Can Service Learning Reinforce Social and Cultural Bias? Exploring a Popular Model of Family Involvement for Early Childhood Teacher Candidates

As neoliberal polices that emphasize governing the modern state through market-based principles expand across the globe, they are altering the training of early childhood teacher candidates. This creates a range of challenges for those teacher educators who are critical of this reform process. This article presents an instrumental case study that examined the impact of neoliberal education reforms on the development of a sample of early education teacher candidates. Analyzing this case of teacher development offers teacher educators the opportunity to consider the practical and critical steps they might take to better prepare their candidates for these reforms. Doing so will help teacher candidates develop early learning experiences for their children that teach them to become engaged democratic citizens rather than compliant consumers within the neoliberal state.

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“If Not Me, Then Who?”

Advocacy in Academia and the Role of Teacher Preparation Programs - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-2906-4.ch001 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 1-22

Author(s):

Elizabeth Ann Ethridge ◽

Vickie E. Lake ◽

Amber H. Beisly

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Preservice Teachers ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Mixed Methods ◽

Service Learning ◽

Education Program ◽

Teacher Education Program ◽

Early Childhood Teacher ◽

Agents Of Change ◽

Sense Of Power

Research has indicated that teachers typically do not view themselves as advocates for many reasons such as fear of personal and professional risk (Peters & Reid, 2009). Participants include both preservice teachers and graduates of an early childhood teacher education program. This chapter addresses how the program utilized intentional assignments and group and individual scaffolding as preservice teachers moved from experiencing service learning to pure advocacy. Through a mixed methods study, preservice teachers began to see themselves as agents of change with increased confidence and sense of power. These transformations continued as graduates of the program reported they were still engaging in advocacy.

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Providing Early Childhood Education Teacher Candidates Diverse Clinical Understandings through Professional Development School Experiences

Teacher Education for Ethical Professional Practice in the 21st Century - Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-1668-2.ch007 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 143-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lea Ann Christenson ◽

Janese Daniels ◽

Judith Cruzado-Guerrero ◽

Stephen T. Schroth ◽

Marisa Dudiak ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Teacher Candidates ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Developmentally Appropriate ◽

Early Childhood Teacher ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Education Teacher ◽

Childhood Education

Teacher education programs serving early childhood education teacher candidates have unique challenges and need to work to ensure that each future educator be exposed to a variety of settings and practices throughout their preparation in order to best prepare them to serve the needs of their future young students. A solid background in human development, a well-rounded complement of methods courses grounded in developmentally appropriate practice and experience in a diverse variety of Professional Development Schools (PDS) will go far in meeting this goal. In Pre-K through 3rd grade classrooms early childhood teacher educators can significantly shape these competencies through their choice of, support for, and use of PDSs.

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