Critically engaging discourses on quality improvement: Political and pedagogical futures in early childhood education

This article is a commentary developed by three early childhood teacher educators who are concerned about the negative consequences of contemporary policy trends in the United States. The commentary critically examines the influence of quality improvement in early childhood as it relates to environmental rating systems and the use of teacher performance assessments, more specifically, the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale and the Teacher Performance Assessment. The article concludes with a potential vision for early childhood scholars and practitioners—building solidarity to function as an emerging, powerful, ethical community of early childhood curriculum workers that thrives without consensus.

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Minority-world professionals in majority-world early childhood contexts: How do international field experiences promote intercultural competence or reinforce “professional” ethnocentrism?

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.1177/1463949118778024 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 199-205

Author(s):

Samara Madrid Akpovo ◽

Lydiah Nganga

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Intercultural Competence ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Field Experiences ◽

Early Childhood Teacher ◽

Teacher Education Programs ◽

Education Programs ◽

Majority World ◽

Early Childhood Professional ◽

Childhood Professional

This colloquium problematizes the use of early childhood international field experiences as a tool for professional development with Euro-Western pre-service and in-service teachers. The authors critique experiences where minority-world educators teach or implement internships within majority-world contexts. It is critical for Euro-Western teacher education programs to provide pre-service and in-service teachers with opportunities to expand their global views of the early childhood professional through international field experiences. But how can this be done when conceptions of the “professional” are constructed in Euro-Western images, ideas, curricula, ideologies, and privilege? The authors make a call for early childhood teacher educators to reconsider, deconstruct, and re-examine themselves and their pre-service and in-service teachers’ rationale for engaging in international field experiences.

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Continuity and change in the visions of childhood in head start: Implications for early childhood teacher educators

Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education ◽

10.1080/1090102030240308 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 24 (3) ◽

pp. 189-198

Author(s):

Michelle J. Neuman

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Head Start ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Early Childhood Teacher ◽

Continuity And Change

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Confronting the Contradictions: A Case Study of Early Childhood Teacher Development in Neoliberal Times

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood ◽

10.2304/ciec.2009.10.3.240 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 240-259 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Christopher P. Brown

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Teacher Development ◽

Teacher Candidates ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Early Learning ◽

Early Childhood Teacher ◽

Reform Process ◽

Instrumental Case Study ◽

The Impact

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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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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Assessed by Anonymous

Curriculum Development and Online Instruction for the 21st Century - Advances in Mobile and Distance Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-7653-3.ch008 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 132-151

Author(s):

Thomas Huston

Keyword(s):

Data Analysis ◽

Teacher Training ◽

Performance Assessment ◽

Student Teachers ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Teacher Performance ◽

Performance Assessments ◽

Teacher Performance Assessment ◽

Scholarly Discourse ◽

Thematic Data

This study sought to contribute to the scholarly discourse of understanding how pre-service student teachers experienced evaluation via teacher performance assessments (TPAs). More specifically, this study sought to explore the experiences that pre-service teachers underwent to complete the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). Through extensive interviews and thematic data analysis, this research discerned what the informants' experiences were. Although informants experienced many benefits while completing their portfolios, three primary areas of struggle emerged from the data. First, informants struggled with interpreting and navigating the edTPA assessment handbook. Second, informants had problems adapting edTPA requirements to their teaching. Third, informants experienced problems with their concept of audience. As a result, the findings reported in this study have numerous implications that would prove beneficial to teacher educators, institutions of teacher training, policymakers, designers of assessments, and future and current educators.

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