Early childhood educators’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities in Ontario’s full day kindergarten program

Post Colonial ◽

Roles And Responsibilities ◽

Full Day Kindergarten ◽

Professional Recognition ◽

Colonial Theory ◽

Teaching Team ◽

The Relationship ◽

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand early childhood educators’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities based on their lived experiences in Ontario’s full day kindergarten (FDK) program. The theoretical framework that underpinned my study is post-colonial theory and Foucault’s post-structural concept of “power/knowledge” which offered different perspectives to understand how ECEs’ shaped their perceptions. Key messages from the findings suggest despite challenges within the FDK program, ECEs recognized and acknowledged their complementary roles within the teaching team, and identified the need for professional recognition of their work. The key messages further suggested that principals as the leaders of the school need to have a greater understanding about ECEs’ roles, and the relationship between the educators. The recognition of the role and knowledge that ECEs contribute to FDK programs is crucial in order to facilitate collaboration between the educators within the teaching team.

Partnerships in Full-Day Kindergarten Classrooms: Early Childhood Educators and Kindergarten Teachers Working Together

Journal of Childhood Studies ◽

10.18357/jcs.v41i1.15696 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 36 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kathryn Underwood ◽

Aurelia Di Santo ◽

Angela Valeo ◽

Rachel Langford

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Social Policy ◽

Teaching Approaches ◽

Teaching Models ◽

Full Day Kindergarten ◽

Working Together ◽

Policy Direction ◽

The Relationship ◽

<p>This study examines the relationship between teachers and early childhood educators in full-day kindergarten classrooms in one school board in Ontario. The study uses the theoretical framework of co-teaching models developed in special education to analyze the range of approaches used by the educator teams. Findings indicate that the teams primarily engage in a one teach/one assist approach, but they also describe some examples of other co-teaching approaches that are possible in these classrooms. The study concludes that support for the expansion of the co-teaching repertoire could provide a mechanism for integrating the expertise of both educators in full-day kindergarten classes and maximizing the efficacy of this social policy direction. Implications for educators and administrators are addressed.</p>

Privileging Power: Early Childhood Educators, Teachers, and Racial Socialization in Full-Day Kindergarten

Journal of Childhood Studies ◽

10.18357/jcs00202119594 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Zuhra Abawi

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Critical Race Theory ◽

Racial Socialization ◽

Power Relations ◽

Early Learning ◽

Learning Spaces ◽

Full Day Kindergarten ◽

The Impact ◽

This paper critically unpacks the racialized and gendered hierarchies between the co-teaching model of early childhood educators (ECEs) and Ontario certified teachers (OCTs) in full-day kindergarten (FDK), and how such positionalities speak to racial socialization in early learning spaces. While young children and early learning spaces are often portrayed as raceless, ahistorical, and apolitical, extant literature suggests that children as young as two years of age are aware of visible and cultural differences between themselves and other groups. The paper employs a reconceptualist framework by drawing on critical race theory to explorehow racialized power relations between ECEs and teachers inform hierarchies of dominance and impact processes of racial socialization in FDK learning spaces. While both professions are predominantly feminized, the overwhelming majority of teachers in Ontario are white and middle class, whereas ECEs in FDK programs are more likely to be racialized and marginalized due to low wages and diminished professional status as care workers rather than educators. Although there has been great emphasis on the importance of diversifying the teacher workforce, there is minimal study on the impact of the hierarchies and racialized power relations between ECEs and OCTs and their impact on racial socialization in FDK programs. This conceptual paper seeks to address this gap.

Early Childhood Transitions and Critical Praxis

Journal of Childhood Studies ◽

10.18357/jcs.v37i2.15197 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 13-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kate Tilleczek

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Public Education ◽

Prince Edward Island ◽

Educational Practice ◽

Childhood Education ◽

Full Day Kindergarten ◽

The Social ◽

Core Elements ◽

This paper presents literature and findings on childhood transitions in public education. Set in the context of shifts in Canada to full day kindergarten, it makes visible the range of human relational and structural concerns that must be considered in the practice of researching and facilitating transitions for children. The paper draws upon a review of international literatures and a longitudinal, three-year qualitative study of 795 students, parents, and educators in 37 families of schools who conversed about the character and meaning of transitions. Such long-term enactments of transitions as they occur are scarce but important in making visible the complexity and nuance of childhood transitions. Findings include the importance of a critical praxis for transitions which gets at the roots of the social organization and inequality in research and educational practice. The paper addresses critical praxis as found in three early childhood education frameworks (Australia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada). Attention to being, becoming, and belonging for all children and the fit between human and structural concerns at the levels of society, community, school, and family form core elements of critical praxis. Transitions are best understood and facilitated as over time, complex social ensembles.

Are Today’s Students With Disabilities More Likely to Attend Full-Day Kindergarten or Part-Day Kindergarten? Analysis of Two Cohorts of Students and Their Teachers

Council review ◽

10.1177/0014402918782621 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 85 (1) ◽

pp. 28-45

Author(s):

Michael Gottfried

Keyword(s):

Special Education ◽

Early Childhood ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Education Policy ◽

Students With Disabilities ◽

Full Day Kindergarten ◽

Policy Analysts ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Education Coursework ◽

Some education policy analysts have called for increased participation of young children in full-day kindergarten programs as opposed to part-day kindergarten. However, little is known about whether students with disabilities are increasingly attending these programs and what their teachers are like. This study addresses this gap by examining whether the full-day kindergarten-going patterns have changed within two nationally representative cohorts of kindergartners (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten classes of 1998 and 2010). The findings suggest that a greater percentage of students with disabilities are enrolled in full-day kindergarten programs in 2010 (approximately 80%) than in 1998 (approximately 55%). Comparing full-day kindergarten enrollees between the two cohorts, there were no differences in teachers’ years of experience or degrees, though full-day kindergarten enrollees in 2010 had teachers with less early education and special education coursework. However, full-day kindergarten enrollees in 2010 were more likely to be in classrooms with a special education teacher’s aide. Implications are discussed.

Early Childhood Educational Settings and School Absenteeism for Children With Disabilities

AERA Open ◽

10.1177/2332858418785576 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 233285841878557

Author(s):

Arya Ansari ◽

Michael A. Gottfried

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Children With Disabilities ◽

School Attendance ◽

First Grade ◽

School Year ◽

Academic Benefits ◽

Full Day Kindergarten ◽

School Absences ◽

Full Day ◽

Kindergarten Class

Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 were used to examine the implications of preschool and full-day kindergarten enrollment for the subsequent school absences of 2,056 children with disabilities. Results suggest that children with disabilities who went to preschool were absent less frequently in kindergarten, but these benefits did not persist through the end of first grade. Conversely, children with disabilities who attended full-day kindergarten programs were absent more frequently during the kindergarten year as compared with children in part-day programs, but these children experienced a sharper drop in absenteeism throughout the following school year resulting in no differences in school absences in first grade. No multiplicative benefits emerged for attending both preschool and full-day kindergarten. And even though these aforementioned benefits of preschool diminished rapidly, there were lingering academic benefits through the end of first grade because of improvements in earlier school attendance.

Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership - Deconstructing the Education-Industrial Complex in the Digital Age ◽

The Way It's Going

10.4018/978-1-5225-2101-3.ch001 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Brian Charles Charest

Keyword(s):

Education Research ◽

Education Reform ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Post Colonial ◽

Policy Paradigm ◽

The Us ◽

Colonial Theory ◽

Standardized Examinations ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Way

In this chapter the author argues that those concerned with the “the way it's going” in public education can learn much from post-colonial theory about the relationship between education research and assessment technologies and education reform policy, curriculum development, and knowledge formation. The author argues that current neoliberal education reform in the US can best be understood through the frame of neocolonialism, where schools and communities take the shape of internal colonies, where teachers, students, and parents have little or no say about the technologies, curricula, and standardized examinations foisted upon them. Education research that supports the current policy paradigm largely benefits researchers, corporations, and policy makers, while ignoring the effects of such policies on students, teachers, and local communities. Such practices, the author suggests, are rooted in a type of colonial thinking and acting that have been rearticulated through the prevailing logic of neoliberalism.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL ATTITUDES AMONG FUTURE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATORS?

INTED2020 Proceedings ◽

10.21125/inted.2020.2100 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dunja Andjić ◽

Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Environmental Attitudes ◽

The Relationship

Professionalism from the standpoint of early childhood educators

10.32920/ryerson.14646552.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shani Halfon

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Standpoint Theory ◽

Feminist Standpoint Theory ◽

Feminist Standpoint ◽

Everyday Work ◽

New Knowledge ◽

Material Conditions ◽

The Relationship

In this research project, findings from qualitative interviews with four early childhood educators (ECEs) in Toronto, Ontario are presented. Using Feminist standpoint theory and methodology as a guiding theoretical framework and research paradigm, the purpose of this research was to examine professionalism from the particular standpoint of ECEs. The findings presented in this paper indicate that feminist standpoint theory and methodology offer the means for revealing what ECEs think and want as professionals, and can be used as a theoretical tool to analyze the relationship between the experienced, material realm and the conceptual, discursive realm of ECE professionalism. A thematic analysis of the collected data identified two themes. The first theme illuminates the lived realities of ECE work, and highlights how ECEs' experiences of professionalism are shaped by their material conditions. These lived realities however, are to a certain extent at odds with the meanings that the ECEs in this project ascribe to professionalism in the second theme, which appear to be shaped by dominant discourses about professionalism. The discussion of the findings focuses on the process of building new knowledge that accounts for these contradictions and aims to address the divide between the conceptual realm of professionalism with the material, experienced realm of ECEs' everyday work.

The Centre for Early Childhood Studies/Te Pumanawa Rangahau Kohungahunga

The New Zealand Annual Review of Education ◽

10.26686/nzaroe.v0i4.1086 ◽

1994 ◽

Author(s):

Tony OHolmes

Keyword(s):

Early Childhood ◽

New Zealand ◽

Early Childhood Education ◽

Childhood Studies ◽

Childhood Education ◽

Early Childhood Research ◽

Professional Recognition ◽

Aotearoa New Zealand ◽

Early Childhood Policy

The Centre for Early Childhood Studies/Te Pumanawa Rangahau Kohungahunga is a new initiative to develop and promote early childhood education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The Centre aims to initiate, co-ordinate, facilitate and supervise early childhood research, organise seminars and conferences, collect and disseminate information, analyse and critique early childhood policy, and work on behalf of early childhood educators. The Centre’s work will complement other early childhood initiatives, and will invite collaboration with early childhood groups, centres and educators. The Centre will become a resource available to all those committed to working for quality early childhood education and enhanced professional recognition.