Public School Based Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs and Their Approaches to Curriculum: A Naturalistic Case Study
Abstract
This study explores the beliefs about teaching approaches and classroom practices of public school-based early childhood pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers on the U.S.–Mexico border. Additionally, introduced in this work is a new framework for making visible the belief and practices of classroom teachers, as well as theories and approaches to Early Childhood Education, called the process-product continuum. This naturalist multi-case study utilized semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, artifact collection, and construction of visual timelines from three participants; participant narratives are presented, classroom practices and belief statements are analyzed, and mapped on the process-product continuum. Findings indicate that in addition to teacher beliefs, Early Childhood Education teaching practices may additionally depend on previous experiences, students teaching and other personal life factors such as parenthood and in particular, may be heavily influenced by systemic restrictions. Further, result shows that all participants in the study employed teaching practices that spanned the entire process-product continuum, suggesting that this framework may be a valuable alternative to current dichotomous models for teacher reflection in the Early Childhood Education field. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Subject Area
Early childhood education|Elementary education
Recommended Citation
Slade, Jessica D, "Public School Based Early Childhood Teachers' Beliefs and Their Approaches to Curriculum: A Naturalistic Case Study" (2018). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI13421645.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI13421645