child development and teacher expectations clash

Promoting cooperative social behavior is a major task of preschool teachers. Children are taught to be nice, be fair, and share. This mandate, however, runs up against the fact that young children are naturally egotistical and unable to appreciate the perspective of others. This leaves teachers with questions about how strongly they should push the be-nice agenda when it meets with resistance. Joan Goodman and Maya Rabinowitz explore how teachers of young children can reconcile their goals both to respect children’s natural development and to socialize them.

Men teaching young children: “you can never be too sure what their intentions might be”

ABSTRACTThe teaching of young children (aged between 5 and 9) or Foundation Phase (FP) as it is known in South Africa, is highly gendered and is labeled a ‘woman’s’ job. Globally there have been calls to lessen the gender disparity within the profession by increasing the participation of men. However, apprehensions about men teaching young children can counteract such efforts. In this paper we highlight the concerns emanating from a group of male and female South African primary school teachers about men teaching young children. We focus on a dominant discourse employed by the teachers that invokes essentialist notions of men as violent sexual predators, and simultaneously reinforces notions of children as vulnerable and in need of protection from men. These notions of men conjured up feelings of apprehension amongst the teachers about men as FP teachers. South Africa’s high levels of male sexual violence had especially compelled them to exercise caution when ratifying men as FP teachers. Based on these findings we argue that in order to increase men’s participation as FP teachers, there is need to address the essentialist and homogenising versions of masculinity whilst promoting alternative versions of men and masculinity by shifting away from the reproduction of men as sexual predators.

Child-identified problems and their robotic solutions

Research on early childhood robotics education often focuses narrowly on teaching young children STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts and skills. In this qualitative case study, our research team examined what happened when we worked with young children (age 7) and combined the technologies of robotics education with an inquiry approach, that is, an opportunity for students to collaboratively identify a problem arising from their own lived experiences and build a robot to solve it. We found that the process of children’s problem identification was dialogic, not only with peers and teachers but also with materials, as they defined and refined problems based on interactions with peers and objects. As this study was conducted at an economically disadvantaged public school in the Southern United States, we argue that early childhood robotics education has a great potential to engage young children in STEM learning in a personally meaningful manner and that an instructional approach fostering children’s inquiry and project-based learning through their problem finding and problem posing is effective in making STEM accessible to students from diverse backgrounds.

The Effect of Job-crafting on Perceived Value of Work and Job Engagement of Teachers for young children

The Effect of Job-crafting on Perceived Value of Work and Job Engagement of Teachers for young children

Early Childhood Teacher’s Perception of Career Education for Young Children: Focusing on IPA

Early Childhood Teacher’s Perception of Career Education for Young Children: Focusing on IPA

Türkiye’deki erken çocukluk eğitimi üzerine yazılmış lisansüstü tezlerin bir içerik analizi

This study aims to investigate the descriptive characteristics, research topics and methodological procedures of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations regarding early childhood education in Turkey. Within the scope of the current study, 931 Master’s. theses and 171 doctoral dissertations were analyzed according to university, institute, department, publication year, academic title of the advisor, research topic, sample group, location in which the study took place, research setting of the study, type of research, instruments, statistical analysis, and sampling methods. The study covers theses published from 1986 to 2016, and a content analysis method was implemented for data analysis. As expected, the current study found that students were the most frequently used subject groups in both M.S. theses (37.39%) and Ph.D. dissertations (53.39%). In the M.S. theses, researchers mostly preferred research topics regarding the education of young children (29.95%) whereas in PhD. dissertations, researchers mainly focused on developmental issues (32.78%). Nearly, all the graduate theses were conducted in city centers and central districts.

Visibility and transmission: complexities around promoting hand hygiene in young children \u2013 a qualitative study

BackgroundEffective hand hygiene practice can reduce transmission of diseases such as respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and gastrointestinal infections, especially in young children. While hand hygiene has been widely promoted within Australia, primary care providers’ (PCPs) and parents’ understanding of hand hygiene importance, and their views on hand hygiene in reducing transmission of diseases in the community are unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the views of PCPs and parents of young children on their knowledge and practice of hand hygiene in disease transmission.MethodsUsing a cross-sectional qualitative research design, we conducted 30 in-depth interviews with PCPs and five focus groups with parents (n = 50) between June 2014 and July 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. Data were thematically analysed.ResultsParticipants agreed that hand hygiene practice was important in reducing disease transmissions. However, barriers such as variations of hand hygiene habits, relating visibility to transmission; concerns around young children being obsessed with washing hands; children already being ‘too clean’ and the need to build their immunity through exposure to dirt; and scepticism that hand hygiene practice was achievable in young children, all hindered participants’ motivation to develop good hand hygiene behaviour in young children.ConclusionDespite the established benefits of hand hygiene, sustained efforts are needed to ensure its uptake in routine care. To overcome the barriers identified in this study a multifaceted intervention is needed that includes teaching young children good hand hygiene habits, PCPs prompting parents and young children to practice hand hygiene when coming for an RTI consultation, reassuring parents that effective hand hygiene practice will not lead to abnormal psychological behaviour in their children, and community health promotion education campaigns.

Encounter of Chinese international students with pre-service teachers for young children: Changes in experiential awareness through an appreciative inquiry process

Encounter of Chinese international students with pre-service teachers for young children: Changes in experiential awareness through an appreciative inquiry process

Study on the Cognition of Teacher of Young Children with Disabilities and Actuality of Music Concept based Music Education

Study on the Cognition of Teacher of Young Children with Disabilities and Actuality of Music Concept based Music Education

Concept Mapping Analysis of Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers’ Perception of Gifted Young Children Education for Institutionalized Children

Concept Mapping Analysis of Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers’ Perception of Gifted Young Children Education for Institutionalized Children

An analysis on the concept map of multicultural education of preservice teachers for young children

An analysis on the concept map of multicultural education of preservice teachers for young children

Edges and Boundaries: Finding Community and Innovation as an Early Childhood Educator

This study describes how a group of early childhood educators from a diverse range of classroom cultures and pedagogies came together to form a network of support and collaboration, what Gorodetsky and Barak (Teach Teach Educ 24(7):1907–1918, 2008) define as an ‘edge community of practice.’ This year-long study involved a group of nine educators, who met for monthly workshops to discuss their teaching pedagogies, struggles, and successes. This article explains how this group of educators engaged in thoughtful deliberations about common educational concepts, such as ‘assessment’ and ‘classrooms’, and from these discussions, emerged from the experience with new and innovative perspectives on teaching young children. These educators, while quite different in their pedagogical approaches, critically examined their own practices, formed supportive relationships, and emerged with new and innovative understandings of early childhood education.