Building Higher Education Community

2020 ◽  
pp. 202-225
Author(s):  
Dawn L. Mollenkopf ◽  
Melanie K. Felton ◽  
Anne Karabon ◽  
Sara A. Westerlin
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Formal Network

Hierarchical leadership models are not well matched to the early childhood field, which is a complex, diverse system where early childhood educators serve in multiple dynamic roles. Distributed leadership, which involves collaboration, inclusive engagement, and shared problem-solving, typifies efforts of leaders who advocate and work toward systemic change. This chapter explains how early childhood teacher educators used distributed leadership to push for statewide changes that removed barriers to degree completion for early childhood educators. In Phase 1, educators used a shared set of competencies and a common course system to improve articulation agreements between two- and four-year colleges. In Phase 2, educators expanded, revised, and delineated core competencies from national standards (NAEYC, CEC, DEC) to inform state endorsements. In Phase 3, educators built an inclusive, formal network to lay a foundation for a statewide articulation agreement system that will incorporate the Power to Profession's unified framework and standards.

Beyond ‘Boring, Meaningless Shit’ in the Academy: Early Childhood Teacher Educators under the Regulatory Gaze

2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Novinger ◽  
Leigh O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
New York State ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher ◽  
York State Department ◽  
National Council ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Standards Movement

In the USA, many young children are being subjected to a largely irrelevant, fragmented, meaningless curriculum in the name of school reform and meeting state and/or national standards; it is the authors' view that teacher educators also increasingly have to endure the same. The authors use their own recent experiences with licensing and accrediting bodies, the New York State Department of Education and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education respectively, to argue that everyone is being subjected to a disempowering, regulatory (and potentially punitive) gaze in the name of higher standards. Drawing on their own and others' stories, they raise some issues to ponder, as well as posit possible courses of action linked to the notion of teachers as social justice activists. They address why resistance to the standards movement is so crucial, and share their ideas regarding the forms their resistance has taken and might take in the future. They try to articulate a hopeful path of possibility despite the very real costs that challenging the nearly monolithic power structure brings, and encourage other early childhood teacher educators to join in resisting the ‘regulatory gaze’.

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

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.

scholarly journals Inquiry on early childhood teachers preparation and retention

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Krystyna Nowak-Fabrykowski ◽  
Mary Lou Aylor
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Early Childhood Teachers ◽  
Professional Preparation ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Early Childhood Teacher

The purpose of this study is to analyze early childhood teacher preparation and investigate the factors that motivated individuals to become early childhood teachers and that have kept them in the profession. This study reports the results of an online survey investigating motives of staying or leaving the early childhood profession. The results of this inquiry point to factors that influenced their choice, taking into consideration their professional preparation. Advice for new early childhood educators just entering the profession is also provided.

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
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.

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

2016 ◽  
pp. 143-164 ◽  
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.

Empowering Young Children's Thinking: The Role of the Early Childhood Educator

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-45
Author(s):  
Alison Hine ◽  
Linda Newman
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Problem Solve ◽  
The University ◽  
Student Reflections ◽  
Children’S Thinking

The purpose of this preliminary investigative paper is to describe how the implications of recent research into young children's thinking has influenced teacher educators at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean (UWS, Nepean) to provide experiential learning and guidance to preservice early childhood educators on how to establish environments that stimulate curiosity and promote thinking. By teaching preservice early childhood educators to analyse, think rationally and creatively, problem-solve and reason, we can foster a better educated tertiary student whose thinking skills will be more effective, and who can initiate such activities in their future educational environments. At the UWS, Nepean students’ metacognitive awareness and perceptions of their own thinking were explored through collaborative, practical activity accompanied by interactive dialogue, thereby establishing ‘communities of inquiry’ in three early childhood subjects. Formative and summative interviews with students, as well as written student reflections indicated that these practices greatly nurtured their creative intellect, further developed their ability to think critically and heightened perception of their own metacognitive capabilities. Students reported that their experiences had encouraged them to use similar thinking skills activities in their own teaching.

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