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

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher P. Brown

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.

Author(s):  
Lea Ann Christenson ◽  
Janese Daniels ◽  
Judith Cruzado-Guerrero ◽  
Stephen T. Schroth ◽  
Marisa Dudiak ◽  
...  

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 147821032094013
Author(s):  
Meghan A Kessler

Teacher preparation and preservice evaluation practices in the US have seen increasing influence from social efficiency and productivity logics. While analyses of the impacts of such neoliberal ascendancies are diverse and numerous, this article focuses closely on the impact of neoliberalism in preservice teacher evaluation and its impact on new teacher development. In particular, the teacher candidates who participated in this study shared their experiences with and perceptions of the edTPA, a relatively new, standardized portfolio licensure assessment published by Pearson, Inc. Analysis of qualitative case study data found that the regulatory influence of external surveillance created tensions with teacher candidates’ desire to learn and grow whilst completing their evaluation materials. Furthermore, analysis found that these candidates’ critical perspectives implicated their completion of evaluation materials. When more critical of neoliberal influences in evaluation policy, candidates’ materials were constructed in a performative manner.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1083-1104
Author(s):  
Lea Ann Christenson ◽  
Janese Daniels ◽  
Judith Cruzado-Guerrero ◽  
Stephen T. Schroth ◽  
Marisa Dudiak ◽  
...  

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-205
Author(s):  
Samara Madrid Akpovo ◽  
Lydiah Nganga

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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